LinkArtist Multimedia - The Blog

I have been going about my usual business, working my arse off, the usual, and have discovered that my host is having intermittent issues - if you consider “intermittent” to mean “no-mail-server-emails-for-2-weeks”.

It was strange, because I usually get a lot of enquiries, but this week have not received any! SO Annoying!

So, if you have tried to email via the Enquiry form, I hope you read the blog, because you can email me direct at tea@linkartist.com.au instead. In the meantime, I have been reassured that the email server will eventually be fixed and I HOPE that the queued emails get through…

And yes, I will have a non-boring, non-business related blog post later in the week

Be the first to Comment »

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.

4 Comments »

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.

3 Comments »

I have found that people can be surprised when quoted our price for web design, but the simple matter is that our services are worked out at $100.00 an hour which is, more or less, an industry standard. Web design, and then redesign, can greatly increase the price when you take in the fact that a page design, by itself, can take eight hours or more to create. Add together coding and all the other bells and whistles that make up a unique site and you have your price.

In the end you get a site, tailored to you and your business, which is unique. Your site becomes your front line in marketing your business and can generate you thousands upon thousand of dollars over the life of the site. Is that not worth paying for?

Two web sites, both belonging to design companies, were sent to me this morning that really show that you get what you pay for. One is in English and the other is German but both could be one and the same. The both want your business and both are cheaper than LinkArtist Multimedia, way cheaper.

I’ll talk mostly about the one in English as I can read their site but it’s not that hard to navigate the German site for reasons I will point out.

OK, example 1. Joyvill Inc.

On first impressions, Joyvill’s site is nice and clean. It’s jam packed full of all those buzz word that you expect to find from some of our competitors. Straight away you know where they are located and that they know what Search Engine Optimizations is.

The front page then goes on to things you should already expect, like a site that will impress your competition and your clients will be able to use. Would you expect anything else?

OK so sounds pretty good huh? A cheap easy to use, pretty site from a ‘Web Design’ company! Where do I sign? Not so fast!

Example 2 Design Bits

Have you clicked on the link yet? Notice anything? I’ll make it easier.

Kinda similar huh! There is a reason for this. They use templates for their ‘design’. Both sites come from the same template then are populated with content specific to their own site. If I had a template to use, I’m pretty sure that I could knock up that site in five hours or so. Five times $100.00 equals $500.00 not ‘from $1600.00′! So it’s easy to see where the profit is.

But what if both businesses are connected and or owned by the same group? I did consider that and it could be true. Instead I took a look at their previous work. Now using what you know about internet templates, do you see any similarities?

Basically it comes down to this. You get what you pay for. If you like what these guys are selling then how about this.

1. Go to Template Monster , Free Site Templates or one of the many other thousands of template sites on the net.

2. Pay between $25 and $65 for a basic template.

3. Using Google or any other search engine to hunt out step by step information you need to upload and populate your very own site!

4. Enjoy. Just don’t worry when you see a copy of your site somewhere else.

1 Comment »

I spend Christmas week sick with tonsillitis. It was so bad that I didn’t manage to eat anything for 5 day and missed out on the best thing of Christmas, the food! Finally, just before 7PM on Boxing Day I let Téa take me to an after hours GP, 20 minutes from our house.

The service at the after hours GP was great! We didn’t need an appointment and there was only 3 people waiting ahead of us. We waited about 40 minutes to been seen and the quality of the Doctor was amazing. She actually cared about me and the rest of the family. She checked everybody out to make sure they weren’t as sick as me and then she gave me a booster injection of antibiotics for no extra charge because the pills she prescribed wouldn’t take effect for a day or two! The visit cost more then my regular GP but I’m sure I would have paid double for it!

Compare that to my regular GP.

Téa, feeling sick herself, tried to make an appointment at our regular Doctors the day after. Firstly she was told that she would have to wait three days (She never went to the Dr’s because by the time the 3 days were up she felt good enough to not go!). Secondly if she had gone she would have been met with a challenge like this.

Our local GP has about 12 Dr’s names on the front of the building but there are only ever 2 or 3 there. Even though you have an appointment that you have been waiting for for days you are still made to wait for upwards of an hour! It’s easy to sit down in the waiting room and think that even though there are 30 people waiting there are so many Dr’s that you wont be waiting to long. It’s not till you notice that only 3 Dr’s ever come out, calling patients names, that you realize that everybody is there to see the same Dr as you!

Finally you get to see your Dr and he has exactly 2 minutes with you which he spends thinking about something or someone else! Its rushed beyond belief.

At the end you pay almost as much as if you went to the after hours GP but you have this feeling that something was lacking. Service and consideration maybe?

I remember when I was talking to the after hours GP she said that she would send her report to my regular GP. Well I don’t think I want my regular GP! I want the after hours GP as my regular GP!

3 Comments »

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

Be the first to Comment »

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.

2 Comments »

LOL — I can TOTALLY relate to this one!

FlowChart

Thanks to Tommy for the link

Be the first to Comment »

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??

3 Comments »

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.

1 Comment »