LinkArtist Multimedia Blog

I have been so busy with my end of year work catchups… like with getting our new! site! ready! finally!… that I haven’t been able to post many projects. The new look facilitates it a bit better and there will be a few more in the New Year.

Annaliese Frank

Annaliese wanted something simple and feminine. You can check it out by visiting http://www.annaliesefrank.com

The Unbride

Justine Ungaro asked me to design a custom Wordpress theme for her bridal blog, The Unbride. Justine is cute, rock n roll, and loves the black ornate flower thing, so the end result was something a little fun and crazy. Justine hasn’t posted on it yet (c’mon girl!), but you can check out the design anyway

The Wedding Workshop

Cathrin D’Entremont hired us to produce an illustration of a bride to be used as her main “mascot” for her workshops. She wanted something cheeky, feminine and modern. If you know anyone that is looking to plan a wedding, I suggest they check out The Wedding Workshop, which gives loads of great advice about how to plan a wedding. It only costs $20 to get some great advice… check it out here: http://www.theweddingworkshop.com.au

WACOSS

After designing the website for their 2008 Conference, WACOSS (Western Australian Council of Social Services) asked me to redesign their main page, which was looking outdated. The CMS that backs it is having some issues so I haven’t yet been able to fully edit the content, but the design is live and the result is great, considering that maroon and khaki were the colours to work with.

I really love CMS work, it is so rewarding and I am proud to help an organisation like WACOSS, because 3 years ago I would’ve been falling over myself to work with them in Policy. Oh how things change!

So, thats it for now… I have a post coming about our funny and dramatic Christmas, so its not all work

OK well, Shane put the challenge out there, so I decided to do it… only a week late… but who’s counting? I have been so busy with work lately that I literally have 400 unread RSS feeds, a mountain of social phone calls to return, and an eyestrain headache that the Ray Ban Bunnies would be proud of…

So anyway, whilst I wind down from working… its time for me to do what I promised and answer some questions…

—-

What’s your personal mission statement?

To live my life like this is “it”, and leave a legacy for my children that they are proud of. And to leave this earth just a little bit better for having been here. Anything else is a bonus.

What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?

I am guessing that you *don’t* mean that nappy of Jules’ that i had to clean up about 2 weeks ago when he had severe diahorrea? Apparently us business people aren’t supposed to talk about such unsavoury things - and that is why I am always crossing the line with people.

In all seriousness though, the biggest mess that I have had to clean up is from my own lack of confidence. And yes, occasionally my tendency to tell clients about my son’s diahorrea and bad cake disasters…

What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?

Right now, building my business to not just be a job, but to also be earning income when I am NOT pull all nighters is something I am working on. I am also working on some ideas for band sites, and a few other things that never get my attention because I am too busy.

I have found that I feel uncomfortable calling myself an entrepeneur, too, which is probably why I find it hard to talk about my “entrepeneurial” efforts…

Why do you do what you do? What inspires you? When do you get most excited?

Quite simply, I love just about every aspect of my job… except for that point in the project where its bugs and niggles, that PISSES ME OFF AND IS ANYONE A CSS GURU THAT CAN HELP ME OUT BECAUSE I AM TEARING MY HAIR OUT OY VEY…

What inspires me? Well… I am a big picture kind of girl, so I would have to say that for me, the inspiration comes from helping to empower people using technology. It sounds really trite, but I really do get a kick out of making things look cool, but in a meaningful way.

I spent a lot of years trying to find my place, and trying to maintain my sense of optimism about human nature (although that has been tested, and I have been known to cry from the disappointment of people’s selfishness sometimes!), so for me, in a small way, being part of this little information revolution that will one day be looked upon as a turning point for humanity… well… that is kinda inspiring, don’t you think?

Boxers or Briefs? or as Naomi says, Bikini or Thong, duh?!?

Briefs make for a much better client relationship… oh, wait, you mean the other kind of undies… do women wear boxers?

What do you do when you’re not [designing | programming | managing | writing | toiling for the wo/man]?

I think about designing, programming, managing, writing and thank fuck for every day that I am not working FOR THE MAN. Oh, and I try to spend time with my kids

What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?

Perseverance, fo sho. I have now been doing this for almost 3 years. It has flown by…

What’s your exit strategy?

On a plane, to a place with no extradition treaty, with a suitcase full of old ladies’ life savings…

ok, not really…

What is the last thing that made you belly laugh?

I belly laugh at least once a day. I think it was Jules’ impersonation of Charlie the Unicorn. It’s usually as a result of watching my kids.

Have you ever been in business before?

No… this was actually very scary for me. Lucky it crept up on me!

At what point do you consider yourself successful?

I already am. I have overcome tremendous obstacles already in the last 28 years, and the fact that I am even sitting here today, in my house, with my kids asleep… without any great worries (other than petty shit that gets us all from time to time) — I already am a success.

What was your first experience with a computer?

It involved rohypnol, a fishnet stockings and a mattress on the floor. It’s best I don’t talk about it. Let’s just that that Amstrad CPC 6128K will never be the same.

Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates in a jello wrestling match, where’s your money?

Probably in both of their pockets.

Where do you do your best thinking?

When I am swimming laps. Which I don’t do nearly as much as I should/want to!

What does your average daily work / life balance look like? How much time do you work, play and sleep?

Balance? hahahahahahahahha

Unless 3 hours of nose picking whilst I contemplate a design counts as play… well… yeah. I am answering this at 1am - does that answer your question?

If I could introduce you to anyone, who would it be?

Naomi. She’s a top top chick

What stops you from giving up when you are frustrated?

The fact that I could never, ever tolerate sitting in a cubicle again.

If Chuck Norris and Steven Hawking had a baby (hey it’s my damn interview), would you vote for her for president?

Well, given that Steven Hawking is from the UK, he would need to live in the US to have the baby, otherwise she wouldn’t satisfy the American birth requirement for US Presidential candidates. See, I know stuff about stuff and that. Girls and boys, that’s what a degree in Politics gets you.

Why do I now, suddenly have the mental image of Steven Hawking judo-kicking? Oh how my un-PC mind works.

And I don’t vote for the US President so it a moot point.

LOL — I can TOTALLY relate to this one!

FlowChart

Thanks to Tommy for the link

James Thomas outlines a plan for killing off support of IE6.

My friend Andrew and I were talking about this issue just last night, so I was amused to find this article sitting in my feeds this morning.

IE6 has become the bane of my existence - and I have been wondering if IE6 support is something that we should be aiming for in the medium term - after all, IE7 is a free upgrade, Firefox is a wonderful free alternative, and, well, IE6 sucks donkey’s balls.

The only logical reason I can think of for not having IE7 or Firefox (Or Safari on OSX, which is what I use) is because you are stuck with IE6 on a work computer and your IT Department hasn’t, um, deployed that FREE upgrade yet… and part of me thinks that it is the role of developers to push for change. As long as we keep supporting outdated, time consuming software (even when our audiences are predominantly broadband-enabled, modern browser using folks like mine!), people will see no incentive at all to change. It’s a cycle that we need to break, in many respects.

So I am certainly in 2 minds, and often write 2 different stylesheets - one with pretty transparent PNGs and lovely styling, the other with GIFs. Bleh.

Anyway, this is an interesting article and I think I may just start doing this — assuming that clients don’t protest of course

read more | digg story

EDIT: I have actually been giving this some more thought. I think that we should start an initiative, a promotion, a campaign, whatever, to have an International “Upgrade Your Browser” Day. It can be a yearly event, much like the successful Blog Action Day that recently occured, but with developers and other web professionals campaigning for people to upgrade their browsers.

Thoughts??

Téa played through Bioshock a few weeks ago on the advice of a client, a reason that sounds pretty flimsy to me but those in glass houses. Anyway, trust Halloween to bring out the resourcefulness in Americans. Here is a video of dad and daughter dressed up in their favourite Bioshock characters. It’s the daughter that makes it priceless.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSThopeS2sM]

I started working on this and then got really super busy, so don’t judge me if this blog is not beautifully designed just yet. I hope ot get some time on the weekend on concentrate on it.

Getting there slowly!

t

With Jason now officially coming on board to help with running LinkArtist Multimedia, he will now (or at least, soon) be posting his blog here.

To allow for this, I have been adapting the site design to separate out different categories, and now you can not only see the different categories much easier, but this will eventually become the whole CMS backend for the site!

Anyway, it is a way off yet and I am doing as much as I can as I get time.

I am pleased to now showcase the Anna Rose Photography website. Jen has been an absolute pleasure to work with — and I think we’ll be friends for a long time.
I am very happy with how the site has turned out. It is a combination of XHTML, CSS & Flash.

I committed to posting for Blog Action Day, so here goes!

I actually had quite a hard time thinking about something to write. So instead I will write a few paragraphs on a couple of things.

Observation 1. The Greens.

As many of my long time readers will know, I have spent a good part of my formative years as an activist, as a policy officer, and have tried to find a way to use my life to make an impact on other people. I have to admit, though, that in the past 2 years, I have become so jaded and unmoved by anything remotely political, that I am embarrassed to say, has turned into apathy.

There were a couple of reasons for this, but the main reason I became disinterested in Politics and activism was because I got burned out by political parties. I would love to sit here, all airy fairy and say “VOTE GREEN” ( I happen to know the Greens’ Senate Candidate and he is a wonderful, committed and intelligent guy who deserves to win), but I cannot in good conscience encourage anyone to elect a party that never actually gets anything done.

I joined the Greens in the wave of the “NO WAR!” Campaign. I never thought I would join another political party, but somehow I found myself inspired by the movement and became active in the party pretty quickly. I even had a stint as Policy Convenor. I made some amazing friends, too. But the party itself is dysfunctional, allowing for continual meeting hijacking, backbiting, temper tantrums and gossip. What I found intolerable about the party was that the party’s dysfunction was the elephant in the room — that stood there whilst people grinned through their teeth at each other, then went off and did their own thing (like the very immature dumping of manure outside a Minister’s pavement).

I guess with a pending election, I have a dilemma about how to vote. I genuinely adore the candidate, but the candidate represents the party. When I resigned from the Greens, I swore that I could not in good conscience vote for a party that would wilfully ignore such dysfunction and allow hissy fits and other toddler-like behaviour to continue… but… the candidate is someone I respect. What would you do?

Observation 2. A White American man says it, and everyone listens

Has David Suzuki ever won a Nobel Peace Prize? I ask this question not because I necessarily dislike Al Gore, but because I did find it surprising that he took a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts against global warming.

David Suzuki has been a tireless campaigner for environmental activism, and has been seen at the forefront of just about every climate change campaign there is. Yet, he has not been honoured with a Nobel Prize (it’s worth noting that in some years, they don’t even give them out!).

I understand that its not about who said it first and often, who said it the loudest, but I certainly find it interesting that Al Gore, with the backing of Hollywood, speaks, and everyone is suddenly listening. He’s not to blame, but I think it is symptomatic of a society that accepts the opinions of a rich white man, and a handful of Hollywood celebrities, over a distinguished and widely respected environmental scientist who has been talking about global warming since the 70’s.

It is great to see people becoming more globally aware, but I do wonder if it is out of a sense of fashion, rather than a genuine concern for the world around us, that motivates people. I just hope it doesn’t go out of fashion before it’s too late.

3. Environmentally friendly design

Not long ago Justine Ungaro shared a link with me called Blackle and I have been using it as my Google homepage. I have been thinking about carbon-neitralising my business — after all, as a self employed person I am in a unique position to actually enforce changes.

Freelance Switch has a great post on how Designers can be more environmentally friendly, and I plan on implementing quite a few of those. I also plan on riding with Mina to school in the mornings rather than drive. I am also going to go from eating less meat to cutting it out altogether (I eat meat once a fortnight at the moment max, but I see no reason why I can’t just cut it out).

So, there you have it. I cobbled together soething for Blog Action Day. Not brilliant, but hey… I did it.

LinkArtist Multimedia have just completed the website for the WACOSS 2008 Conference. This is powered by CMS Made Simple, and has led to another project, redesigning the main WACOSS website.