About Me
My names Mark. I'm a web designer & developer based in the Yorkshire area working in Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Leeds. But that's not the full extent of what I do. I work with many different technologies and people and love things outside the web including photography, print, stationery and graphics. Get in touch and let's speak.
Category Archives: Website Design
General Election Day, who is the HTML5 of British Government?
Here in the UK a General Election is upon us. The different parties are fighting for your vote and to promote themselves online most of the parties have launched brand new websites. Here is an analysis of the different technologies used to see who is the HTML5 of British Government. The Labour Party Notable technologies [...]
Also posted in General, Photography, graphic design Tagged conservatives, election, labour, liberal democrats Comments closed
My Top Ten Web Designer Resources
If your a seasoned web developer your going to want to follow some great resource sites. I myself have quite a large list of RSS feeds in my Outlook but here are my top ten with plenty of resources, freebies and tips…I will however feature 5 “biggies” and 5 “smallies” if that makes any sense [...]
Also posted in General, graphic design Tagged design, designers, graphic design, photoshop, web design Comments closed
Developing for multiple browsers *sigh*
I know it’s unfortunately the “taboo” of modern website design, but many developers don’t want to simply leave their IE7 visitors and IE6 visitors in the dark. It’s fine for sites like this one, or for web applications but what about corporation websites? For sites that HAVE to support older/alternative browsers. This came to light [...]
Also posted in Browsers, General, Tutorial Tagged adobe, browser, design, download, internet explorer, javascript, web, web design Comments closed
New Result Group Website Launch
So it’s 4 months in on my new job and I’ve finally just launched the brand new Result Group website. It’s three solid months of development, hundreds and hundreds of tweaks, 1500+ lines of CSS and thousands more of XHTML programming and PHP. It’s built entirely by hand, no cheap CMS systems and no limitations [...]
DRVE
I go on holiday in 5 days and it’s going to be an experience! Theres a group of us going (with about 7 cameras, 4 iPhones, a laptop, a motorhome and 1200 driving miles through Europe) Because there are four creatives on board we decided to build a website documenting our travels. The outcome is [...]
Also posted in Photography Comments closed
University is over! (for a year anyway)
So University is done and dusted for 2009. I won’t be returning until September 2010 which makes for a nice break. In the end I got my grades (A,A,B,B,B,C) which I was very happy with. To top all this off I thought I’d showcase some of the work I did to receive these grades. Visual [...]
Also posted in Browsers, Downloads, General, University Tagged camera, design, download, graphic design, illustration, javascript, jquery, json, photoshop, php, powerpoint, template, University, video, web, web design, xhtml Comments closed
IE8 Adverts
I LOVE the new IE8 adverts. They feature that guy from The New Adventures of Superman (Dean Cain). It’s a shame I’m a FF3.5 user and IE8 is fourth in my list (behind Safari & Opera) of browsers to use. They are brilliant though. I have gritting rage!. Download Firefox then you plonk. :D Additionally [...]
New design for a new career
Well, the 1st June saw me start my new job as Innovations Web Developer at Result Group in Elland. I decided that to mark the occasion I’d start by going crazy with my on-line development. It has seen me redesign the Arctic Monkeys Fansite, build a brand new website for Cliffe Kennels, build a Twitter/Twitpic/img.ly/yfrog [...]
Cliffe Kennels
I’ve just launched the brand new Cliffe Kennels & Rescue site for the world to view. Dennise needed a brand new image for their boarding kennels to attract more customers to the business. I built them a full PHP/MySQL site with a fully integrated admin section so they could add and remove the animals on [...]
Posted in Website Design Comments closed
TwiPho – Twitter Photo Search
Well, it seems I have more time on my hands than I need. Wednesday my on-line chum Matt decided he wanted to “build something”. Anything he said. He was open to suggestions. One of those was a Twitter photo search. To cut a long story short I stole by own suggestion and built it myself. [...]
Posted in Website Design Tagged ajax, javascript, jquery, json, search, twipho, web design Comments closed
Whistle Stop Tour 2009
Fancy riding 1,200 Miles across the UK starting from Lands End and finishing at John O Groats? No? Me neither! These two guys are though (Adam Fisher and Oliver Frearson) and I felt obligated to build them a website promoting their journey. It’s in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and they are trying to raise [...]
New Showcase page for you to play with!
The portfolio page looked a little drab. Afterall I am working SOLID completing work left right and center. Not all of this can go into my portfolio page as it’s more University work and stuff built on a personal basis. This then spawned the “Showcase” page. Have a play with the few flash and javascript [...]
Also posted in General, University Tagged actionscript, flash, graphic design, personal, portfolio, University Comments closed
Free XHTML Template
The other day I realised I had loads of spare web stuff lying around on my hard drive which included canned designs, unused web pages, old university assignments and old website designs (PSD’s and XHTML/CSS). Well, today I decided I’d start releasing this spare stuff online. If I’m not using it maybe someone else can [...]
How to? Basic website design using Adobe Photoshop
Please note: This tutorial is for beginners. It’s a short vague guide to push you in the right direction. I believe “learn by seeing and doing” is the best approach. Many developers struggle to use the basic tools in Adobe’s award winning software Photoshop when designing websites. It can help a lot to know some [...]
Olivia WordPress Theme – V0.9.5
Theme Demo – Download Now 670kb I am pleased to announce that you can now download the brand new WordPress theme named “Olivia” direct from our website and soon from the official WordPress themes gallery. It has been in development for a long time but good things come to those who wait! Key features of [...]
WordPress Theme “Olivia” on it’s way!
It’s not far off release date! (well within a week hopefully!) Features of the theme: Clean fluent design based on the 960 grid system Beautifully selected colour tones FamFamFam silk icons (as they are very pretty) Various stylesheets (colours) Widget ready, as all new themes usually come Other neat little features! Check out the image [...]
Microsoft releases IE8 Beta II, try harder!
This week sees Microsoft leave behind the IE7 which had lasted for two years, and announces the second beta of IE8, but does more effort need to be placed on getting users to actually upgrade, rather than adding another version number to the mix? According to W3.org there are more or less the same amount [...]
Also posted in Browsers Tagged browser, firefox, internet explorer, security, web design Comments closed
10 Web Design NO NO’s
The web has changed a lot and web designers (of all people) know about the need to keep up to date with the latest design “trends”. This short 10 point guide will hopefully help some people understand the minor problems website design (and content) brings when being viewed by a potential customer. Pointless Flash Animation [...]
The tale of the design rip off