Words from Alejandro U. Alvarez
Branding
All about business branding, logos, color palette choosing, layouts…
Keeping up with my redesign
Apr 21st
As I posted in my previous post I'm redesigning my blog, so I have finally finished my PhotoShop draft and started coding it.
The HTML is pretty straight forward, a few layers, floated divs and intelligent use of margins and paddings... if it can deserve the use of intelligent.
Here you can see the development page:
http://urbanoalvarez.es/test/
I'm still having some problems with the center divs, those floated things never get to behave the way they are supposed to... It's one of those kitches that makes Web Designing (Not developing) interesting, yet exasperating, and somehow addicting 
So well, I'll keep on working as hard as possible to deliver you my dearest reader the best design... (Ok let's be serious, I'll work about half an hour a day, until a CSS error appears in IE, just the moment in which I desperately scream, take a coffee and run out for a walk... But well, it's nice to imagine the other way sometimes)
I'm done complaining and pretending I'm a great web designer that has no problems at all with IE, but well, I'm a web ... whatever word ... talking to another web ... whatever you like to call yourself... right?
Have fun and enjoy design, css, html and all this we've grown to love
Urbano’s Blog redesign
Apr 18th
Hi guys,
Urbano's Blog has been around enough time to get some very decent monthly traffic, and I personally think that it deserves a new design/redesign.
I'm thinking of a nice CSS/Artwork design, with high-contrast colors, and nice combinations.
Some of the design ideas I've been looking at are this:
- Cheb 2.0
- Decadora
- Lucid Motives (Just the colors in this one... )
- Dezinerfolio
- emtwo (Layout)
- 4design (Colors and artwork)
And well many others I forgot long ago 
I'll keep on posting the progress, but the new design should be out in less than a week I expect. If you have suggestions, feedback, or things you'd like tell me on the comments, I like to hear stuff. I feel like people actually read this blog, and StatPress isn't lying
Web Design DIY
Apr 11th
I've recently found out that I've committed the design error I hate the most in the world. I've thought as I was doing my first design in paper "I'll put ... right here, as it is now done". And I must say, this is the greatest brick wall for a designer, where many get stuck among the others, that humongous group formed by all the mediocre designers out there that do stuff the way it is supposed to do, the group of web designers who think that being original is "putting that cool badge in the header" or adding an "accordion menu" in their sites...
And of course I'm not saying that an accordion menu is not a good navigation element, which could be perfectly discussed it that were the current topic, or that having the Web 2.0 badge is not appropriate, and I'm sure that if you as a reader are not understanding it is probably because you have fallen for this common errors.
The solution: The simplest thing possibly, let your inner designer go, free yourself from conventional constraints that diminish your ability to create great sites, original layouts, CSS innovative techniques... After all, you don't need to be a Guru to create high quality things, you only need to use your unique understanding of the world, of the design fashion, and the site's personality to develop the final design.
Following this philosophy I've been experimenting with this blog's design, and my main website's design, without arriving at a result I actually enjoy. Many ideas are running around my mind without taking a concrete form yet. I am willing to produce all the graphics myself, with bright colors and a high contrast relation between background/foreground, without any intermediary elements, a design that will make both the logo and design pop out, without over-filling the background with distractive images, but still have it be astounding.
I wonder if you've ever heard of M.C.Escher, for me one of the greatest artists of all times, an artist who new how to blend the illusion with the art, creating a deeply emotional kind of art that seemed almost magical. I wish to produce a design for both my website and blog that will share that ability, and create in the reader the illusion/delusion of art.
Hopefully you'll soon be able to see here in this blog that idea coming to a concrete shape, and materializing into my definite public appearance.
For the moment you'll have to cope with this
Thanks to all of you readers,
Alex