Hedlin Designs » News

Flash’s Last Stand

Gary Hedlin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:52:30 +0000

It’s amazing to me this whole hubbub about Flash. And really It’s not really such a big deal in our world, and it shouldn’t be anywhere. Steve Jobs of Apple called it buggy when it came to the iPhone, Adobe then accused Apple of having unrealistic expectations, but when they put Flash on an Android phone… guess what? It crashed and burned! So, It’s not hard to say that Jobs was right… and we knew it from the start.

See, Apple may lean a little Nazi when it comes to what they put out for their products… but that’s totally understandable when you have so many companies rushing to put stuff out there. There are going to be corners cut in a mad rush, and Apple is not going to put something out that compromises the functionality of their product. And by putting out Flash, something that’s been buggy since day one, when it does crash and burn it will hurt the phone’s reputation as well as Flash’s. So there shouldn’t be any debate about it, Adobe just needs to get off the snide.

In full disclosure, we’ve never been a fan of flash simply because it’s not accessible, and it NEVER will be. Accessibility is NOT just about interacting with people with disabilities, it’s about how accessible the code is to the browser. If you need a plugin to access a site, well that’s strike one, two, and three all wrapped up into one. The thing people don’t know is if you’re site is accessible on desktops, it’s accessible on mobile devices too. And with a few minor CSS tweaks it can be optimized for mobile, and still maintain the desktop look and feel. It’s not rocket science, it’s just making the most of the web standards.

So really, we hope Flash doesn’t hit mobile anytime soon. The more people that discover you can do a lot of what you need with just HTML, CSS, and maybe a little JavaScript, the more irrelevant Flash will become. And we will HAPPILY dig a hole in the backyard when it dies!

Go Big or Go Home

Gary Hedlin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:30:07 +0000

Hedlin Designs is proud to announce our Wide Format Printing division is up and running! We recently acquired an Encad Novajet 850 wide format printer as part of our printing arsenal. This bad boy can print in photo quality up to 60 inches wide! And, it can print on Tyvek Banner media for indoor / outdoor banners, adhesive-backed vinyl for large stickers and logos, and canvas for prints that look like fine works of art. We’re still playing with this new toy, so as we create prints, we will post them on Our Portfolio.

A Busy Start to 2010

Gary Hedlin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:32:57 +0000

January has been one of the busiest months that we’ve ever had! We started off launching a new web site for Route 6 Pro Wash, the best Car Wash and Detail Center in the Illinois Valley! And then we did a complete re-design of the the oldest site in our portfolio, Obsessive Compulsive Dakota! We also gave our own site a face lift, and spun off our show car sign design service into it’s own site at http://showcarsign.com!

…And we’re not done yet! We have 2 sites in the works that will be launched by February 1st!

This goes to show that despite all the doom and gloom news about the economy, the people who know this is the time to expand your customer base. When your current customer base is watching what they spend, it’s important to expand the customer base to keep sales stable. And then when economic conditions improve, you have more customers adding to your sales. As simple as it sounds, it’s how businesses grow over time!

With that economics lesson behind us, We hope 2010 is a good year for you too!