Blowsie.com http://blowsie.com Freelance Designer & Coder Based in th U.K. Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:28:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 6 Brilliant Wordpress Plugins http://blowsie.com/blog/10-brilliant-wordpress-plugins/ http://blowsie.com/blog/10-brilliant-wordpress-plugins/#comments Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:54:16 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=209 The endless amounts of brilliant wordpress plugins never seizes to amaze me. Web developers world wide share their often sincerly well produced plugins to Wordpress’s users fingertips for a better web experience.
Over the last few years I’ve almost been able to find a Wordpress plugin for almost everything, here are some of the Plugins I often come back to which are what I consider to be some of the very best out there.

Google XML Sitemaps

All in One SEO Pack

NextGEN Gallery

Contact Form 7

Flutter

Ultimate Google Analytics

]]> http://blowsie.com/blog/10-brilliant-wordpress-plugins/feed/ 0 Building Log Book http://blowsie.com/portfolio/building-log-book/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/building-log-book/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:14:48 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=20 The site is designed to provide an on line storage facility for your building related information. Using a simple interface users can create, upload, store and share data.

Designed to construction industry standards in compliance with Building Regulations legislation, the information can be used by both building professionals and end users alike.

]]> http://blowsie.com/portfolio/building-log-book/feed/ 0 Chelmsford Ravers Association http://blowsie.com/portfolio/chelmsford-ravers-association/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/chelmsford-ravers-association/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:24:38 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=63 The Chelmsford Ravers is a group of organizers that host and promote various club nights in Essex. Along side various flyers and other promotional content, I have produced them with a Wordpress based website. The website allows them to Add and Edit their content on regular basis, which keeps their regular party go-ers informed of what nights are in-line for them.


Site Features

  • Events Manager
  • DJ Profiles
  • Media Section for music & video
  • Photo Gallery
  • And Much much more…

Images

Testimonial

‘Ever since we decided to give Sam the task of creating a taylor made website for our organisation, we have been nothing short of thoroughly impressed with the quality & efficiency of the service provided. After meeting us to find out what we wanted & in turn using his experience to give us different ideas, Sam went about the task and came up with exactly what we had hoped for, well within the timescale we required the site to be completed in. Sam’s service has not just stopped here either. He has constantly maintained the site and modernised it along the way, ensuring that it has not become dated and is always looking fresh. We would confidently recommend Sam’s service to anyone.’

]]> http://blowsie.com/portfolio/chelmsford-ravers-association/feed/ 0 10 Design Web Applications I adore http://blowsie.com/blog/10-design-web-applications/ http://blowsie.com/blog/10-design-web-applications/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:29:24 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=51 From mocking up designs online in Pixlr to tracking your website hits and statistcs in Google Analytics there’s always a web application that can be used to make your design process more efficient. Here are some of the Web Applications I use most to provide a better experience for me as a designer, the client and the end user.

  1. Favicon.CC

    “favicon.cc is a tool to create or download favicon.ico icons, that get displayed in the address bar of every browser.”

  2. Pxtoem.com

    “PXtoEM.com is px to em conversion made simple. Choose your body font size in pixels (px)and out comes a complete pixel (px) to em conversion table, making elastic web design with CSS a snap”

  3. Pixlr Editor

    “Pixlr is a free online photo editor. Fix, adjust and filter your images. Manage your images in your browser, no registration jump right in!”

  4. Type Tester

    “The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to make web designer’s life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems, the list of the common fonts will be updated.”

  5. Vector Magic

    “Easily Convert Bitmap Images To Clean Vector Art
    Convert bitmap images like JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs to the crisp, clean, scalable vector art of EPS, SVG, and PDF with the world’s best auto-tracing software.    “

  6. Adobe Browser Lab

    “An easier, faster solution for cross-browser testing
    Preview and test your webpages on leading browsers and operating systems – on demand. Adobe BrowserLab makes it easier and faster than ever before to see how your designs appear to your customers and audience. Get your results in real time, from virtually any computer connected to the web.”

  7. Adobe Kuler

    “Explore, create and share color themes.
    Discover Adobe® Kuler™ — the web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you’re creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community.”

  8. Google Analytics

    “Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.“

  9. CSS Optimizer

    “Online CSS Optimizer/Optimiser is a web tool for reducing the file size of cascading style sheets. In order to save more space optimized files would be messy even so you may output it as a file. Non-valid or hacked (for certain browsers) CSS files may result in error.“

  10. Mesh

    “With Live Mesh, you can synchronize files with all of your devices, so you always have the latest versions handy. Access your files from any device or from the web, easily share them with others, and get notified whenever someone changes a file.”

]]> http://blowsie.com/blog/10-design-web-applications/feed/ 0 10 Firefox Developer Add-ons I adore! http://blowsie.com/blog/10-firefox-developer-add-ons/ http://blowsie.com/blog/10-firefox-developer-add-ons/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:15:31 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=29 With over 1 Billion downloads, Mozilla’s Firefox has proven to be once of the most effective and best performing web browser available.
There are a huge selection of plug-ins available to suit every ones needs from plug-ins which make the end users experience a customized and enhanced experience.
The plugins I am writing about today are simply my favorite plugins I use as a developer.

  1. Firebug

    “Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page..”

  2. Web Developer

    “The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.”

  3. Pixel Perfect

    “Pixel Perfect is a Firefox/Firebug extension that allows web developers and designers to easily overlay a web composition over top of the developed HTML.”

  4. YSlow

    “YSlow analyzes web pages and why they’re slow based on Yahoo!’s rules for high performance web sites.”

  5. Dust Me Selectors

    “Finds unused CSS selectors.”

  6. ColorZilla

    “Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies..”

  7. Pixlr

    “Open images and screen grabs from the web direct in the pixlr image editor or pixlr photo express.

    Edit your photos directly in your browser “

  8. CodeBurner

    “CodeBurner is a Firefox add-on that integrates with Firebug, to extend it with reference material for HTML and CSS.”

  9. IE Tab

    “IE Tab – an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox…”

  10. DT Whois

    “Domaintools.com whois button..”

Pixel Perfect is a Firefox/Firebug extension that allows web developers and designers to easily overlay a web composition over top of the developed HTML.
]]> http://blowsie.com/blog/10-firefox-developer-add-ons/feed/ 0 Pulse http://blowsie.com/portfolio/pulse/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/pulse/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:43:28 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=12 “Pulse” approached me looking for a combination of creative and unique design’s for their logo, banners and flyers. I really enjoyed working on this project as it was a chance for me to do something different and/or wild to suit their events in various nightclubs. For one of the designs I took various images of vinyl and manipulated them to suit the style agreed in the design brief. The second design with the vibrant colours was something I came up with which was designed to stand out from other flyers.

Website

After producing the logo, flyers, banners and other promotional content, Pulse returned to me requesting a simple website which would hold information on upcoming events and store mp3 recordings of the previous events. This website had a dark colour scheme and held a minimalist look. Unfortunately this website is no longer online as Pulse have downsized the size of their team to work on other projects.

Images

]]> http://blowsie.com/portfolio/pulse/feed/ 0 Pooches Grooming Parlour http://blowsie.com/portfolio/pooches-grooming-parlour/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/pooches-grooming-parlour/#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:33:46 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=10 The original Pooches Grooming Parlour website I created a few years back was beginning to look a bit dated and was a simple CSS / HTML design which wasn’t easily updateable. The redesign of the Pooches website built  in Wordpress  enables the client and Add, Edit & Remove any content as they please. In addition to this the site has a more appealing and modern look but still holds on to the company’s image.

 

Site Features

  • SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – Since the site has been redesigned the website is easily found using a variety of keywords in a search engine.
  • Wordpress CMS – This enables the client and Add, Edit & Remove any content as they please.
  • Gallery
  • Integrated Google Map & Contact form on the contact page
  • Blog for posting any special offers or news relating to the company

Images

]]> http://blowsie.com/portfolio/pooches-grooming-parlour/feed/ 0 Hayward & Barrett http://blowsie.com/portfolio/hayward-barrett/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/hayward-barrett/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:46:02 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=200 Hayward & Barrett Civil Engineering & Construction Ltd is a company aimed at offering moderately priced, ultra- efficient services to the highest quality across a wide spectrum of key areas within the Construction Industry.

Images

]]> http://blowsie.com/portfolio/hayward-barrett/feed/ 0 Direct Taxi http://blowsie.com/portfolio/direct-taxi/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/direct-taxi/#comments Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:50:20 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=205 http://blowsie.com/portfolio/direct-taxi/feed/ 0 Modo http://blowsie.com/portfolio/modo/ http://blowsie.com/portfolio/modo/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:43:50 +0000 Blowsie http://blowsie.com/?p=14 Modo is a modern Bar / Restuarant located in Liverpool who approached me via my website and commsioned me to create various flyers for their events. They required a fresh and modern look which was appealing to a variety of target audiences.

 

Images

Links

Modo Website

]]> http://blowsie.com/portfolio/modo/feed/ 0