Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 - 14 Comments
After my success with the Farringtons Concept, I have started to do drawings for all of the sites I make.
They are by no means the final version, I don’t throw them through a converter to make a website, I make the whole thing again with XHTML and CSS then cut it up into sections for themes or templates.
They just show the general look of the site, if anything major is wrong with the design I change it at this stage.
This concept is for the first custom blog theme I have sold, more details coming one I have finished it!
Monday, August 28th, 2006 - 12 Comments
I’m really getting into this web design stuff!
I recently got another job, doing a redesign of Farringtons Farm shop website Farringtons.co.uk
As you can see from their current site.. which does not work in anything other than Internet Explorer, it is in need of a lot of work!
I got the job via a marketing company that are close family friends, they are not really sure what they want their website to look like but they have a good idea of the content they wish to put on it.
So I’ve drawn up a few concepts:
I think my fav is the second one, and the first could do with a little more work.
I’m going to present the designs later today, and discuss what they like and what they don’t and work from there.
What do you think?
Friday, August 25th, 2006 - 15 Comments
Yep, I’ve got myself a Macbook!
I’m very happy with it, although it is taking me a little while to get used to the mac way of doing things… keyboard shortcuts for everything!!
I’m still going through the motions of copying of some music and photos, installing the programs I need and getting everything how I like it.
Thanks to all the people who have helped me out with it already, notably Mike and Andrew on flickr.
Any software suggestions are very welcome, I’ve already got Textmate, Adium, Growl, Lightbox, Firefox and Camino.
I’m looking for a good flickr uploader at the moment, something on a par with the windows one, uploadr.
It works so effortlessly, especially with the context menu entry (right click >> “send to flickr”), I have yet to find anything as good a that on the mac.
One thing I have found, I kinda already knew it, is that there are a small minority of apple users… lets call them “macboys” …. who can be more than a little over zealous.
I’ve been a windows user for nearly 10 years now, I know exactly how to use it, switching to a completely different OS is a big step, there are lots of little differences that slow me down, the lack of start menu and the fact the programs don’t close when you close them are two issues for me.
So when I ask for help or advise, don’t tell me I’m wrong to want a start menu, that I have been doing everything wrong for the past 10 years and actually accept that millions of people are just as productive and effective on their windows pc as you are on your mac!
I’ll stop ranting now.. after I make this point:
I think that OS’s can be like religion, if you criticize someones faith you tend to get their back up.
I’m an atheist, I don’t believe in organized religion, it’s the same with computer software, so don’t expect me to join your religion just because I bought a mac.
Onwards and upwards: my first concept drawing for a client
Thursday, August 24th, 2006 - 9 Comments
FrostyIvan.co.uk is the new tumblelog of my great friend Mike.
It’s based on wordpress, as usual, has a static width and a menu that moves as you scroll (except in IE6).
I’m pretty happy with it, another clean and simple theme which complements the content rather than overshadowing it.
Mike has not actually seen it yet, hence the lack of content.
He might not like it and I’d have to change it, and for that reason along I have not bothered to fix the bugs in Internet explorer.
I find that the most tiresome and boring part of web design, having a site look and work great in Firefox and safari, then switching to IE and nothing acts the same.
Anyway, if you have any thoughts or suggestions do let me know.
Some people have said that its not making as good use of space as it could, should i change the width to percentage? Does it need more of a menu?
Any constructive criticism is very welcome!
