Portfolio
Graveside Memorials
Murray Dennis runs a stonemason service specialising in cemetry memorials and was looking to gain a presence on the web for his business. With no existing brand colours I opted to create a dignified, clean design to reflect the business type, choosing a dark grey/ granite effect for the body background and a classic dark brown header with subtle gradients to keep the site from appearing too somber. I chose to build a static html/css site and made sure the many product images were shown to their best advantage using jquery to enlarge images, paginate where product numbers made for long pages, and to best fit to the design. A contact form was added to receive web enquiries.
Practical Mobility
Practical Bathing Ltd., sell and install disabled baths and showers and were looking to expand the business by setting up an online store offering other mobility products such as scooters, wheelchairs etc, along with their more established bathing products. I chose Opencart shopping cart software as a platform due to its simplicity and intuitive admin area. One specific requirement was to enable customers who, being exempt from VAT due to disability, to register and subsequent purchase totals to reflect this exemption. Particular attention was given to creating quality product images and data and a simple purchasing procedure. I carried branding colours over from the bathing site in order to promote a professional, safe and trusted feel for the customer.
Fairview Industrial Park
Fairview Industrial Park is an industrial estate in Rainham, Essex housing around 125 companies. They needed a new website that could be updated by themselves when new businesses joined the estate, or to update existing business information. I built the site using Wordpress as a CMS and used plugins to create the company indexing functionality for listing the resident companies by name A-Z, by estate location and by associated industry group. Unit numbers are also indexed and displayed adjacent to an estate plan for visual locating. I made subtle changes to the logo for a more pleasing online appeal, while making sure to use the original logo colours throughout the site for consistency.
Dolce Italia
Dolce italia is an Italian Delicatessen based in Shepperton, Middlesex Uk. They were eager for a web presence to help with marketing and advertising their new business. The overall colour scheme of red, green and white reflects those of the Italian national flag, while appetising images of the various food dishes on sale are spread throughout the site, with emphasis on the home page where the main product line is summarised in boxes. Branding consistency is kept by replicating the font, style and colours of the physical store front in the header logo.
Quintessence Films Ltd.
Quintessence Films is an independent production company based in the South-West run by filmakers Mat Lingard and Robin Toyne. They were eager to have a web site where both potential and existing clients could view their work and as such were looking for a clean, fresh and uncluttered design to allow the company ethos to take centre stage. I opted for a simple well-balanced layout paying particular attention to how users would navigate through the film clip lists knowing that these would be the main attraction for site visitors. The clips, which were first compressed and then inserted along with a flash player, are arranged by genre which are cross-navigable.
Mat Lingard
Mat Lingard writes, produces and directs programmes for television as well as educational and corporate training films. He needed a website to showcase his skills so that potential clients could view his work and download his CV. As he also wanted to update the site himself, a Web Developer colleague built a Content Management System using the Ruby on Rails framework. Mat wanted a clean, modern-looking site that was easy to navigate and that didn't distract users from viewing the video content. I used dark colours and rounded corners for a technical/ modern feel and chose a symmetrical balance for graphics and text.
IT Contracts Finance Ltd.
IT Contracts Finance Ltd., specialise in providing financial market solutions designed to reduce the tax burden on consultants and agencies. They wanted a web site with a modern design to showcase their products, detailing the benefits gained by joining them. On the home page I created a diagonal eye-line starting from the logo and ending at the bottom-right of the page leading to a form field where potential customers can input their email address to receive a free information pack. Linked bullet points are used to highlight potential benefits, and client testimonials are displayed sporadically throughout the site in the left pane.
IFL Management Ltd.
IFL Management Ltd., is an 'umbrella' company providing solutions for contractors. For a minimal monthly fee they take care of contractors' tax legislation issues as well as offering a range of related financial solutions. They were keen to have their existing web site re-designed to promote a more modern, clean feel. The homepage is simple and to the point, showing the immediate benefits for joing IFL as bullet-points, while further benefits and advantages along with an income calculator are shown as metaphorical calls-to-action in the side columns.
