Who Has Control?

One of the common points of resistance on the part of designers is the perceived lack of control.  The concern is that if they can’t control with pixel-perfect accuracy the way something is displayed on the internet, then their design would be compromised or might simply not work.  What can too easily be dismissed as control freakery can be logically traced right back to the days where print design was the dominant medium.  Back then, designers could more or less control how people viewed their work, because it was in print.  Everything from the font, colours, resolution and the material or substrate that it is printed on was under complete control of the designer within the constraints of the project’s budget.  The reality now though is that with the internet none of these things can be controlled by the designer.  Not one.  They can be heavily influenced for sure, but never guaranteed.

Faced with the advent of the internet and subsequent decline of the print industry, designers simply took their work processes and applied them to the internet and at the time this made sense since there was no order to the internet at all, and this seemed like a good way of imposing it.  This is why we still hear and work with print-related terminology that has been applied to the web (points, guttering, etc).  But treating the web as if it is a screen version of a magazine or brochure does not really work very well.

As an example, consider a simple web design that consists of text only.  As we know, that website can be viewed on any number of devices and viewports.  Even if you were to create a fixed-width design, different devices will still render the website differently.  If we attempt to create an identical experience on all devices then assumptions will have to be made – assumptions which will invariably be wrong for the majority of users, given the huge variety of viewing platforms and settings available.  A Windows machine displays text slightly differently from a Mac, for example, because the text is rendered differently on each platform.  There is an excellent article over on Smashing Magazine that discusses the detail of font rendering on different platforms, and differences exist even between browsers on the same operating system.  And this is with so-called ‘web safe’ fonts!  What about the exciting new world of web fonts from Google Fonts and Adobe Typekit, amongst others?  (And I really mean it when I say exciting – RIP image replacement!).  Just to confuse matters further, consider the wonderful new world of retina display which not only exists on mobile devices but now on laptops as well.  The fact of the matter is that you cannot control the way users view even the most basic elements of your design on the web – so please stop trying.

Google Fonts Example

A giant leap forward for web fonts.

What it all boils down to is content.  On the internet, content is king.  It is the lifeblood of the internet and links are the glue that holds it all together.  Without either of these things, there is no internet.  You could have the best website design in the world but without relevant content no one will care.  So, if you design a website for a single use case (ie desktop display) so that it is fantastic in one situation but rubbish in all others, then you are cutting out a huge swathe of your potential audience.  If you do not cater for the entire audience, then the website will fail.  Your client will wonder why their Google ranking is number 537 and no one is buying stuff from them, signing up for their service, sharing their carefully crafted content or whatever it is that they have set out to do.  So, in the end you do have to compromise somewhat.  Accept a slightly simpler interface on smaller devices to cater for the 30% (or thereabouts) of the market that are currently using mobile, but keep the full-on-design-fest widescreen site for desktop devices.  This way, you can still be your usual creative self, without denying a decent user experience to a large and growing segment of your audience.

And then there are clients.  Some clients still cling to the notion that their website should look exactly the same on all devices and browsers.  This pixel-perfect expectation has been largely created by the practice of showing clients Photoshop designs early on in the design process.  They (quite reasonably) expect the end product to be the same.  The answer to this is simply education, and ditching the reliance on Photoshop mockups in the development process.

So, how do we do this?  How do we ditch Photoshop?  After all, there is no ‘Photoshop in the Browser’.  The solution is to not ditch Photoshop at all, but simply change the way it is used.  Instead of the pixel-perfect mockups of yesteryear, we can use it to help develop a ‘Visual Language’.  One way of doing this is with the use of ‘Style Tiles’ which are like visual snippets of design somewhere between a mood board and a fully-fledged mock-up.  Think Dribbble but with your own design work – after all, everyone loves Dribbble, right?  There is an excellent article about style tiles, complete with a handy .psd template for starting your own right here.

Dribbble website

Beautiful things live here.

One of the common complaints about responsive web design is that the designs tend to be quite simple and minimal.  Now, I’m not saying that simplicity is a bad thing (often it is a great thing), but I completely understand this.  I believe there are two reasons for this approach:

  1. Necessity.  The simple fact is, there is less screen real estate on mobile devices so some degree of simplicity is going to be necessary.  This does not, however, mean that the widescreen experience should be similarly simplistic.
  2. At the moment, responsive web design is firmly in the domain of developers because the design process usually happens in the browser.  Unfortunately, we all know what happens when developers are responsible for design.

So, based on the first reason we have established that design is still very important, and that it should not be left entirely up to non-design oriented developers to do the design work, as illustrated in the second point.  Quite simply, designers need to be involved.  This is why, irrespective of how things have been done in the past, designers and developers need to collaborate right from the start or it just won’t work. Communication is the name of the game here – and communication is where traditionally things have fallen down.  A little ironic, considering the fact that the internet is the greatest communications technology ever invented in the history of the world.

Next up is how we can start to bridge the communications gap…

    Photoshop or Design in the Browser?

    So now that we have concluded that we should design a single website that can cater for all devices both now and hopefully in the future, and that responsive web design is how we are going to achieve this, how do we actually make it happen?  How does this work?

    Photoshop or Design in the Browser?

    Photoshop or Design in the Browser?

    First, we need to consider designing the thing.  The tools that we currently use don’t work very well in this brave new world of many, many devices.  There is a lot of debate on the internet at the moment about whether or not we should be designing in the browser and bypassing Photoshop, with some articles even suggesting that Photoshop should be killed.  Some other articles take the opposite view, suggesting that innovation on the web would be stifled or stop completely if everyone simply stuck to designing in the browser, the argument being mainly that this was how things used to be done before everyone started using Photoshop, and it was only the advent of using non-web based tools that pushed the limits of what was possible on the internet and even spurred on browser and CSS development to accommodate these new design trends. In many instances Photoshop was a necessary tool in the absence of anything better.

    Flash logo

    Remember Flash?

    In much the same way that Flash filled a massive gap in the internet 5-10 years ago, Photoshop has been doing something similar, but for longer.  Photoshop at its’ heart is an fully featured photo editor which has been co-opted for use in other ways that it was not originally intended for, because it turns out it does other things quite well.  And one of those things is web design.  If you know how to use Photoshop, and the majority of designers will fall into this category, it is quick and easy to mock up a website design and just about anything else that you set your mind to.  For the rest of us, it is an overly complicated, bloated pain-in-the-backside piece of software sent from hell that makes simple tasks really, really hard.  But this is hardly surprising considering that the thing is called ‘Photoshop’, not ‘Web Design Shop’ or something similar.  Photoshop creates static things, whereas the web is dynamic.

    Code example

    This is really, really scary for many people.

    I write this from a developer’s perspective of course.  A designer’s perspective tends to be the polar opposite of this – use Photoshop and other design-oriented tools for all design work, minimising any exposure to code.  The final design then gets sent to a developer to make it actually happen, pixel-perfect (naturally).  Most designers I know have little or no desire to learn HTML and CSS or anything else besides – all of which gets lumped under the really scary heading ‘code’.  Leave that to the developers they say!

    The trouble with both of these approaches is that this creates a very clear line dividing designers and developers, and with the rapid growth in the popularity of responsive web design this approach will not work in future.  Designers and developers are going to have to start to learn and understand a little of each other’s craft in order to allow them to work together on projects, rather than in silos which is the current process for many.

    Of course, there are many web professionals out there who are perfectly capable of doing both – the popular assumption that designers can’t code and developers can’t design is so flawed I don’t even know where to begin.  This misconception is perpetrated in many larger agencies who deliberately separate the design and development processes, but in smaller businesses and the freelance community, the ability to turn your hand to both design and development is your bread and butter, frankly.  There is a logic to both design and development that complement each other.  I, for example, have come from a developer background but have had to learn about design out of necessity.  And imagine my surprise when I found that I actually really enjoyed it!  It is not written in stone that ‘thou shalt code’ and ‘thou shalt design’.

    The main reason why I prefer to design in the browser is that it is far more productive if you know your way around HTML and CSS.  Why waste time doing an entire design in Photoshop, only to then do it again in HTML/CSS?  This is an inefficient waste of time and resources which grows exponentially with the current trend towards responsive web design.  This only adds to the cost of the project which either gets passed to the client, which is not a good idea if you want to remain competitive in today’s market, or swallowed by the agency – again, a bad idea.  And when it comes down to it, the bottom line is what keeps the lights on.  Interestingly, 37signals have been doing this since at least 2008.

    So, where do we go from here?  We have two very different approaches to the same problem but neither one solves it adequately.  In the next post we will explore the issues over control and implementation of new design processes.

      The Future of Web Design

      This is the first in a series of articles about where we think web design is heading and how to respond to the changes that are heading our way, as well as some that have already arrived.  We will explore the rise of what has become known as ‘Responsive Web Design’, the concept of designing in the browser vs Photoshop, designers learning about code and developers learning about design, brochure websites and other such wonderfully controversial subjects.  Today we’ll dive right in by having a look at Responsive Web Design.

      Responsive Web Design (RWD) is now firmly a Really Big Deal.  I would go as far as to say that it has achieved ‘Rock Star Status’ in the industry.  Industry publication .Net magazine has written so much about it lately that they received a tweet from a reader complaining that they might as well call themselves “Responsive Web Design Magazine” (to which .Net replied that they plan on even more responsive articles in 2013).  RWD is controversial, for reasons that we will shortly be discussing, but it is definitely not a fad as some have suggested – whether you like it or not, RWD is here to stay.

      Responsive Website Example

      Catering for many different devices.

      For those who haven’t heard of RWD, it is quite simply the concept of designing websites that adapt themselves for display on an assortment of devices possessing varying screen sizes, capabilities and connections.  So the old practice of designing for the desktop user who has an always plugged-in superfast broadband connection and expecting the mobile user to access and download exactly the same content on their small-screen device with a variable strength, capped bandwidth connection (possibly incurring overage fees) is no longer acceptable.

      Until recently, the makeshift solution of developing two websites – one for desktop and another one for mobile (which invariably has limited functionality compared with the desktop site), has been the industry’s solution.  The problem with this option is twofold:

      1. It is expensive.  You get to pay for two websites and their overheads, not one!
      2. You get to maintain two websites now!  Not only does all new content have to be duplicated, but changes to existing content as well.  What a pain.

      Nevertheless, this solution no longer works because the basic assumption that the mobile user is ‘on-the-go’ and time-limited and therefore not requiring full functionality is fundamentally flawed.  Mobile usage happens everywhere now – very often in the home, sitting on the couch watching television whilst using a mobile phone or a tablet to surf the net.  In this setting, people are time rich and don’t want a watered-down experience and become frustrated when this is what they are served.  We need to cater for the way people actually use the internet, not the way that we think they do based on some outdated concept of people’s behaviour.

      Responsive Web Design Book

      A great place to start learning about Responsive Web Design.

      The whole concept of RWD was effectively born on the 25th of May 2010, or at least it was first codified, in a sense, on this date.  This is the day that the seminal article, ‘Responsive Web Design’ by Ethan Marcotte, was published on A List Apart.   If you haven’t read it, you should.  In fact, why not read it now?  Just don’t forget to come back after!  This is the article that started it all, and since then there have been countless other articles, blogs and even books about the subject, and the list grows longer by the day.

      The gist of it is that you build one website that caters for the myriad of devices available today.  One website, many devices.  Instead of making assumptions about users’ devices, we instead make the assumption that every user will use a device that is different from every other user.  By doing this, we not only accept the reality that we cannot control the viewport, but also that even if we did specifically target everything that exists today, we cannot possibly target that which will exist tomorrow.

      iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone 5, iPhone 4

      Many, many devices.

      Let’s take a closer look at that last statement.  Even if we did create separate websites for mobile and desktop, how do we know that the so-called ‘mobile’ site will actually render correctly on a mobile device?  The most common request is for an ‘iPhone’ website.  This is understandable given the massive popularity of the iPhone, but is this a safe baseline to use?  Consider all the variants of iPhone out there – going back to the iPhone 3G with it’s non-retina display, then the iPhone 4 with its retina display, and now we have the iPhone 5 with its extra tall screen which is the same in portrait, but – wait for it – turn it sideways and discover that your carefully planned landscape display is now too narrow.  Ever tried accessing a website from your iPad only to find that you are directed to the mobile site?  What a pain, eh?  Not appropriate!  So, we make an iPad website as well.  But do we cater for just the first and second generation iPad which, like the iPhone 3G are non-retina, or for the newer ones which are?  And now there’s the iPad Mini to cater for (non-retina).  And the Kindle Fire (non-retina). And the Kindle Fire HD (retina).  How about Android?  Hmm let me count the different devices, we have the Samsung Galaxy, the HTC Evo, the Motorola Droid, Nexus 7, HTC Desire, Sony Ericsson Xperia, and so on.  And then there are all the Blackberry devices.  You get the picture.  Do you really want to design separate mobile sites to cover all of these?  Forget it, you’ll go crazy just in the planning, let alone the actual implementation.

      This large and ever-growing number of devices poses a major problem for designers and developers alike because traditional industry workflows and practices simply don’t work when faced with the concept of almost infinitely variable display sizes.  In our next post we will discuss some techniques that are currently being used to deal with this, as well as the pitfalls associated with them.

        New Website – MacDonald Martin Fire and Safety Consultants

        macdonald martin screenshots

         

        Macdonald Martin are a total fire protection company who provide fire risk assessments and fire safety training as well as the design, installation and maintenance of fire alarms, emergency lights and fire extinguishers.  When MacDonald Martin came to us, they presented us with a familiar problem.  They had a website that had been updated as recently as last year, but their developer had disappeared.  They were very keen to update information contained on their site but were unsure of how to do so as much of the site was proprietary, meaning that it wasn’t built on any recognisable framework or CMS.   Because of this, the site was very difficult to maintain by anyone other than the original developer, whereabouts unknown.

        In order to solve this problem in a cost-effective and timely fashion, we offered to ‘port’ their existing content to the much more user-friendly and popular WordPress CMS, thus giving them the ability to update and maintain their own content without having to worry about being tied to a developer ever again.  In the process, we gave the site a general ‘refresh’ whilst retaining the majority of the existing content.  We also made it responsive, so that it looks great on many different devices.

        View The Website

          Practising What We Preach

          At 49digital we believe that the best of the web should be available to everyone, not just those with the deepest pockets.  A decent website is the foundation of a great marketing strategy, yet time and time again we encounter amazing businesses that have terrible websites, and they wonder why it isn’t working for them.  Invariably, their websites were either sold to them as a ‘starter’ or a ‘brochure’ website at a knockdown price, or given away free with business bank account, or developed by a relative who no longer has the time to maintain it, or a developer who has disappeared.  In other cases, people were sold quite expensive websites that were built with yesterday’s technology, cost a fortune to maintain and, frankly, completely fail to deliver results that match the investment put into them.

          This has to stop.  Bring on the revolution!

          We believe that every business should have a decent website.  A website that reflects the incredible passion and hard work that is put into the business day-in and day-out.  A website that clearly states the company’s values and what it is that they do without distraction.  A website that earns its keep and actually convinces people to give their business to you.  A website that is easy to maintain, edit and build on as your business grows.  A website that looks fantastic no matter what sort of device it is viewed on.

          This is what we do.  We have been very busy lately doing exactly this for a number of businesses and will be launching several new websites shortly.  But, in the meantime, we thought that we had better do the same for our own website.  The previous one was good, but the new one is great.  It more accurately reflects who we are as a company and our vision for the future of the web.  The previous site wasn’t responsive, the new one is.  This means that it looks just as great on your phone as it does on your widescreen desktop.  This is how we build all of our websites now.

          Over the next few weeks we will be posting a series of articles about the future of web design, social marketing, search engine optimisation and how your business can benefit from these very important things.

          Stay tuned!

           

            Five Important Questions To Ask Your Web Developer

            As a web development company, we are used to potential clients asking us lots of important questions regarding what should be included on their website, how we build sites that fit their specific business requirements as well as how easy it is going to be to update.  All understandable really considering they are paying us to provide them with a site that not only looks fantastic but also lasts more than six months, is easy to use and update as well as being search engine friendly and legal! So, we thought we’d put together a list of the five most common questions that clients ask us before we get started on a new website (as well as our answers of course!) If you have any further questions that we haven’t addressed please leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to give you an answer asap!

            1) Will My Website Be Cookie Compliant?

            You may have noticed that when visiting various websites over the last few months a message appears stating something along the lines of, ‘This site uses cookies, please click OK to accept’ (or something along those lines!) At the end of May this year, the UK implemented an EU Directive which states that all websites using cookies must display a message, like the one above, on the site. Hubspot have a great guide on cookie compliance that is definitely worth a read. Although this sounds complicated it really isn’t and your web developer should be able to do this for you quickly and inexpensively. Don’t be persuaded into paying large amounts of money for a so-called ‘cookie audit’. It’s not necessary and you’ll end up paying way more than you need to! However, making your site legal is necessary so get in touch with your developer and get it sorted!

            2) Can You Make My Site Responsive?

            The number of people using mobile devices to access the web has more than doubled since 2010. And, by mobile devices we mean any smartphone, tablet or laptop! So, what is a responsive site? Well, take a look at your site on a desktop then on a tablet, then a smartphone. Does your site adapt to the differences in screen size or do you have to squint to see any of the content? If you have to squint or ‘pinch’ the screen to make the site readable then it’s likely that your site isn’t responsive.  For a straightforward, no-nonsense guide to responsive web design, check out this guide by John Polacek. We are getting an increasing number of clients who come to us to deliver a responsive website. They are smart! When a site is responsive it automatically optimizes the layout of the site for the size of screen on which it is being viewed. For example, we recently built this site for a dental recruitment agency in London.

            This is how Confident Recruitment’s client page looks on a laptop screen.

            Confident Recuitment – Client page as viewed on a laptop screen

             

            Compare that to the screenshot below of the same page as viewed on an iPad:

            Confident Recruitment – Client page as viewed on the iPad screen

             

            And on an iPhone:

            Confident Recruitment – Client page as viewed on an iPhone screen.

            Notice that the page has automatically optimized for a smaller screen, and, rather than the navigation bar being squeezed into a small screen it is easy to read and navigate from. On scrolling down the page, the image and text are also optimized and much easier to read.

            3) What Happens If You Disappear?

            49digital disappear? We don’t think so! However, if we had a pound for every client who has told us about how their previous developer has disappeared off the face of the earth we’d be, well, doing alright! Seriously, we hear it more and more. Some clients might only have had that website for a matter of months, want to make an update – be it an image or a new product or a new member of staff, try and contact their developer to make what are essentially minor changes, but can no longer contact them. This usually results in a bill for a completely new website. We build our sites on WordPress – an open-source platform that can be easily transferred to another WordPress developer should you need to. So, there should be no need to start again or be faced with a big bill. We strongly believe that although we have developed your site, it belongs to you. So, although we’re not going anywhere – you can!

            4) Am I Going to Need to Pay for a New Website in Six Month’s TIme?

            No! If your site is built on an open-source platform such as WordPress or Drupal then you really shouldn’t be paying out for a new site every time you want to make a change or add something to your site. Unless you feel confident enough to make minor changes yourself you may want to employ your developer to do it for you – any costs should be considerably less than having a new site built every time you want to add a new product!  So, in a nutshell, do your research. It may just be worthwhile paying a little more for an open-source content management system rather than a static site when you start your business, re-brand or just feel like a new website!

            5) Can I Update The Site Myself?

            We may be talking ourselves out of a job here but we feel like we’ve really achieved something when we hand the keys of a new site to it’s owners! We always offer basic training to our clients or, alternatively, support for those who can’t or don’t want to. One of the many reasons that we develop using open-source platforms is ease of use – both for visitors to the site and site owners. So, when you’re shopping around for a developer ask whether you will be given the keys to the site and the option to make your own updates. If the answer is no, then look elsewhere!

              9 Ways to Create and Share Great Content

              1. Make your content valuable

              Writing something for the sake of writing something is of no use to anyone and has been a waste of your time. Read your content (or watch it if on YouTube!) and ask yourself if this is information that you would find valuable. Do you offer new ideas? A point of view? Is it a little controversial? Maybe you want to share something that has worked for your business. Whatever it is, make sure that it’s so valuable to your readers that they want share it with their followers!

              2. Be engaging

              If someone leaves a comment on your content make sure to reply by thanking them or answering questions as soon as you can after they’ve posted. It only takes a few seconds but it’ll make such a difference! Social media is all about engagement so, if a Twitter follower re-tweets a link to your content, take a moment to thank them. Remember, they think your content is worth sharing with their followers!

               

              3. Keep it fresh

               

              Keep your content as up to date as possible. Old news isn’t going to attract new followers or keep loyal readers interested. Make sure to keep on top of what’s going on in your area of interest or business and be the first to broadcast breaking news to your followers!

               

              4. Keep it relevant

              Is the content relevant to your industry? Does it refer to current trends, issues (good and bad) and industry news? Does it solve an industry specific problem, promote an event or offer advice? If not, don’t write it!

               

              5. Be and expert, not a salesperson

              There’s nothing worse than reading a blog that’s been crammed with keywords in order to reach the dizzy heights of Google’s number one spot and sell, sell, sell.. However, with the recent release of Google’s Penguin algorithm those days are, thankfully, numbered. In other words, search engines are getting cleverer and are now penalizing sites (and content) that don’t make the grade. So, be an expert – offer advice, share ideas and engage with your customers. Traditional SEO (based on the size of your wallet!) just won’t cut it anymore.

               

              6. Know who your audience are

              Naturally, the advertising industry have this down to a tee. Ever seen an advert for Barbie in the middle of Grand Designs or an advert for perfume in the middle of Postman Pat? No? Well, we all know that these huge advertising agencies have teams of marketing and product experts working together in order to make sure that not only is the advert relevant but it also reaches the right audience. Quite simply, it doesn’t matter how wonderful your content (or product) is, if the right people aren’t seeing it then what’s the point? Do some research – who might be interested in what you have to say?

               

              7. Keep it regular

               

              You’re blogging every week and you have followers! Fantastic! Here comes the hardest bit – keeping it coming on a regular basis. We advise our clients to publish a blog on a weekly basis, post to Facebook bi-weekly and Twitter three times daily. If you’re serious about growing your customer base and increasing brand awareness then keeping a steady stream of quality news and updates going is essential. See my previous blog on dormant Facebook pages for examples of how not to do it!

               

              8. Vary your content

              You may have heard of a small, up and coming social networking platform called Pinterest? ; ) Yep, it’s doing rather well these days! Visual content is a big deal at the moment and not taking advantage of platforms that give you the opportunity to share images or video with your ‘fans’  is just crazy. Instagram is a great tool with which to take your own images and give them a ‘feel’ with a choice of filters. Wherever possible , this is where my blog images come from! Please don’t stop writing though. All I’m saying is that varying how you present your content over a range of platforms is going to gain you more followers – as long as it’s good!

               

              9. Share it!

              So you’ve spent precious time writing your blog, designing your info graphic or making a promotional video. Now what? Share it, that’s what!! Let the world hear what you have to say by posting links via all your social networking platforms. Post a video to your YouTube Channel or your Facebook page, link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to make sure that one post becomes two! Add any images from your blog to your Pinterest board. most  Make sure that when users have read what you have to say, you give them the opportunity to share it by providing a variety of sharing buttons under each post.

                New Website: Confident Recruitment

                It’s been another busy week at 49digital and we are proud to unveil a brand new website for our clients, Confident Recruitment.

                 

                Confident Recruitment are a specialist dental and medical recruitment agency based in London who supply medical practices in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.  Confident came to us with a challenge – they are a rapidly growing business and they had outgrown their website.  The brief for us was to simplify their site – both the front-end and the back-end, and make it much easier to keep the site up-to-date, implement a blogging feature and optimise the site for SEO.

                 

                On their previous site, the one thing it was really hard to do was look for and apply for jobs.  Considering that Confident are in the business of recruitment, this was certainly a failing of the website that had to be put right – ASAP.  So, we decided to take the site right back to basics – put the jobs front & centre and get rid of anything that did not directly relate to medical industry job-search.  Our goal was to make it as easy as possible for candidates to find and apply for jobs.  We believe we have done this.

                 

                 

                As well as building in a powerful job search function, we built this website using responsive design techniques so that it looks just as good (if not even better!) on tablet and mobile devices so that job-seekers will find it much easier and pleasurable to search for jobs no matter where they are, or what device they are using.

                 

                Confident Recruitment are the go-to medical recruitment agency in the UK and now they have a website which reflects this.

                 

                Why not check it out at www.confidentrecruitment.co.uk?

                  Our Newest Shopify Site – My Cupcake Toppers

                  Well, what a day it’s been.  Two sites that we’ve been working on go live in the same day!

                   

                  We are very pleased to have been asked to provide the theme for mycupcaketoppers.co.uk - Shopify’s newest shop, which produces delicious, edible toppers for cupcakes, fairy cakes and celebration cakes.

                   

                  This was a really fun project to work on.  Bright colours, fun fonts and above all, vibrant images of delicious cupcakes gave us a craving for these tasty treats!  From a development point of view it was a joy to work on a Shopify site – it’s amazing how powerful the platform is, and how quick and easy it is to set up a great-looking site in such a short period of time.

                   

                  We wish My Cupcake Toppers every success with their new online shop.  Why not check them out at www.mycupcaketoppers.co.uk?

                    Our Newest Website – Janet Hill, Artist.


                    Today we are very proud to unveil the new website for our client, Janet Hill.

                     

                    Janet is an extremely talented artist whose work is both elegant, yet whimsical, often with an underlying narrative that instantly captures the imagination.  Her beautiful painting style evokes a sense of nostalgia, comfort, mystery and humour and it is no surprise that her work is becoming very well known around the world.

                     

                    Janet’s current website hasn’t changed much for a number of years.  It was a combination of an earlier legacy website and a newer WordPress site bolted on to the old framework.  Over time, this legacy framework became fragmented and broken and quite difficult to update.  We felt that Janet deserved a new website designed to showcase her work in a way that compliments, rather than detracts from it.  Her work required a showcase that was both elegant and stylish – a little less artsy-crafty and a little more Tiffany & Co!  This was quite a tall order, but with such fantastic material to work I believe that we have managed to achieve what we set out to do – create a beautiful, clean, elegant showcase for Janet’s work.

                     

                    You can enjoy Janet’s work at www.janethillstudio.com.