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WACOSS (Western Australian Council of Social Services) asked me to redesign their main page, which was looking outdated.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??

Let me tell you how I came upon BioShock: a new client liked the 1950’s dark, art deco feel to it, and asked me if I had seen it as a reference for their site design. So, being the ever-selfless businesswoman, I decided to spend some time playing the game to see how it felt. And a conversation like this took place:

Me: “I know I have made it when I get to justify playing games for a client.”

Jason: “No, Téa, you’ll know you’ve made it when you get to charge clients for the hours spent playing the game”.

Man he’s a smartarse.

A couple of weeks later, I have just, right now, finished playing it. And I have to say, I think… I have found the perfect game. Not too hard that it alienates me (Hello Far Cry-where-I-played-the-last-level-in-God-mode-because-I-have-carpal-tunnel-and-suck), and enough depth and choice to the story that keeps my goldfish-like attention span.

I really don’t know that I can fault this game. There are so many ways to play it (and apparently the ending reflects *how* you played the game…of course, I am always the good guy and can’t bring myself to play the bad guy… so I am just going on rumour :))

Anyway, if you haven’t played it yet. DO. IT. NOW.

It is creepy. It is intelligent. And, it is currently 12:35am and I don’t know that I can sleep just yet because I may just have nightmares. But boy, is it fun!

Check out the demo here.

I have just contributed a guest post on Shane & Peter’s great business blog. Go here and check it out!

Since the launch of Justine’s site, I have been working nonstop! If I have been an antisocial beyotch, well, it’s probably because I have literally had to turn off Skype and IM to be able to sit down and concentrate for a block of time. I am really very pleased with the progress I am making since relaunching this site (I will be doing another design as soon as I find the time — my portfolio page is horrible and I need to get on that!).

Right now, I cannot think of anything I would rather be doing than working with my clients, making web pages, and just generally having a ball of a time.

Anyway, I can give you all a few sneak peaks at what I am currently working on:

1. Glo3.com.au

This is a really nifty Australian invention that utilises ozone to completely sterilise and clean boots. Obviously we wouldn’t be keeping it in our wardrobes because it is an industrial thing, but it can be used to dry ski boots, mining boots, and all sorts really. This site is powered by CMS Made Simple and I also illustrated the model on the front page, based on the client’s CAD drawings. Pretty nifty, huh?

Anyway, you can have a look by clicking on the image:

2. Anna Rose Photography

This is currently a work in progress, and one of the many photographers that contacted me after the launch of justineungaro.com . What’s great is that Jen is actually Perth-based and is sweet as pie… so its great! Anyway, because of issues with iiNet there is only a splash page up at the moment, but I think it gives you at least a sneak peek at the direction of the site:

3. Trista Lerit Photography

Another project that I am very excited about! Trista loves florals almost as much as I do, so she’s let me design something purdy and ornate. It is still only at the mock stage, but I thought I’d show you a sneak peek anyway:

I am also doing a few other projects like a CD cover, but I can’t show those yet.

Oh, and I have been asked by the ABC to be profiled as someone with a “cool job”. Will tell you more when I know more!

I just want to get all geeky for a little bit and gush about a new Open Source CMS I have discovered, called CMS Made Simple.  I have been a big fan of Open Source software for years - I use Wordpress here, and have utilised many diferent solutions for different projects.

The two main Open Source CMSes - Joomla and Drupal - while both very powerful - are more often than not overkill for most basic sites that I produce. If you want a full blown CMS with loads of features, both of these will do really well. But I also find them immensely frustrating for many simple tasks. Most of my clients simply want to update pages, perhaps an image or 2 and a file or 2, and maybe want to blog. I was struggling to find a good solution, without hand coding my own or forking out tens of thousands of dollars.

Then, I discovered CMS Made Simple. No bloat, no hassle. As a designer it is flexible enough to make the sites look great, but also powerful enough to be infinitely expandable. And, to top it off, it is a beautiful example of keeping style separate from the content, meaning that it is really accessible to boot.

The best feature that I have found with the CMS is the ability to browse for add-ons (modules) from within the admin panel. One of the most annoying things about the bigger CMSes is finding the time to test and search for new add-ons, and I love love love that I can just click to install it, try it out, and remove it just as easily. Absolutely Fantastic stuff.

Because I am often a one-person development team, I get really excited when I find things that can save me time, and ultimately, save my clients money, and I think that CMS Made Simple is a project that I will throw my weight behind.

I have a few more that I want to test before I commit, but this one is very much a contender!

I have had a few exciting projects this week, but the main one that I want to tell people about is the new website for Justine Ungaro, an awesome photographer based in Los Angeles. She has been really sweet throughout the whole process, and it is clients like her that remind me why I gave up that public service career.

click above to visit the site

I have also done a little bit of tweaking of the main part of this site. Yes, I know, the purists and pedants among you will gasp at the thought of a different design for every page, but for me, it seemed like a nice way to showcase my design ability. Yes, its a little lazy with tables and such, but hey, sometimes, tables just work. So meh

Also, because I tend to get all creative with designs all the time, if I feel the urge to redesign something or try a new colour scheme, instead of doing my whole website now I can do a page. Yeah, it breaks rules, yeah, I know, blah blah, but hey…it’s fun, right?

ummm, not much else that I can divulge at this very second, have been doing a fair bit of Lisa stuff and some other things that I hope to announce shortly, but it’s all loads of fun!

I have also been trying to fit in time to practise the piano and learn some new songs… but there just never seems to be enough time.

Oh, and Jules got a toddler bed. I am sad because my baby, right now, is sleeping in a big boy’s bed.

I got an email from my friend, Former President James Taylor this morning that said:

Hey Téa, just had to share…

I’m disappointed that Trevor didn’t include the screen cap in the lecture notes (I think he respects your IP ;P), but go to page 11 of this PDF and check the references.

We had a look at online writing in Journalism class the other night and, for an example of a personal blog, what came up on the big screen in the lecture theatre but ‘Trash Talk with Tealou’.

I laughed heartily

Just letting you know that your inner most rantings now have even more academic merit

JT

The attached PDF, sure enough, referred to my website as an example. Holy Shit. It is so funny, and also weird, because I have also been copping some flak from my sister and her mates because I called her suburb shitholesville on my blog and they only just found out about it. Heh.

Its funny how you can go on a journey with a blog. It has chronicled some ups and downs, from moving house to having children, to being in the public service and wanting to glass the Town of Esperance in the face with the nearest bottle, to writing about Politics and world affairs, and the odd random quip between me and my equally insane soulmate.

I know it may sound strange, but its not often that my web life and my real life collide. I know it may sound funny when I make my living on the web, but really, it was always just this thing I do, representing my thoughts at the time, random observations about various things, and I have never actually thought that anyone read it, let alone putting it in a Journalism class.

I can think of maybe once or twice where something I have written in the heat of the moment has gotten me in hot water in the “real world”, like the time I upset the in-laws, and I think my mother reads occasionally… and a previous employer called it “Undergraduate but well written” (thanks Jeff!)… but its always just been a place where I let off steam, and a place where I attempt to log what life was like in my 20s. When my grandchildren google me one day, they will see that I was not always reliant on other people to wipe my arse (with the exception of this brief time), and was actually an ok human being.

I actually quite like that little bit of acknowledgment, particularly from a lecturer at my old University. And its not an ego thing, its not even out of a desire to share my stories, but just to have someone that is outside my immediate group in the blogosphere and circle of friends say “hey, look at this” - well, thats pretty cool.

It makes me think that I am kinda on the right track.

Even if my sister’s friends from Leda want to smash my face in for expressing myself, so what? Nothing they write will ever be used in a University classroom. So there.

And Leda IS a shithole.