benjamin franck

book and drive: new website launched !

Last week, we launched a new website: www.bookanddrive.nl

bookanddrive.nl homepage

What is it ?
Well as the name says it: you book a car, and you drive it !
Car rental site for The Netherlands, at very cheap rates, and all inclusive formula.
If you live in The Netherlands, and need to rent a car, this site is made for you !
Easy, cheap, and fast: book and drive makes your holiday planning easier !

Nothing’s like travelling with infinite freedom !

Nederlanstalig versie:

book and drive is een autoverhuurbroker. Dat houdt in dat book and drive tegen zeer voordelige prijzen auto’s huurt van traditionele verhuurders, en deze auto’s daardoor tegen een lage prijs kan reserveren voor onze klanten. Dat is mogelijk omdat wij een groot aantal auto’s huren bij onze partners zoals onder andere Hertz, Alamo, Budget en Europcar, waardoor we over de prijs kunnen onderhandelen opdat wij onze klanten de auto’s tegen de laagst mogelijke prijs kunnen aanbieden. Bij book and drive krijgt u dus dezelfde kwaliteit als bij een traditionele verhuurder tegen een lagere prijs !!

Sorry for your loss

Took this picture on my way to work last week.
This shoe looked soooo sad.

Sorry for your loss

Have fun with your facebook profile picture

Some weeks ago, I saw a profile on facebook that had something original: the profile picture was edited in a way that you just couldn’t say when facebook interface was ending and where the the profile picture started.

Here is the result I got after only 30 minutes of editing:

My facebook Profile

So how can you make one of these ?
Very easy !!

1st step: find a picture of you with a white/light background.

Here, I used a picture with a light background, if I had one with a white background/time to shoot one, it would have been better/easier.
So here, you’ll need some editing to get your background white, and keeping nice levels on your face.
Use masks, levels, saturation tools to get your head on a white background.

2nd step: insert your head on the facebook ‘interface’

Some useful info:

• width of the profile picture: 200px
• height is not important
• grey background goes for 67px and is #edeff4 (more or less)
• darker grey line is 1px high and is #d8dfea (more or less)
• font I used is Tahoma 11pt (this seems to be the one IE, FF, Chrome take into account in the css) and is #3b5998 (more or less)
• height between typos and separation lines is 20px
• typo starts at 8px from the left border

- Start putting the grey background, and use masks to hide the white background around your face.
- Then draw the darker line at exactly 68px from top.
- Write your fake menu items, separate them with a ‘dark grey’ line

3rd step: export, upload, and enjoy !

Some things I found out:

I first wanted to make the pic twice the size (400px width, 2px for the dark grey lines etc…) to have it bigger when people click on it.
But then I found out that the resizing of the profile picture to fit it at 200px wide is causing some blur on the lines. I thought about it, but wanted to try it anyway. Don’t waste your time, as you’ll have to redo everything at 1/1 size.

Also, putting a grey stroke around the ‘profile’ pic, gives more consistency to it, you avoid this ‘cut’ body effect.

Do not hesitate to take the pic above to use it as a base for your editing.
If you want to, I can also include a link to the psd, just ask.

I listened to The Trashmen – Surfin’ Birds and other nice things of this period of rock’n'roll while editing my facebook profile picture.

Have fun !!

(version française à venir)