About GOTHAM.BLACK
Sometimes, we just need a little prodding to make something incredible. Other times, things just need to be created for their own sake. They shout at you, turn you into a frenzy, and eventually just sit you down and force you to create them.
GOTHAM.BLACK was one of those things.
What started as a simple pen and paper journal soon turned digital (blame slow writing), then came a website, and now, a website with multiple writers. Each with their own experiences, perspectives, professions, and styles.
Covering a multitude of topics, this volume of the BLACK should be better than ever. With a group of creative minds, the idea is to share all sorts of projects and endeavors to promote conversation and inspire others. Whether through sharing design projects, music, or art, there’s always something to talk about, and always something great that will need to get out. You never know what can inspire you…
So, here it is. Volume 4 of GOTHAM.BLACK.
Gears Behind the Scenes
GOTHAM.BLACK was created on a mac, and runs using Expression Engine to manage its content. All code was created using Textmate and CSSEdit, with Transmit to move the final payload to the servers. Art and graphics created using Adobe software.
As for web technologies, the BLACK employs sIFR for pretty, while still somewhat accessible, heading typography, and jQuery for behaviors and effects. A mix of Ruby on Rails, Staticmatic, and Haml was used for prototyping, with the final result being XHTML Strict with CSS styling.
GOTHAM.BLACK does not support Internet Explorer 6. It took a while for me to make that decision during development, and I thought long and hard about the cost versus benefit for supporting the aging browser. While I will push forward with trying to make the site as accessible as possible for users with disabilities, I chose not to support IE6’s outdated technology and broken rendering engine to allow me to focus my time on the content and writing. Upgrades for version 7 of the popular browser are available through Microsoft for free, and with version 8 of the browser coming along, I decided it was an okay time to drop support. Further, major firms such as Google and Apple have dropped support for IE6 as things head into the future. I hope that you’ll understand!
Everything is hosted by Media Temple, and statistics are monitored using Shaun Inman’s refreshingly tasty Mint.
Finally, jonny.gotham’s sanity would like to thank the following for help during the site’s construction: Radiohead, The Prodigy’s Invaders Must Die, Carla Bruni, Muse, Glen Gould’s Goldberg Variations, With The Punches, Viva La Hova, Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, Snow Patrol’s A Hundred Million Suns, The Streets, T.I.‘s Paper Trail, Rjd2, and Starbucks Green Tea.
For The Sake of Transparency
This site works with the Amazon and iTunes affiliate programs. While this is not a site meant to generate revenue through ads, the affiliate programs were joined to help with better organization and site usability, hoping to connect readers with a place to preview and/or obtain any items we review and like that that you might want to check out. This affiliation does not affect you in any way, but allows us to link you to these items in our posts (for example, iTunes doesn’t allow any non-affiliate way to link to the iTunes store, so we couldn’t link a review to an artists page to preview/purchase the songs without becoming an affiliate). If any revenue is generated as a consequence of this, it will go to paying for the site’s hosting and registration costs. The entire affiliate thing is really for the sake of being able to provide those links, giving readers an easy and direct way to support writers and artists by informing them where they can obtain their work.
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