The last week with Wordpress has been a nightmare! After upgrading to 2.8.4 (which I did because of a reported security risk in the previous version) and logging in I noticed that all the formatting and style for the admin screens was gone. Portions of the css were working (color, small icons, etc.), but the bulk of the formatting was just gone.

I spent nearly a week installing and re-installing WP, hoping that each day a fix would be dropped into the source code and re-uploaded, with no effect. The WP forums offered no more help to the situation either. There were a few people experiencing the same problems I was having, but there were no fixes listed-lots of theories, but no fixes.

My hope is, though, that someone will get the actual Wordpress install fixed, so we don’t continue to have this problem.

So, I did what any self-respecting wanna-be geek would do, I went into Wordpress and hacked one of the includes to get the formatting of the admin screens back. It was more like a hacker-light as all I really did is bypass the PHP that was supposed to be automagically dropping in the css links and hard coded it into the header include. But, it worked, and now I am happy because I can use Wordpress again.

Hopefully, someone will come along and make a proper fix for this problem, but in the meantime hopefully others who are experiencing the same issues will find my little hack useful.

With the Seattle Gift Show just two short weeks away, Jill and I decided we needed a new, updated look for our business cards. Until now, we’d been using the wonderfully simple and artistic Moo Cards for our little side project, Dolls for Friends, but we thought that with taking a step out on a limb, and attending this trade show, we should probably shed our quick solution cards and go with something more tailor made.

After a bit of discussion on what we wanted to see in our new business cards, I started to work up some samples in Illustrator and some basic character sketches. I knew we wanted to have a card that would be fun, but I also wanted something flexible and functional-a card that gave our information from either side.

What we ended up settling on was a multi-directional (one side was laid out horizontally and one side vertically) design that utilized two of our basic, vector character designs along with our contact information. Functionally, the card works despite which side it lays on-a quality I don’t see enough in business card design.

Many times a card will be designed, and the designer will either leave the back blank or give it a slight color or graphic treatment, but there will be no additional contact information on the reverse side. I’ve always thought that to be a gross misuse of functional potential.

The purpose of a business card (originally referred to as a “calling card”) is to convey your contact information along with a hint of what your business is about. Granted, this can be accomplished by placing all of your contact info on one side of the card, but what if the card is tossed on a desk upside down? Wouldn’t it be better to have the contact info placed on the back side of the card as well so the recipient gets the benefit of your info no matter which way the card is facing? I kinda think so.

Once we settled on a nice, rich, arresting orange color for the white space, we were essentially ready to go to print (a small portion of the final design can be seen in the image above, but the complete design can be seen at eljl). We knew we wanted to go with 4by6.com for the printing because they just added a wonderful digital press service that prints on recycled stock at an affordable price. So, we dropped our order in for 500 and called it a day.

Overall the cards were discussed, designed and ordered in less than a day-a fast turnaround for two of our most picky clients;)

Update: We are pleased to announce that cyclingfantasia and starmunki are our first ever winners for the Dolls for Friends Twitter giveaway. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Our little side project, Dolls for Friends, has just announced details for our first giveaway for our Twitter followers. We will be sending out a free piece to some lucky re-tweeter this Friday, June 19. You can see the complete details of the giveaway on the project’s site.