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Websites

These are some of the web designs I've created in recent years which can be websites or web applications. I've been working as a professional web designer since August 2007 and I've been fortunate to create intranet designs for companies like ITV, Pinewood Studios, Pizza Express, Miller Homes, Reader's Digest, CSL Sofas and many more. Along side client designs, I've also created internal app designs which can be found below.

Sopme.com

Sopme.com is a website that both Paul Nicholson and myself put together. The idea being that someone could submit an article from a website and then people could vote it up or down. The more popular submissions would have their time on the homepage and also on the right hand bar. We also catered for people who wanted to make a comments (Shouts) and have them be able to vote on them too. Using CSS3 and JQuery has allowed us both to create something quite contemporary but still functional.

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Orchidsoft.com

Orchidsoft.com is the website for the company Orchid Software, the number 1 UK intranet provider, who I've currently worked with for over 3 years now. Creating this website was a massive task for myself as there was a lot of content to be put on and for it to be designed in a way that would look intriguing for new users. I had to use my knowledge of doctypes to enforce a standards mode that would allow most browsers see the same thing, however I did have to create a seperate CSS file for it to work in IE.

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TheSocialWorkChambers.com

TheSocialWorkChambers.com was my first freelance project which made it quite an experience for me to meet with the founders themselves and discuss what they wanted on their website face to face. I was able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of certain decisions they had and make them aware of web topics such as Search Engine Optimisation etc.

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Blarsa.com

Blarsa.com is website for the talented Brian Hardisty and Lars Erik Fjosne. Before Blarsa, we all worked together on Lit Fuse Films (below) and when we ended up stopping work on it, they started working together on music. After a few months of creating music together, I wanted to create them a website which looked a bit more professional but also used the Wordpress functionality they were already used to. I ended up learning quite a bit about how to manipulate Wordpress to allow the design I created for them.

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LitFuseFilms.com

LitFuseFilms.com was a website for a machinima group I was a part of, we specialised in creating Source Engine game videos but we also jumped into the Unreal Engine, Empire Total War and Second Life. Some of our popular videos were viewed over half a million times which to us was amazing. I can't take all credit for the website as it was a collaboration between myself and Filipe Dobreira.

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Media Library

Media Library is one of the most important applications that is included with Orchidnet. The Media Library application allows you to store, access and play a wide range of media files using your intranet. My job was to create an easy user interface and show the new functionality without making it seem overly crowded. To ensure the users knew how to use the application straight away, I used some design aspects from other popular media sites to support my user interface but due to media library allowing for more media types than most media websites, I had to make some vital decisions on UI additions to make sure people can distinguish between different media types.

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Orchidnet CRM

Orchidnet CRM manages all types of contacts from a central location, and includes a full internal/external communication history for each entry. Orchidnet CRM also includes a wide range of account management facilities; contacts can be set as leads, favourites, opportunities and more, allowing you to focus on contacts at various stages of the sales and contact process. Graphs of opportunities, lead sources and key sales data help you to stay on top of your contacts, the query builder allows you to find the contact info you need, and the To do list tracks your personal tasks.

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Print

Vanilla - Issue 7

Vanilla is a free magazine that Orchid Software publish; its articles range from new developments for the company, instructions on to use the latest versions of Orchidnet's applications, guidelines for new intranet starters and much more. I was assigned to create a brand new look and feel for the Vanilla magazine, one that was solely my own design instead of a previously created rehash job. It was my first real chance to use the Adobe InDesign program to create this new design which was a challenge to start with as it has a few differences to Photoshop, which is what I was used to at the time. Luckily, I got my head around the program and started fully designing this magazine. Wired magazine played its part in inspiring me to create the way Vanilla looks now, with its abstract art style and unusual page layouts. Please click here and give the magazine a read to see what you think.

Video

Flying Fenix

Flying Fenix was my first video I created using the Unreal 3 engine (Gears of War PC to be precise) for the website LitFuseFilms.com which I co-founded. The group Lit Fuse Films made machinima videos using games and my interest in the Unreal engine gave me the opportunity to create a video for my own. I went through the animations that Gears of War had and found a nice mid-roll animation which looked like he was flying. The rest was basically my weird imagination put to the test.

Drawings

These are some of the drawings I've created over a few years. Most of them are created using the pen tool in Photoshop and didn't use a drawing tablet in any way. A part from the iPad drawn drawings as they are essentially created directly on a tablet.