Xavqior's Website

The long await

2009-03-28T23:43:00.000+08:00

This is an overwritten entry over the previous one (which made no sense at all - I mentioned that the CSS was screwed up and that I would get it fixed within a few days, but the thing is my host's server had a lot of problems, resulting in my CSS screwing up all over again).

Anyway, I am glad to announce the winner of the Labelled Love Competition. The grand winner, F-urballs (also known as Nini) - is a fifteen-year-old girl from Malaysia. You may want to view her winning skin here.

The judges and I were happy to have concluded this competition after a few days of gruesome judging process. The result was a success and we have received more than enough entries (although I would say that I would have wanted more - but it would have given the judges a huge headache to judge every skin within the tight timeline). Thank you all for the participation - and to the other winners and participants, your contribution is very much appreciated.

In the meantime, I am still working on my new website, which would be shifted to my personal domain here. As of now, everything is smooth sailing. Except that I have problems trying to get things done on time since I am having my internship at the moment. Give me some more time, and I promise I will finish up my work and get things up and going.

Also, I have plans to revive my tutorials. And of course, I do hope to come up with items for people to download. In which I would reveal soon. :)

Happy New Year

2009-01-05T22:59:00.002+08:00

I know. This is a very late post. But anyway, happy new year everyone. I have not been submitting skins for quite a long time but I do intend to submit a few when I do. (and yes, I already have one in mind, but it was created out of pure curiosity) As for my new year resolutions, I am going to try to come up with a new design for my website. (since this one is dying like hell - I don't even know who bothers to come here anymore) Other than that, I will also be working on a few things myself and with my online good friends.

In the meantime, I am also hosting a Valentine's Day competition with my friends purely out of interest and fun. The winner will be given a commendation on my blog and on my blogskins' profile page for 4 weeks. (and I do hope that my site will be revamped by then, but I am having a lot of doubts as to whether I can dig up enough time) I am really hoping to see some impressive entries. It will be tedious to judge all the skins but I am sure it will turn out great. So please do not hack me up into pieces for being too strict with the judging. :-)

As for a little sneak update, Lix, Evone and I are working together on the TBB website. Everything is under construction for now but we really look forward to people supporting the website. Without anyone else, it is nothing.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and get some sleep for school tomorrow.

Designers do not design for free

2008-11-20T15:19:00.004+08:00

It has been more than a month since I have updated here. Well, basically I have stopped making blogskins for a while because I am so caught up with projects, I don't even feel inspired to design a new skin. In fact, I need to do something for a living, and skinning is only an alternative to give my mind some form of relaxation and space to explore for new ideas. So far, schoolwork is alright but it is just not exciting enough. Everyone is doing last minute work and I am ashamed to say that I am one of the sinners as well. I guess it is because I have grown so used to doing all this work that I've begun to lose a little focus.

However I will be having my internship in a few months' time and I must say I am definitely looking forward to it. So for a whole of 9 weeks, I will be interning at this studio and gaining some experience for myself. I am looking forward to learn new things, too. In the meantime, I have to crawl back to my packaging assignment and pour my brain cells over the loathesome, useless and disgusting 3D Maya programme. I am sorry, but I absolutely hate 3D Maya. It is the worst thing to ever happen in my life - period. I am a noob at this software because I have completely no interest in 3D rendering.

But thankfully my current lecturer is very nice and patient with us. I am actually beginning to pick up a handful of useful skills.

I Hope I've Got Your Back

2008-09-26T15:10:00.006+08:00

It seemed like almost a decade since I've updated this blog. Ever since I was done with my website, a whole pile of work came crashing on me and it was hard to fork out some time for personal work. I assume most designers hate working on finished artworks because it is something so technical and boring. You have to make sure that everything is perfect and that not a mistake is made, or the client will come running to you for more amendments again. Or perhaps, you can say some of us are just lazy little beings whose minds shut off almost immediately at the thought of having to refine something. But of course, it is still important to take pride in your work. You wouldn't want to do something that is crappy and full of flaws.

Recently I attempted to create a funfair skin but the result was not very desirable. Either way, I still submitted it because I didn't want my effort to go down the drain. Sure, the flash and everything definitely appear simple and not much of a big deal. But flash is something like trial and error, sometimes you can screw up even at the simplest animations.

I believe those who are pretty acquainted with flash hate the routine of having to hit Ctrl + Enter because we always have to make sure our animation turns out fine. I am a flash amateur and I know nothing about codings, although I wish to learn more about action scripting when time allows. Like I said, actionscript is a total foreign language to me and it makes me feel like I'm in Mars, because Mars is a planet for weird boys, and boys are alien languages to me.

On a side note, I am also currently accepting outside projects from clients who want to do their blog shops. For now, that is. It is actually pretty fun because I enjoy working on girly things for girly girls, although I am not a girly girl at all. Other than that, I stilll have a chunk of work to do. I don't think I have a life now.

And I still have to answer emails from people who ask me for personal blogskin requests and all that other frequently asked questions. I reply to every single email even if it means replying a 'no', because I will feel bad if I do not even respond. Some designers probably ignore most of their emails, but I feel that if you have the capacity to reply every email, do it. I know how it is like to be in distress and in need of help, because I wouldn't like it if I emailed another designer and get my message ignored too. However, if my inbox gets flooded, then obviously I am left with no choice but to prioritise only the most important emails.

Also, I know I am supposed to come up with new tutorials. But I have to neglect this for now. There are too many undone things waiting for me to get them done and I haven't gotten the mood to work on tutorials.

To be honest with you, designers will only agree to unpaid personal blogskin requests if you are their friend - we design for a living and we do not want ourselves to starve to death with so many people coming to us for free design services. I am sure most of you understand. This is reality. We all do work for a living.

The Revamp

2008-09-07T14:33:00.006+08:00

After much consideration, I have finally decided to create two separate websites, one for personal portfolio and the other a main web portal. This will be the main web portal for now. I will be using this blog for updates and I hope to maintain it on a regular basis. As you can see, it is difficult for me to move away from this alias and thus I made a decision to preserve the domain name.

I have to admit that building this website took me longer than I had expected. I had to juggle with school work in between and there was hardly much time for me to actually work on my personal site. But somehow I would still fork out a bit of leisure time for illustrations and blog designs whenever possible. It is actually quite relaxing when you get to enjoy what you are doing, albeit the hectic schedule that I was going through for the past several weeks.

You may wonder, why do I settle for such a theme for my website? Reason being I like to keep my personal web space clean and sophisticated. Even though I fancy cute and quirky illustrations, they often do not reflect how I want to embody myself as. It is my interest to illustrate cute things, but interest and personality are two different things. I appreciate cutesy stuff, but it is definitely not the same when it comes to my character.

On a side note, recently I have also learned how to create movable objects in flash. Well, not exactly learned(as you know, there are many wonderful tutorials on the internet). Technically, I know how to do it, but the actual fact is I am still a noob when it comes to action script. Action script is an alien language to me and I have yet to grasp it. I am more towards the front end, but I hope to learn more advanced languages in the near future.

I will still be planning to add in more interactivity into this website. You may drop me a comment regarding what else you would like to see in this page.

And last not least, before I go off, I hope you enjoyed your stay. :-)

The difference between design and art

2008-07-07T15:39:00.004+08:00

There is no free lunch in this world. The same applies to designing. Some of us design for a living. Even if we claim to have a passion for design, is it still the same when we end up in the design industry? That will then be an entirely different issue. Designers have to accommodate to a client's needs and please their clients. When we design for others, we are like a tool. We are like a living tool who craft out our clients' needs, putting their imaginations into print.

A design course is different from an art course. Many people tend to assume that design is the equivalent of art. Designing may involve drawing, of course. But actually, it is not the same as what people do in a drawing lesson. No matter how beautiful it is, design tends to emphasize on usability and user experience. It is not just a piece of art for you to frame it up and hang onto your wall to appreciate. If your design is aesthetically appealing but lacks in terms of usability, it is not a good design.

So what really defines design? There is a thin line between design and art. It may just be a little difference, but to the designers themselves, I suppose there is a huge significance.

Although I make blogskins during my free time, I am only making it for leisure. It is an alternative for me to take a break from school work, even if school work involves designing as well. This is because there is no pressure when it comes to personal work, unlike an assignment which requires our lecturers to judge and critique.

However, like many other blogskinners, I cannot comply to skin requests too. It is not because I want to be selfish and reject others who desperately need my help. If you put yourself in our shoes, you will realize that it is impossible to be saint and help every single person out there with all the little issues. I am sure we would love to help, but is beyond our limits. Most of the time I try my best to reply to every email even though I cannot be of service. To me, it is important to acknowledge every mail even if I am clearly aware that I cannot take up every single request for strangers.

Yet, recently I received a mail from a girl who needed my help - not because she wanted a skin for herself, but because she wanted to make a skin for her younger brother who is going for a brain surgery. At that moment, I decided that I would take up the request. My thought on this was, if I could do the least to make a kid happy, why not? She was really sincere in asking for help and I could see that she was genuine. Furthermore, she did this not for herself, but for her brother. We discussed how to make the layout over a few emails and in the end, she liked the product. It may not be something extravagant, but I was really happy that she liked it too, and I hope that her brother likes it as well.

I suppose this is a special case. But as I am saying this, I am also not trying to encourage all those little kids out there who need help in html to cook up excuses and get suckers like me do skins for you. All of us have a life to lead, and I hope that you would respect mine as I respect yours. Sometimes, people request for skins with sincerity and we do feel bad having to turn them down, because we cannot accommodate to every single person out there who needs aid in their personal work. But of course, there are also the nasty ones who demand skins from you in the worst ways.

I will be surprised if you are still reading at this point, because I know I just typed a long chunk of bullshit. But that's my train of thoughts. On a lighter note, I am itching to revamp my website. And before I go off, I would like to thank you for reading too. Have a good day kids.

What have you done for the holidays?

2008-06-22T23:24:00.002+08:00

What have you actually done during those past few weeks of school holiday? I suppose this vacation hasn't really been a period of relaxation for some of you. For myself, I guess I pretty much slacked off the entire three weeks. Maybe I did a few illustrations now and then. But the amount of work I did will not be able to justify the lack of productivity.

Anyway, a few days ago I went to Laselle to check out their degree show. It was pretty cool and I got to see some rad works from their students. For those who have never seen Laselle before, you will definitely be amazed by the campus's building. I also managed to get my hands on their catalogue and I swear it's good! It's thick, fat and wholesome because you get to see all the designers' works compiled into one.

I hope it has been a good holiday for all of you. So study hard and keep that passion going!

2008-04-26T22:23:00.006+08:00

As you have noticed, I am on a semi hiatus. But while I can, I will still be submitting skins on an occasional basis. I am planning to renovate this website into a portfolio page, but I also have plans of setting up an individual tutorial website instead of having a section under my present domain. I am currently having school so I can't guarantee if I can get these done anywhere soon.

Hopefully you will be able to see something new when the time is ripe. In the meantime, I shall eat my greens and wake up on 8am everyday for exciting school life.

On a possible hiatus

2008-04-06T17:23:00.006+08:00

Before I start school in mid April, there are a few things that I plan to do. I may be working on a few tutorials during my hiatus, possibly covering one of the few issues which may be of interest to some of you, i.e. vectoring, masking. However, there is still this huge question mark pertaining to whether I am able to carry out fulfilling this particular task. But I definitely hope to come up with something useful and resourceful to our fellow blogskinners some day. For a kick start, however, I've come up with a basic tutorial. It can be found under the tutorials page.

On a lighter note, I have recently collaborated with lix to create a brand new forum for people who are interested in web designing. You may not be surprised, but our forum is named The Bikini Boy. I've always wanted to come up with a forum that would cater to everyone's needs regarding wed designing, but without lix, this wouldn't be made possible. We hope to seek your support by joining our new community, and hope to see members contributing to the forum.

If you have always wanted to submit tutorials and resources, please feel free to share it with our community. Your contributions are greatly appreciated!

To visit our forum, please click here.

Do drop a suggestion or two!

2008-03-31T23:55:00.004+08:00

One of my favourite things to do is to illustrate and make vector skins. However, I've always been fond of simple and clean skins, but were never ready to submit one in case I break consistency in my designs. I always thought that it would be too out of place if I were to ever submit one under my account, thus presenting to you - The Bikini Boy.

The Bikini Boy shall release a series of plain and simple skins that would cater to a larger audience. That is my sole purpose of creating the account, and I will be submitting multiple skins of similar layouts, be it twice or thrice a day. I aim to come up with as many skins as possible within a short span of time, and hope that the people who have been trying to find the ideal simplistic skin would manage to take a liking towards one of mine.

The Bikini Boy will only be a sub-account and I have no intentions of using this identity to post under forums unless necessary. I will mainly use this account to submit skins with minimal designs. Needless to say, I will still continue submitting image-heavy/vector skins as Xavqior, and use this identity to communicate with the members of blogskins.

2008-03-27T02:15:00.006+08:00

Changing the entire layout of this website is something that has been bothering my mind for a pretty long decade, just that I haven't really gotten my lazy ass down to it. I guess I'll leave it just like that for now. I hope it really gives a fresh look as compared to the previous layouts. Old posts have also been removed as I will no longer be updating about my skins in this blog unless necessary. This blog will mainly focus on the updates on my website and its current situation.

Earlier this year, I've made a tutorial on restyling your profile page on blogskins.com. Unfortunately, someone released a virus to the website and the webmaster had no choice but to restrict scripts and some other forms of html coding. Hence, it is virtually impossible to overwrite your own profile page now. It is still possible to tweak your profile page, however, but there's nothing much you can do about it, really.

As I am on a school vacation, I have made good use of my time to produce a few blogskins. Now my holiday is coming to an end and soon I will be drowned in a pool of assignments. But do not worry, I'll still hang around here and lurk around the forums while I may seem to have disappeared to nowhere.