Coming Soon: The Donahue Media Group

A new company is in the making…

The Donahue Media Group will soon launch a new website, before taking Portland, Ore., by storm.

New Website

I finally started building my Online Portfolio (jakedonahue.com). For real this time – and not just another Wordpress template, either. This one is alllll me!

But the keyword here is STARTED.

All I have is a landing page at the moment, but I created it from scratch. All by myself. This can still direct you to my temporary blogger site holding my graphic and news design portfolio, as well as my writing portfolio on another blogger site.

You can also access many of my social media outlets along the bottom (you have no idea how long it took me to make those buttons “pop” when you hover over them).

So let me know what you think. I have a feeling the rest of the site will be based off this.

Website bonanza

It seems like I haven’t posted in over a week. Perhaps that’s because I haven’t!

Well, it’s all in good cause – building a Flash website! I know I’ve inundated this blog with routine proclamations concerning the “new” and “improved” JakeDonahue.com. Since buying my domain name earlier this year, I’ve indeed changed it's homepage more often than not.

But, believe it or not, I’ve finally settled down. Seriously. I’m not even joking!

My indecisive mind eventually buckled down, creating a monster of a website in Photoshop before transferring it to Flash. Sound easy, eh? I’ve worked on just the design in Photoshop for over a week, then spent 18 hours over two days mocking up the Flash file; I’ve since doubled the hours in just Flash, this week alone.

What’s more, I’m simply a Flash novice – no fiend here!

That being said, let me know what you think. I’m still learning Action Script and tweens, motions and dynamic images.

Let it also be said that my inspiration for this site design came from the background photo. It’s a panoramic of the downtown Portland skyline, one that I’ve bee looking forward to shooting since moving here. With my buddy John in town, we walked all over downtown before finding such a terrific vantage.

So, click the image below to view my newest attempt in Flash. Mind you, it’s roughly 80% done (still need to perfect the layout under the DESIGN tab, not to mention import material for WRITING).

Let me know what you think!

New Website

I’m pleased to announce the new JakeDonahue.com, version 2.1. Stay tuned, as there will undoubtedly be updates, but this is the new home for everything Jake Donahue: Design, Photos, Portfolios, Blog and Resume.

If it’s by Jake Donahue, then JakeDonahue.com will be the starting point. Of course, this new homepage is only the beginning. I actually borrowed a template to get it started in Adobe Dreamweaber, and I plan on learning both HTML and CSS, not to mention PHP and Flash.

Until then, when I am able to announce the new and improved JakeDonahue.com version 3.0, just go with the flow and let me know what you think (to begin with, I don’t like the bars flanking each side of the main page…).

Nevertheless, at least it’s better than nothing!

My new online photo portfolio

Lately, I’ve been working on uploading all my favorite photos to one website. After trying Google’s Picasa and Yahoo’s Flickr (I highly recommend Picasa!), I decided those sites were better for simply storing photos online.

But when it came to sharing, I decided to build a Wordpress site, especially since I already own JakeDonahue.com (which is still being constructed). Eventually all my portfolios will be held there: Design, Writing and Photo – not to mention, this blog.

So, with that in mind, I officially launch my photo portfolio:

www.JakeDonahue.com/Photos

It’s ready before the main site because I want to test out Wordpress, as I’m considering building the entire site through this content management system. What’s more, I tentatively considered moving Jakewood to WP as well, but I’m too much in love with Blogger and the layout I have now.

Nevertheless, here is a screenshot of my new photo site.

Flash, baby

After more than four years I finally decided to upgrade. Not a new computer, oh no. I’ll wait until I can afford a Mac. But I finally bumped up the miniscule RAM on my Toshiba to roughly a Gig and half (it was 512 MB before, believe it or not).

Yeah, 512 MB. Do you realize how long it takes to open InDesign CS4 when you’re running less than a gig under the hood? A long freaking time. How about 12 minutes to merge an eight photo panorama in Photoshop CS4. Yeah, life was dandy.

But now, sweet Jesus, I can download FLASH CS4!!That’s what I used back in Florida to make my Poynter project, and I’ve missed it ever since. Oh, how I’ve yearned for the succulent taste of action scripts and tweens, animations and motion paths.

Well, now I get to delve into it once more. Not just for fun, but for work! I’ve built the website template for my company’s book (I signed a confidentiality agreement, so no real news about it until it prints…), and I want to keep the site contained in our office – rather than pay a web programmer.

Thus I’ll be spending the better part of November with my other girlfriend, Lynda.com. There will also be a slew of Q’s I plan to sling at my Poynter fellows pertaining to web design and analytics. But in the meantime, here is what I’ve got for the template so far. Let me know what you think, but remember it will be way better in Flash, when the buttons highlight and boxes appear and the Polaroid pictures flip through.

Tilt-Shift Photography

Thanks to inspiredology.com for showing me a new photo-editing trick. Apparently you can you do this with a special camera, but I’ve now discovered the effect is greater if you edit the photo in Photoshop.

Here is insiredology’s description of the technique:

Tilt-shift photography involves using both tilt and shift camera movements to simulate the depth of field of a macro lens, making life-size objects appear as though they’re actually miniature in scale. The effect can be incredibly powerful, instantly turning a sprawling metropolis into a miniature village or toy town. Many people have been tricked by it over the years and you’ll have to inspect the stunning images below carefully to believe that they are, in fact, real.

While some photographers prefer to use expensive cameras and lenses to create their tilt-shift images, others choose to use postproduction techniques instead. By blurring the top and bottom of an image, as well as increasing its contrast and saturation, you can create a tilt-shift miniature fake that looks just as good (if not better) than the real thing.

Click here to view their page showcasing “40 Stunning Tilt-Shift Images of Urbanity.”

Needless to say, I don’t exactly have many personally-shot photos of “sprawling metropolises.” Thus, I borrowed these original photos from Google images and Stock.Xchng. But, after following the editing techniques I learned from this tutorial, voila!

 

Best Business Cards … EVER

I had seen this website a long time ago, but finally remembered to revisit it yesterday. I’m not sure how some of these people got them made, but I hope to make a new one worthy of this list.
Here is the list of all the cards posted by the Design Inspiration Lab at Inspiredology.com. However, here are some of my favorites:

This is my card, as it stands now… Definitely not as creative as the ones above. Hopefully that will change soon:
 
I rushed to get this design printed as fast as I could before I left for the Poynter fellowship in Florida, as they advised bringing personal cards.

My New Website

I finally made some major headway on my new online portfolio. Above is a screenshot of the opening page I designed from a template found at Wix.com.
Right now, jakedonahue.com is simply another Blogspot blog housing my resume and newspaper designs. However, once I finish my new site it will take you there.
(To view the site before it goes live, click here).
Although I have recently started to learn Flash to build websites, my current computer cannot handle the application. So, until I upgrade my hardware to run my software, I’m stuck using an online Flash template service (alas, meet Wix). Needless to say, I can’t wait to build websites like this by myself. But this template will have to suffice for now.
Anyway, I’m still constructing much of the site: I haven’t uploaded my Resume or awards yet, much less any of my writing. But I would appreciate comments & suggestions while I work on it.
Here is another screenshot of the first page in my “Newspapers” Portfolio section: