Design Journal:
My Name is Carlos Diaz. I have been a web designer for the last 6 years and have become really good at it. I am an expert with Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML and CSS coding, Flash design as well as ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0 I can also program in ASP.NET and intermediate PHP.
Although my passion is web design, I surround myself with a variety of different technologies;
I have a strong background as a multimedia designer and a great understanding of Object Oriented programming and a lot of experience with 3d rendering software such as Maya and z-brush.
Feel free to look around my site hope you like what you see. If you are interested on my work and would like me to do something for you please e-mail me at
Updated Homepage
03/11/2010
I was not going to add reflections to the thumbnails at the top of this page, but after looking at it for so long I felt like I needed to add something to it so I did. These thumbnails are listed by an XML file which in turn is loaded by flash to decide which thumbnails to load. I did this because I want to add the ability to search between websites/Illustrations etc later on. However this might prove too complex for that little section. I have not yet decided if I will do this but the option is there.
Fixed Internet Explorer 6 issues
03/03/2010
Since I began redesigning this website I had decided to completely ignore Internet Explorer 6. At this date, only 9.6% of users have IE6 (Internet explorer 6). Compared to its later versions internet explorer 7 and 8, with a combined percentage of 25.7% Firefox has the majority with 46.5 of all users. My point is: I was willing to ignore Internet explorer 6, but a colleague has convinced me that it might be too soon to ignore it, I have gone back to this site and made some changes to provide IE6 users with a better experience. Everyone else will not see any changes what so ever.
Website Updated
02/10/2010
It has been almost two years since my last update but I finally got around making new cosmetic changes to the site. I just have to think of a good favicon and I will be all set. I have organized the website differently now to include games and photo manipulations.
Hopefully I will be better at adding new content this time around.
Resume Updated
05/26/2008
Hard to believe but it has been almost exactly five months since my last update, I am once again in the process of looking for another job, hopefully this time I can get a permanent full time position. The good news is I will be spending more time on personal projects.
New Updates
12/27/2008
I have added one more interactive piece. Well it is actually another animation or rather a piece of it. It was originally created for one of America’s Best Companies campaigns and I have modified it so I can show it in my portfolio. Here is the link
New Updates (finally)
12/15/2008
It had been a while since my last update but this week I finally changed some things:
I have added an Actionscrit 3.0 project and an animation to my interactive portfolio, I have updated y resume and I have created a couple of new illustrations but I will add those later this week. I hope you like the new content
New Updates and lots of free time
11/21/2008
It looks like I will be out of projects for a while so this website will be seeing more additions in the near future. For starters I have added older versions of America's Best magazine website. This website has changed a lot over time but only in looks. Its flexibility lies in the way the style sheet files are set up. The two new additions share one CSS file for their structure. Two smaller files take care of their individual colors.
New Interactive Sample
8/19/2008
In reality this animation has nothing interactive but since I have not added an animation section yet, this section is the most suitable place for it. It is a fictitious ad for one of my friends. She is an aspiring model and you can see her and my ad here.
New Image in Gallery
7/16/2008
It had been a while since I didn’t update this site. The reason has been: I have been busy learning ActionScript 3.0, and of course painting some illustrations. Besides these things and the job that pays the bills, I have also been immersed in z-brush, and doing some research on the greatness that will be Flash Player 10. All those excuses aside I have finally updated my Illustrations Gallery with 3 new illustrations that I hope you, my welcomed visitor, will enjoy.
Puzzle
6/30/2008
Today I added a new game to my website it is a jig saw puzzle that randomly loads one of my illustrations. You might also see the picture of a puppy.
Fav Icon
6/25/2008
Today I fixed a couple of Internet Explorer glitches, and added a slick looking FavIcon. They are simple but make websites look more professional. Even more important it makes it easier to find after your website has been bookmarked. So there you have it FavIcons (favorite icons) look good and serve a purpose there is no excuse not to have one. The way I find easiest to make is by finding websites that do it for free I created mine at: http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon
Illustrations Gallery
6/22/2008
I finally started an Illustrations gallery. It took some time to set up but in the long run it will save me a ton of time. I basically use JavaScript to open a dynamic asp page which in turn loads the image I request. This way the only thing I have to do is add the image to my directory without having to update anything else. The pictures you see were created in 2-6 hour periods. In the coming weeks I will be adding more content to the entire site, as well as possibly one more portfolio gallery
Looking Presentable
6/16/2008
Ok, we are in serious business now. The website is starting to look presentable. Still not at its best but it is now a worthy canvas for my work. The important thing right now is to add Content (A.K.A. my work). So I can start promoting it.
Interactive Portfolio
6/15/2008
Added a CD that I created it is basically a flash website in a CD. Just the first of my applications to be added to this section. I also changed the look of this site. Since this site has evolved at least 3 times I next time I update I will add screenshots of the evolution process.
Last minute update
6/12/2008
Added my resume and started the image gallery section for this website. Or at least sorting out the images. Not sure if I should design a flash gallery or an html gallery. Or may be both... oh, time, unless you master it, it will master you.
More Changes and a new project
6/09/2008
I promised to be done with the redesign of this site more than a week ago but other more fun projects keep on manifesting (for lack of a better word) my latest one is a youtube play list that people can use in their blog or myspace/facebook. The idea came to me when I wanted to find a way to bookmark videos. I would at first put them in my space so I could watch the videos later. But then my page would get ridiculously long. So I took the idea of a music play list which is becoming more and more popular around myspace and applied it to videos. My friend and I will set up a page where other people can create their own play list. Also as you can see I have made some changes to this site(finally)
Minor updates
5/28/2008
Updated the game Mako to its latest version it now keeps track of many stats including accuracy and distance travelled. the final version will actually record these results to a database. Mako (use spacebar and arrow keys) I still want to finish the redesign of this site by the end of this week.
So much stuff to do so little time
5/15/2008
It seems every day I get something else that I want to do, I want to get better with action script 3.0 but have several projects already started in 2.0, Z-brush is awesome but I don’t know how to use it good enough yet. And I have some Photoshop work to finish. And did I mention I got to remodel this site also? It seems there is just no end. But its ok I have no life anyway.
New games
5/7/2008
I have started developing a couple of new games to place in my portfolio I’m calling one Mako it’s technically a shooting game with fish. The other one doesn’t have a name yet But this one you play with your mouse to shoot. Technically you must stop some cute animals from making your kingdom friendly and nice. So basically good vs. evil with a twist.I’ve only spent a couple of days on these games so they are full of glitches Nevertheless you can see them using the following links:
Mako (use spacebar and arrow keys)
Why does this website look like it was made 10 years ago?
4/28/2008
Because it was made 2 years ago and in web time that is an eternity. The good news is I have started to redesign it and hopefully by the end of May it will be up and running with its new look, and more importantly new content.