Some basic tips when you start to design your website:

1. Short Paragraphs
   Break text into very short paragraphs. Longer paragraphs tend to look like forbidding brick walls of type on screen.
2. Clean, modern fonts
   Use a sans serif (clean, modern-looking) font, like verdana or arial for paragraphs of text because they are more legible on screen.
3. Don’t center Paragraphs
   Don’t center more than two lines of type. Centering is ok for headlines, but in paragraphs it begins to look messy and is harder to read.
4. Don’t use all caps
   Don’t use all caps, except in headlines. They’re harder to read. Use Bold or Italic for emphasis. All-caps is considered shouting.
5. Contrast between text and background
   Make sure there is lots of contrast between your background color and text or it will be hard to read. If you use a background image, make sure it’s extremely low contrast so it won’t make reading text difficult.
6. Use images that download quickly
   Learn to use tools like Photoshop or Pixelmator (or even free tools like iPhoto) to resize and optimize your pictures for quick download.
7. Use the same image on different pages
   Using the same image over and over on different pages will economize on transfers. If the same image appears on different pages of your site, it will only have to be downloaded by the browser one time.
8. Keep it compact
   Don’t annoy users! Scrolling, especially side-to-side, and automatically resizing a user’s browser window often makes people go away without exploring your content.
9. Easy navigation
   Make it easy to find links to every part of your site from every page. Organize links so they are obvious and intuitive, and put navigation near the top of your page.
10. Keep it simple
    Don’t load the page with extra frills like clip art and unrelated photos. One strong photo related to the content will do more than ten random images, and cute is highly overrated. Too many elements on a page tend to look busy. They confuse, distract from and dilute content.
11. Visual Hierarchy
    Lay out each page so the most important things have more emphasis, are noticed first and are read first. Putting things at the top, in the upper left or center, making them bigger or brighter or in more contrast to the background are all ways of creating emphasis. Surrounding something with blank space also creates emphasis.

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When you are registering for a workshop, you now have the option to choose “Pay by Master Card/Visa” or “Invoice Me”.

Using the Master Card/Visa option to pay for the workshop immediately has always been the only option. The new option for an invoice allows you to automatically generate an invoice that you can submit to your company.

When you use the “Invoice Me” option, feel free to mail your check in, or simply bring it along with you to your first workshop (and save on postage!)

Up until today you’ve had to call and get an invoice generated on the phone. We’re very happy to have added this functionality directly to our website.

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We’ve taken a big step for our small Portland company today. We’ve started advertising on the radio!

You’ll now hear about us several times a day on KPOJ. I have to say the folks at KPOJ have been very easy to work with and I’m very pleased with the campaign they’ve helped me put together.

Carl Wolfson, one of the morning show folk, will be attending several classes over the next few months as well. So we’ll be getting personal testimonials instead of just canned speeches.

In addition to the on-air announcements, we’re featured on their website in a couple of places. We have a banner ad and we are on the contests page.

All in all, I’d have to say I’m pretty excited about the direction that Fenixworks is going.

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We’ve posted the calendar extending into the first week of February on the site now. This is a perfect opportunity for you if you have money for training in your budget but you are in danger of losing it at the end of the year. The simple solution? Pay for a workshop now.

We also have gift certificate and workshop vouchers that you can purchase now for future classes. Contact us directly at the office for more details. The phone number is 503-336-4712.

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Just finished day one of a two-day InDesign class. It was a blast. We worked hard and learned tons. It was fun to see the looks on student faces as they realized how wonderful tabs were, and how useful. One student came back from lunch and said he had noticed all kinds of typographic things he never knew about before, on signs, menus, all around him.

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We just finished another 4-session Photoshop class. I’m sad to see it end because the class members were so much fun. We retouched several photos and worked miracles on portraits that any plastic surgeon would have envied.

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We’re having the Grand Opening of our new space this Monday night (November 5). The party starts at 5 and runs until 8. And guess what, if you’re reading this, then you’re invited!

We’re bringing snack food in from Habibi, including meat, vegetarian and vegan options, and we’ll be discussing everything from the latest versions of Dreamweaver and InDesign to the Straw Poll they’re running on KPOJ.

We’re offering a special 10% discount on any workshop sign-ups that are done in person at the party (not to worry: if you’ve signed up for a workshop and paid full price this week, we’ll make good on the discount as long as you show up at the party).

The Grand Opening is at our new space located at 1007 SW Morrison (@ SW 10th Ave) in Downtown Portland. It’s right across the intersection from the 10th and Morrison Smart Park Garage, and has easy access from the Max (east bound stop is Library/SW Yamhill, westbound stop is Galleria/SW Morrison) and the Portland Street Car.

Come and introduce yourself. If you already know who we are, just drop in and say hi. We’ll see you there Monday night!

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Yesterday, we loaded up all of the desks and computers and moved across the river to our new digs!

I’ve updated the site everywhere so that it shows our new address, but in case you haven’t seen it anywhere else, here it is:

1007 SW Morrison
Portland, Oregon

It’s downtown, across from the Smart Park garage at SW 10th and SW Morrison. We’re about a block from the main library, across the street from many great restaurants (Maya Taqueria, Habibi Lebonese, & India House to name a few).

Easy access to both Max lines and the Portland Streetcar means we have a ton of options.

All workshops currently in session will continue at the new space from this point forward.

We’re excited to be in our new location (can you tell?). Come by and check us out. Watch this space, we’ll be announcing a grand opening within the next few weeks.

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Fenixworks has been negotiating a new space for our workshops for a couple of months now, and we finally have it all worked out. I’m not ready to disclose the address just yet, I’m going to wait until we are ready to actually start teaching in the new space before saying what it is.

But I will say this: It’s in Downtown Portland. It’s 1/2 block from a Max stop. It’s 1/2 block from a street car stop. It is right across the street from a Smart Park Garage. All that, plus it’s a store front with street level access!

When I drove by it this morning, the new landlord had placed this sign in the window!

I expect we’ll be teaching there within the next 30 days. I’ll change all of the address info on the website as soon as it applies. For the time being, keep coming to our workshops at the same place on the east side of the river at 119 SE Main Street.

This is a huge opportunity for us and we’re very excited about it. Watch this space for an open house announcement soon.

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It’s no secret, I’ve been talking about it for some time with anyone who would listen, but I’m happy to announce we’ve finally added a Flash workshop to our lineup.

So on October 22, we will start teaching Adobe Flash CS3 along with the other things we already teach. Here’s your chance to sign up early, there are only 8 spots! After October, we will include it with the normal rotation of workshops we offer every month.

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