Journal notes

We’ve had quite a few people comment about the Supereight contact page. Many folks want to know how we styled the Google map so that it looks desaturated with red roads. Okay! Here’s how we did it:

We used the Google Maps JavaScript API v3 Styles function and it’s pretty straight forward to implement if you have a basic understanding of the Google Maps API.

Styled maps allow you to customise the look of the standard Google base maps, changing the visual display of  roads, parks, and built-up areas. More detailed information can be found on the Google maps developer’s guide:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/styling

There is also an easy to use Styled Maps Wizard:
http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/wizard/index.html

Below is the snippet of code that we use to style the contact page map for the Supereight website:

One of our favourite fonts at the moment is Nexa from Fontfabric foundry. Two weights available (Light & Bold) and are available to download for free! Both weights have their own strength, upper and lowercase have their own personality and there are even some nice ligatures. The lowercase ‘g’ is particularly quirky. The typeface has the simplicity and friendliness of something like Avenir, but is original and fresh.

So what are you waiting for? Go get it.

Us folks at Supereight are big fans of cycling to work. At least I try to cycle everyday if possible. I sold my second car last year and never looked back. It saves money, keeps me fit and ready to go each day. It’s harder to keep it up in the winter months, but wearing the right warm gear helps a lot. I’ve just bought myself a Garmin 800 which will help me keep a track of my miles and routes. I’m also a big fan of Strava, there is a great community of cycling friends who have been encouraging me to go longer distances at the weekends. I nailed a 65 mile ride last Sunday, Witney to Cheltenham and back which last year I never thought I would be able to do.

I put together a ‘Cycling to work’ poster last month based on a print I had seen in the shop a bit further down the High street in Witney in preparation for a screen printing workshop. I hand-printed six 347x508mm posters.

We’d like to give a couple of posters away. Simply follow us @supereight on Twitter if you don’t already and when we reach 1000+ followers we’ll randomly select a a couple of followers and send them one of these lovely posters. Spread the word and good luck folks!