LinkArtist Multimedia - The Blog

I have been so busy of late, so my blogging duties have been somewhat neglected. There has been a state election called and I am working on the campaign, so have been working pretty solidly on that, plus putting my nose to the grindstone on a fair few other projects too, which should be unveiled in the next couple of weeks.

I have also been working on a redesign for the LinkArtist main site and blog, and was planning to launch on July 15, but like mechanics drive shitty cars, and carpenters have a list of jobs to do around their house, I have not found the time to be able to prioritise it. We are also working on a really exciting new project that will be launching soon, so …. watch this space I guess!

If you are feeling neglected by me at the moment, I apologise, elections only come around every 4 years (in theory at least) so I’ll be back on board and replying more reliably to emails in the next week to 2 weeks.

NK & Anna Rose

Jen and Tasj are 2 of Perth’s most talented photographers, and they are my friends and clients (in fact, I take the credit for introducing them - well sorta!), so it makes sense that they have decided to pair up and create their own studio. They wanted a site that was really white, no faffy bits, and I think we managed to come up with a logo and overall site concept that fits their style.

As always, there are still a few tweaks to be made, but overall I am happy with it.

Check them out at nkannarose.com.au

Aksent Photography

Kirsty approached me to create her a custom blog design, with a custom Flash slideshow. I just LOVE what Next-Gen gallery adds to Wordpress. After some customisation, we got the player to do what we wanted. Yay for Flash challenges!

Check it out at aksentphotographyblog.com

Cindy Yen has been a dream client. She came to me through the extremely talented Ellen Petty, who designed her logo and business cards. Despite some delays on my end, Cindy showed tremendous patience, and a great understanding and appreciation for design.

This is another site powered by Wordpress, which is valid XHTML/CSS and all that good kind of stuff It also uses the fantastic NextGen Gallery, which, in my humble opinion, should be used in every single Wordpress install.

Best of luck with your new site, Cindy!

I have been neglecting both of my blogs a bit lately, because I have just been so busy that I haven’t had time to do anything other than work, sleep and (occasionally) parent.

I have a queue of work right now, and the very first (almost) finished project to come out of my head down, bum up couple of months is the redesign of Cahoots’ website.

Cahoots have a great product. They produce hard bound photo books from your digital (or scanned) images, and have great software that is really easy to use. They have a number of options, which depend on how involved you would like to be in the process - from downloading the software yourself, designing and sending the finished product through, to having a book maker produce the design and book for you. They also run workshops, which I think is a great idea for people who want to get started but are not really sure how. They also have some great opportunities for Mums who want to work from home and have a knack for design, so be sure to check them out!

This project was delivered in pretty much record time, and I am proud of the result (which, for me is a pretty big ask seeing as I am highly critical of my work!). I worked with Cahoots’ existing branding and style guide to create a fun, practical and clean design that utilises a lot of really cool features, including a Flash flipping book (after all, they sell real books and we needed to get that across), some neat javascript features, and some really cool work with the Joomla templating system.

There are still some of those inevitable "smoothing out" things to do after going live, but be sure to check it out here:

Click here to visit Cahoots

This project has been an absolute pleasure from start to finish.

I had a good feeling about Tasj from the very first time we met, and it resulted in a project that I am really, really proud of, and I hope brings Tasj more wonderful clients that appreciate her beautiful photography!

As an aside, there really is nothing that makes me happier, than having clients that just… trust me… to do what I think is right for them and their business. It is a tremendous honour, and not something I take lightly. Trust in your designer not only helps the project move a whole lot quicker and MUCH more smoothly, but it also means that your designer will walk to the ends of the earth for you Which is why its so important to find a designer that GETS you.

I learned a lot about my own creative process with this project, and realised that half of the battle is visualising the right solution. The actual designing and coding is just one part of it, but a lot of the time spent on a project is going into a sort of contemplation period, where I think about the client, look at their work, get a sense of what they’re about, and producing a site that not only differentiates them on the web, but also makes them feel genuinely invested and excited about the result. I think this is a part that many people take for granted, or somehow think that a design should be knocked together in Photoshop in 4 hours max… its much, much more than that — and I am getting much more confident in knowing that my vision, 9 times out of 10, pans out

Anyway, Tasj has been the catalyst for this realisation, that I am actually really good at what I do, and I LOVE pushing myself to do better each time. And that’s pretty awesome, coming from the laziest person on the planet!

This site is powered 100% by Wordpress (the geeks will appreciate it), with Tasj having fully updateable galleries, integration between her site content and her blog, and some nifty little tricks thrown in for good measure (refresh the home page a few times and you’ll see that the background image changes every time :))

Anyway, its been an absolute pleasure working with Tasj, and we wish her well, and look forward to her glowing testimonial

Check out the page HERE.

I know what you are going to say. It’s very…pink!

Part of being a designer, and particularly a web designer, is compromise, but is also ultimately delivering something that fits the client’s tastes that might not necessarily be your own :). My initial reaction to the black/hot pink combo was lukewarm, but over time, I think we managed to make it work with a concept that fits Trista’s personality and photographic style. I think the result is a cute, effective and unique website!

Check it out at www.tristalerit.com

I also developed a custom WordPress blog template, fully integrated with the main site, and it includes comments on the index page. This feature will be a part of the template I will be selling next month for $90US, so you also get a sneak preview of the features of that

You can check out the blog HERE.

If anyone ever tells you that you can’t get a full multimedia-based website up in a week, they’re lying. It doesn’t, however, necessarily mean that you SHOULD, and if it happens often enough, you will die of exhaustion, your family will leave you, and you will lead a hopeless shell of an existence.

I can now unveil the new Lisa Loeb site, which is still very much imperfect (we are still adding archived content, as well as more music, videos and the store), but I am nonetheless proud of. The domains are propagating as we speak, just as Lisa prepares for her appearance on my not-so-secret-crush’s show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

I wanted to get the site up and live to take advantage of the inevitable traffic spike after a TV Appearance, plus we have a new CD coming out next week as well… so, I am excited, I am delirious with exhaustion, and I am so out of whack with my work/life balance right now it is insane.

But, it’s worth it.

And, if anyone else asks me to deliver a WHOLE JOOMLA SITE delivered in a week or 2, please, in the nicest possible way, take that cactus over there and please shove it up your rear. Twice.

Go check out www.lisaloeb.com when the domain is working, and buy The Purple Tape on CD. And, if you don’t click on the visuals link and look at the videos and appreciate my work, I will personally come and kill you and your children and your children’s children, because that was a pain in the arse.

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