The most obvious change the weekend from MacStansbury.com is the addition of tags, using the Ultimate Tag Warrior. What you won't notice without me telling you about it, is a collection of lines that would probably make a great story, but I just don't take them that far, called All in good humor. It's updated whenever I get around to adding stuff to it, and it's unlike anything else here, as it is one static page, with just some text on it. The reason this is important, is because I did something that I didn't think much about, and it's because something of a signature for MacStansbury.com; using the m-dash. It looks like this:

– – –

That's it. Just three m-dashes, bolded, with a centering division. There's nothing particularly interesting about it at all. When I was first putting the site into WordPress, I was adding content to the front page so see what would happen when if the page went past the bottom of the screen. In a hurry, I added the m-dashes as a divider, as you can see here. At first, I tried to use a horizontal rule, but the K2 theme had their property set to display:none, so there wouldn't be anything there, just white space. I wanted a visual cue beyond an empty area, so I just threw that in there without thinking about what it looked like. Now I realize I could've created a new style for the rule, but it was already set. Later, I started using it in other places, just as a placeholder until I could come up with something more eloquent. In my race to become a design guru, I leaned something oddly simple about creating a great design idea. It's simple: come up with something simple. Do you wonder why every website's got a white background with huge Web 2.0-style letters? It's for legibility, and because it's simpler than trying to read 4-point gray type on a gray background. That contrasty difference makes it easier to read. Even better than a full, 100% black, a very-dark gray on white is very easy on the eyes, as are the large fonts. This is how a design concept is formed. We have the facts - big fonts that are on white pages are easier to read - and we build around that. You take that foundation, and you'll see that motif carried on everyone of these new designs. I have that working on the MacStansbury K2 mod, except I smallerated some of the fonts, because, you know, I'm a jerk. Other than some visual cues, I try and keep as much color off the page as possible. This is a style I made in a hasty decision to use the m-dash as a separator. I could, if I wanted to, change all the instances into something else entirely. But the simplicity of the design makes me like it even the more. It's a good visual cue that there's a break in the action, and I can say that I'm the one who popularized it. Nobody will believe me, but them's the breaks. It's funny, you know, how these things come to be. At first, I put in the horizontal rule, then put in some regular dashes, then made them the "big kind." Then, since they weren't big enough, I had to go and bold them. Now it's as much a part of the design of the site as the giant "I'll change this when I find somebody with some talent to make me a new one" header on every page of this site. And, yeah, someday I'll get around to changing that header, too. For now, I'll enjoy that, and having my own mark on this site template, three m-dashes, bolded and centered.

status: published
lastmod: '2006-11-15T17:03:58.000Z'
author: John Stansbury
cms: wordpress
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  similarterms: design page site macstansbury white rule visual fonts m-dashes read change m-dash gray simple horizontal bolded style background makes easier