Web site design?

[priller]

Does anybody design website's for a living? I'm in the process of starting a company but wanted to pick some brains first.

[Sparks!]

I've just started a web design co.

Things are sloowwww
____________________
Current Toys: 06 Yamaha WR250F | Nissan 350Z GT | Tech 4 Homes

[Craig_]

I do my own site design with the business, admittedly its not the best, but will do for now.

So hows it going then priller in general, and what co. you setting up?
____________________
VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[priller]

[Craig_]

Yeh, mines sort of coming along, need to get the jetting right, finish off working on the handling then move to the bodywork.

So you going into web site design then, or trying to get a website done. I think it would be a case of half now half later after they have picked how they want it from the pilots.

Also not to mention the fact you wont release the files until they have paid in full, without that the worst they can do is copy the design. They will have to get someone again to do all the content.
____________________
VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[priller]

[Craig_]

Well i cant blame you, but once you have worked for yourself you wont want to work for anyone again!
____________________
VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[Sparks!]

Priller, I do my own art work, even for www.r6-yzf.co.uk

My web sites aren't brilliant I guess but they are better than 90% of other companies out there, not being big headed or nowt but most other companies seem to have shite web sites made in Word and stuff

The other 9% are amazingly good at design/coding everything. I get by, can bodge most things onto a site and as long as it looks right on the screen with relatively clean coding them I'm happy as long as the customer is Not had any problems yet but only really done 2 proper web sites so far.

I started my company a few weeks back, I say it's slow as I've not got around to doing much as I'm far too lazy. I have an upcoming opportunity to get a load of web site work if I can be bothered to aim for it, so need to get me arse in gear.

Just trying to find some work-from-home college course or something to get some qualifications behind me.
____________________
Current Toys: 06 Yamaha WR250F | Nissan 350Z GT | Tech 4 Homes

[priller]

What package did you use for the graphics? Are you using something like frontpage for the code or is it done by hand?

[AcIdBuRnZ]

Hi,

Use Macromedia Studio MX.

It's a suite of programs (in case you don't know about it). It has Dreamweaver (actually coding\designing pages), Fireworks (kinda like Photoshop), Flash (for Flash animation), Freehand (good with a graphics tablet). It's very well packaged together. Easy to get to grips with, well, I thought anyway.

You can do everything that you could think of with it

If you need a Flash animation in the mean time - I'm your man.

Hope this solves your problems,

Mark
____________________
Past: Honda NSR125R >> Kawasaki ER-5a2 >> Kawasaki ZZR-600e1 >> Suzuki GSXR-750Y >> Honda VTR 1000 Firestorm
"Chickity China the Chinese Chicken..."

[Craig_]

One thing I will say about most business sites is they do suck for design, but if your on about them sucking for not having fancy flash etc, reason I didn't with mine is 56kers. I tried out my website on my Grandads old computer, with a 56k connection and it was damn slow, god help if it was dead fancy with flash everywhere.
____________________
VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[priller]

2 problems using Macromedia studio. It costs £699 and it doesn't run on linux.

I'm happy hand writing all the code.

[priller]

[Craig_]

Yep, that is exactly what i thought. Fair enough a 30 seconds or so, but a good few minutes and you just cant be bothered.
____________________
VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[Dr Nick]

If you are going to hand write all the code, i would suggest using EditPlus , its like notepad with syntax colouring.

HTH
____________________
is that it

[Sparks!]

Priller, I use Notepad to code all my websites, I've got Dreamweaver Mx which I've been trying to get to grips with but it's usually too much hassle, takes me longer to do simple stuff in MX than it does to do more complicated stuff in notepad.

I use Photoshop 7.0 for graphics.

I don't know flash but I aim to learn it at some point, could be handy altho I'm not too keen on flash websites.

Craig, by shite I mean just generally piss poor designs that look like they were made in word with crap backgrounds and stupid fonts. Your site is pretty good to be honest, It looks professional and is just generally good, I will dig out some links later for the typse of shit web design sites I'm on about.

Only software I currently use for webdesign is

Notepad
Photoshop 7.0
Cute FTP Pro

that's it really
____________________
Current Toys: 06 Yamaha WR250F | Nissan 350Z GT | Tech 4 Homes

[priller]

Kwrite does the same.

I've been using GIMP, just downloaded GIMP2 so I'm going to try that tonight.

[Dr Nick]

[AcIdBuRnZ]

Hi,

What's the problem with costing £699?

Take the time to learn to use Dreamweaver - the rewards are fantatic, it's very powerful in the right hands, and make the upkeep of your site a POP.

Also, with Flash, does not mean your whole site has to be in flash, but it's nice to be able to make your own little animations for your site, instead of 'borrowing' them from other people! It's something else you can do too, good on a CV (well, I did Flash and website design as part of my degree).

Any other problems, gimme a shout, happy to help.

Mark
____________________
Past: Honda NSR125R >> Kawasaki ER-5a2 >> Kawasaki ZZR-600e1 >> Suzuki GSXR-750Y >> Honda VTR 1000 Firestorm
"Chickity China the Chinese Chicken..."

[priller]

[Craig_]

Cheers Craig, I think i know the sites you are on about, some of the bike sites i have visited are really poor, but i mean also another one for business is fancy flash sites, yes trick but think of 56kers.

Don't mind flash here and there, but a full site full of flashing images etc... starts to get old.
____________________
VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[Sparks!]

I don't mean any site in general, to be honest, I just mean in general.

I spent a bit of time browsing www.ukwda.org looking at what other companies offer and what sort of designs they had and a lot on there are just pants.

I guess it's so easy to make a website these days that everyone and their grandmother are doing it (literally )
____________________
Current Toys: 06 Yamaha WR250F | Nissan 350Z GT | Tech 4 Homes

[priller]

[Bendy]

Clients are impressed by swirly things that move.

Clients don't give two hoots if your site does something incredibly clever behind the scenes, is accessible, gives people information fast... they like something that goes 'woooo' so they can impress their friends even if they need a leased line and quad processor uber-pc to get the thing to load.

I rest my case with www.sanctuarygroup.com which I hasten to add I had nothing to do with apart from going on record at the beginning of the project to say I disagreed with every single thing the 'designer' was planning. We're building a new one now and the party responsible for that monstrosity's creation is no longer working here.

[Sparks!]

Haha that deserves a spot on the 100 Worst web sites list. It's pants.

Customers like web sites which work, be it a functional intranet site or a web site that works by looking good and selling their products, doesn't mean it has to be all Flash animated tho.

Altho if people are going to make flash sites there should 100% be a splash page with an option of HTML or FLASH.
____________________
Current Toys: 06 Yamaha WR250F | Nissan 350Z GT | Tech 4 Homes