Light is a web-based content management system on a hosted basis that specifically addresses designers and agencies to provide their self-branded design and CMS to their clients. Signing up takes about 5 minutes and gives you a free account for testing and nibbling around the system.

Finding my way around was fast: due to the clear and sufficiently precise help files (online or downloadable for further reading during the family picnic on the weekend) I managed to focus on the main issues for setting up some pages in just one hour . I’m somehow familiar with coding but not to the extent that people stop by my office to touch my hair or worship my knowledge of PHP/MySQL or semantic markup at FOWA. But that’s not necessary with “Lightâ€?.

The system consists of three mandatory page templates, the suitable CSS and some data-fields named “tokensâ€?. These tokens allow your prospective client to interact with the CMS: to add, delete or modify the predefined containers. Tokens have a precise syntax <$regionâ€?$> and attributes like this : <$region name=â€?MainContentâ€?$> defining the main editable region in a template where your clients can add text, pictures, blog entries, forms, a gallery and more. Defining breadcrumbs, root or side menus is easy as eating cake (unless you’ve diabetes).

If you don’t want to use the nicely designed templates (which are six in total) it gets more tricky: although Light provides an online tool to alter CSS parameters it is somehow tiring to surf to the presentation view every minute to see the result – at least when you’re me (so, don’t be me). Having a firm grip on the CSS language will be necessary to achieve satisfying results within the system. Plus the editing window isn’t quite providing the big picture due to line breaks every 100 letters or so. I allowed myself the smooth way and just mashed up an existing template offline with Coda.

It is recommended by the company and fairly easy to design your templates offline, slice them up, zip them and upload into the CMS. A slight drawback is the fact that direct access via FTP is not provided – so avoiding going back and forth might be an issue for further development. Speaklight also provides a service called “HTML-Expressâ€? where you get your design nicely sliced within 5 days to implement in their CMS but that will certainly depend on the budget you’re willing to give away.

Conclusion: if you want to achieve the value-add of a CMS for your customers which is easy to administer and operate, Light is definitely an option. With their sophisticated pricing strategy and the ability to down- or upgrade monthly it can be a good start to grow with the number and the needs of your customers. The service of being able to offer the essential pages and plugs for a client in nearly no time provides an asset which gets more important (not to say vital) for a Designer these days. Plus: you are able to brand the CMS and (in the near future) the Help-System with your own logo. The missing FTP option and (not mentioned above) tricky customization of the form module could become an implementation issue to boost the number of satisfied designers.

After trying every possible keyboard combination the Apple Gods gave us, after trying to reinstall Os X from the CD, my computer told me that there is no volume to install the OS. WTF! After 2 hours at my trusted Apple store they told me the same…

To get to the point: I had to redo all the 32 pages in a third of the time to meet the utmost deadline (negotiated with the printing company) which left me with no sleep for 36 hours and the consumption of all the coffee beans left in Austria.

So after this nemesis I had a short nap and went to the river near our home with the youngest of the horde, David. Watching him play and taking the things as they come I felt less weight on my shoulders and the stress diminished into the air. My perspective was reinstalled and I could focus on the really important things in life…

Click on thumbnails to watch him play.

I’m experimenting with the excellent pictures of my friend & partner Andrei (more photos from him on his site Finlandia). I took this opportunity to send you some summer greetings for your viewing pleasure. Click on thumbnails to enlarge.

My first adress to look for icons is definitely IconBuffet. This community site delivers cute and helpful icons free for private and commercial use. I filled the picture at the beginning of this post with some of them. Indispensible for every web designer is the well known (but always to mention) fabulous Silk Set from Marc James. With over 700 icons neatly designed everybody finds his share. From the same source a tiny fine set is Mint – recommendable…

• The Notebook iconset from Manuela Hoffmann is a true hit. Very special!
• Toolbar Icons from Matt Ball are highly recommendable.
• Everaldo Coelho produced a beautiful KDE Crystal Clear Set. Wonderful, not only for KDE…
• My fellow countrymen, the widely known Bartelme shares a beauiful shopping cart icon with the world.
• Deziner Folio delivered the free Aqua Gloss Set for private and commercial projects.
• Web 2.0 Buttons 3D-style you’ll find on Utom Box for free download.
• Liquidicity gives you 165 free to use vector icons – so you can alter them in Illustrator for your needs – handy!

I could go on for hours. Not included or mentioned are thousands of sites which promote icons strictly for private desktop use – as it says: not useful to design websites with them. I hope to amend much more links in the next weeks to build up a profound linkpage for icons which we can use in our commercial and private projects. Feel free to post other sites you find worth mentioning.

It’s fun to be teacher/instructor for the first time – and very strenuous. I didn’t realise that teaching (talking) for 4 hours in a row can be that exhausting. The interesting part is the way of the ‘knowledge-transfer’. If I stick to routine and present the bare medical facts I see my students going into peaces after 20 minutes. Almost the same topic stuffed with my personal viewpoint or decorated with anecdotes from the hospital makes them stay alert and builds some mnemonics (a least I have the impression).

I am curious how my students will evaluate my classes at the end of the semester and hope that my efforts show a significant impact on their marks. Drop by soon for more exiting news on: “Robert, the highly motivated teacher”…

I chose to use the theme from Barthelme now (as you might have noticed) and mashed it up just a little bit…

Yesterday I designed a logo for a client who is working in parent consultancy. It is interesting to look at the basics of an iconesque appearance: what is necessary to have female/male distinction, what can you omit to achieve adequate reduction? I’ll work more on that…

I managed to finish the coding for my German Blog. Using a WordPress Theme of Fen was a good start. I recoded some of the CSS and sidebar widgets to accomplish the current look. And of course I used the fabolous icons from IconBuffet. It will cover topics on resources, photography and design in German and I hope you stop by to take a short look. Feel free to comment on the design.