Author Archives: thematizer

Why an Independent Web Matters — Part One

Making the Case for an Independent Web

Part One of Two

I had the opportunity to sit down with a reporter from a local paper yesterday and do an interview about Thematizer. I had some talking points thought out ahead of time, but when you’re in the moment and you’re trying to answer somebody’s questions, prepared nuggets of information don’t quite seem to cut it.

The big question I keep coming back to, for somebody who is not computer-literate or all that familiar with the web, is why building another software tool is important. After all, we’re drowning in information already — for-profit, not-for-profit, proprietary, open-source. Our options for apps, editors, and interactive experiences seem at first glance limitless.

Venture a little further into the world of code and you will discover that there are a finite number of languages and toolsets applied for the vast majority of development projects. You will also discover that expert visual designers and user experience professionals are sought after as much so, and often more so, than top programmers. What’s more — although there are approximately 260,000 graphic design jobs in the United States and 343,700 computer science jobs — most graphic designers are not trained to design for the web, but work instead in the shrinking, economically imperiled print sector.

The end result is that to build an original application that looks really good and is full-featured and usable, you need a large budget. In fact, you are probably working for an advertising agency or a large corporation. Meanwhile, thousands of recent graduates have have fabulous graphics skills but no way to interface directly with programmers. The process of working together, when tried at all, feels like pulling teeth. The two professions simply do not know how to communicate the information that helps them both to do their jobs.

Web development is a new field, so the methods and processes for collaboration that we see in art forms like film or music simply have not had time to evolve.

If graphic designers and programmers are not able to talk to each other, tomorrow’s online spaces will be built largely to corporate specifications. Concerns about privacy and freedom of expression can mostly go out the window. Opportunities for creativity and risk taking will also diminish. Open-source web platforms like WordPress and Drupal that are geared toward end users will find themselves at a disadvantage, as graphic designers jump ship for proprietary platforms that offer the promise of custom design.

Thematizer will make it easy to build a great, custom look-and-feel for a Drupal or WordPress website — with about the same time and effort that is required to produce an original design for a concert poster, an album cover, or a business card. Designers understand these media because they are physical and bounded. They know the rules: where the margins and the bleeds lie, what they cannot and cannot do, what will result in tripling the cost of the final job, and what will save the client money. Until now, gleaning the same information about a web design in progress has required either an existing programming background advanced psychic skills — designers are typically given no parameters at all, and then criticized when the design they propose turns out to be time consuming or unwieldy to implement.

Unlike do-it-yourself web design tools, Thematizer makes it easier for designers and programmers to collaborate directly. Hence, art meets code. Because the templates that designers use are themselves open source, developers can modify the code if a different feature set or layout is desired, or to support additional templates such as new implementation on a mobile device. Because Thematizer templates generate clean, editable CSS, developers can make small changes to the design quickly and on the fly, without having to wade through bulky, difficult-to-read auto-generated markup of the type typically generated by commercial visual web editors (WYSIWYGS) such as DreamWeaver.

At the very least, our goal is to build neat tools to download that will make building visually interesting websites easier and a lot more fun. If we do our jobs right, then we’ll also get people talking to each other.

Thematizer receives nonprofit fiscal sponsorship from 119 Gallery

Thematizer is pleased to announce nonprofit fiscal sponsorship from 119 Gallery of Lowell, Massachusetts.

“119 Gallery promotes contemporary and new media art, innovative ideas and cutting edge techniques with a rich and diverse program of exhibitions, performances and community-based arts services; and welcomes people of all ages, backgrounds and means to explore and experience new, innovative art.

119 Gallery opened its doors in 1992 as the 911 Gallery at 911 E Main Street in Indianapolis, IN. It gained worldwide recognition in 1994 when it became one of the first art galleries to exhibit artwork on the World Wide Web. Its exhibits have been published in print media including ARTnews, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Art New England, The Boston Globe, and Lowell Sun”

http://www.119gallery.org/

This means that contributions to our upcoming crowdfunding campaign will be tax-deductible. The online campaign is slated to begin in early April. If you would like to make a pledge in advance of the campaign launch date, please contact us via email info@yesexactly.com.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — ART MEETS CODE: INTRODUCING THE THEMATIZER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Contact: Yes Exactly Web Design
413-223-6502, media@yesexactly.com

ART MEETS CODE: INTRODUCING THE THEMATIZER
New open-source tool is ‘Rosetta Stone’ for designers, developers

Greenfield, MA — Whether we’re working in code or in words, on paper or online, sooner or later we realize we work better together. That’s the driving force behind the creation of the Thematizer, an open-source collaboration tool for designers, developers, usability experts and other visual thinkers.

The Thematizer is a template-based, visual framework that helps nonprogrammers generate clean, editable CSS code while also helping graphic designers easily and quickly create original, custom themes for open-source platforms such as WordPress and Drupal. All templates are built to be responsive, enabling them to work on multiple mobile and traditional devices.

The Thematizer will have designer and developer versions, both of which will be available for download at no charge. Future releases with multi-user functions – such as support for teams and versioning – may be priced differently. A prototype is currently available on Github.

Yes Exactly has formed a not-for-profit initiative in partnership with Gallery 119 of Lowell, Mass. to foster the Thematizer’s evolution. A crowdfunding campaign will launch this spring.

Learn more about the Thematizer at artmeetscode.com. You can help spread the word via Twitter (@thematizer, #thematizer and #artmeetscode) and Facebook.

 


About the Thematizer

The Thematizer is an open-source collaboration software solution for graphic designers and web developers. It gives students, marketing professionals and beginning web developers and designers the ability to quickly and easily build true custom websites without any requirement to purchase expensive software. The Thematizer builds a bridge between disciplines and helps visual thinkers understand the world of code. Support our Kickstarter campaign at http://www.artmeetscode.com.

 

About Yes Exactly, Inc.
Founded in 2010, Yes Exactly, Inc. is a woman-owned company that provides turnkey web design, hosting and support services to make creating and maintaining high-performance, full-featured custom websites that are simple, fast and hassle-free. We developed the Thematizer. Find out more about us at www.yesexactly.com.

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Crowdfunding Rewards Poster #4*

Code Caveman

Art Meets Code* Rewards Poster #4 by Eraklis Petmezas

Look for the crowdfunding campaign to launch in early April.

 

* 01000011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 0101110

 

Thematizer Featured in Design Blog: Create-affeine

 

create-affeine

“How many people can you reach with one website? How many lives can you affect with one viral video? Sure, the internet is consumed with funny cats, angry rants, and inappropriate images (rule #34), but this is all a reflection of the human mind. After all, the web is nothing if not a repository of the content we feed it. So, as a designer who has a serious dislike of code, how can I hope to make my voice heard above the din?”… Read more at Create-affeine.