I had a client approach me and ask if I knew how to customize MySpace. I replied “Sure can!” thinking that it couldn’t possibly be that difficult. Oh sweet merciful Jesus was I ever wrong. Instead of elegant semantic code full of classes to hook into, MySpace is a horrible mishmash of tables, divs, and transparent spacer images. You can’t directly style any ID elements, since hash marks (#) get stripped out whenever you save profile edits.

I dug through googled pages of style templates until coming across Hacking A More Tasteful MySpace by Mike Davidson. However, this was written almost 2 years ago, and MySpace code has become even more convoluted since then. Enter Alexander Agnarson (LOOK at that MySpace, WOW!) and his update to Mike’s excellent hack.

Honestly, my initial efforts pale in comparison. I’m a neat freak though, and my goal was to make all of the content boxes line up with even widths down the column and even gaps throughout, so mission accomplished. It’s still a WIP, now that I have the alignment all sorted out I can work on the flourishes.

I could probably do a better job if I had some of this stuff: Make My Logo Bigger Cream. It’s a marketing managers dream come true.

A sarcastic designer fed up with dictations from upper management? Nahhhh, that never happens.

And on a side note…
Just noticed that Google Ads is serving up an ad for the new Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon that’s going to air on Cartoon Network. That’s freakin’ awesome; I’m pimping for Star Wars & Cartoon Network.

Old but classy





Posten, I choose you!

I recently found out that the Norwegian postal service (called Posten) has changed their logo. Now, if you’re familiar with children’s cartoons at all, you’ll know that the new logo looks exactly like a pokeball from the show Pokemon. Definitely unintentional, but instantly makes the logo a joke for those in the know (almost anyone under 20, or any geeks under 30). Even nerdier comparisons have been made to the logo for the game Marathon or the ubiquitous Death Star from Star Wars.

There’s a lot of negative reaction to the new logo, ranging from anger at the change of a 300 year old classic icon to outrage over the closing of many Norwegian post offices while spending large amounts of money on a rebranding.