Design, Programming, Music and Life

Thursday, November 29, 2012

On to other things - new site design

12:41 PM Posted by Unknown , , , , , , , , , , , , No comments


So I have been working on a new project recently, and this one was a two part project. The first part was making sure that their current site has a working contact form. and the second part is redesigning a new look and feel on top of a Joomla site, so that they can expand in the future with components like an online storefront, or deeply integrate a social marketing campaign into their website.

I took a peek at their current site, and found out that the issues were with the current request mail form, which mind you is written in .PHP, which I kinda hate. I was able to fix the issue though, and got it working perfectly. I know its working perfectly, because the client is now getting SPAMBOT requests :) Too Funny!! But I have them covered already, because the first thing I implemented into the new request form on their new site was a ReCaptcha security method. This should stop the spam from coming through.

I then took my time and started working on a nice responsive theme, but wanted to keep it looking like it was more for their Corporate Office vs a large crane shop. I remade their logo based on some of the feedback they gave me and then used the main colors of their logo and equipment for the highlights of the site. I also used a simple menu system that will adjust to smaller mobile screens and provide a mobile dropdown menu in those cases. Overall, the site is pretty solid so far, with no real issues other than having to rebuild Apache with multibyte strings enabled.

My next stage of this process is to dismantle the site and modules I have now, and rebuild it with a darker, more progressive theme, and after that, another lighter theme, so once they choose from one of those, I will put it all back together with the look and feel of their choice, and then it goes live. I gave the client a timeframe of two months for the project, but the pace I am working, it may only take me three to four weeks, so that's a good thing ;)

Till next time, enjoy your adventures!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Until then, this is Untitled

10:20 PM Posted by Unknown , , , , , , , , , , No comments
I have spent the past days trying to think of a good blog post, and nothing cool came to mind at all. I went through tech projects, art projects, and even an invention or two, nothing! But then I remembered what an awesome week I have had so far, not much to complain about at all.

I started work on a new clients site, got that first down payment, then I also received a check from a back owed client, so that was nice too, not much, but together I was able to pay a little towards rent and pick up one gift each for the kids. This year we picked a gift that has the potential to offer gaming, learning, and communication... but that will end up becoming a whole other post on it's own.

The wife cooked the entire Thanksgiving meal by herself this year, and I didn't even realize till the next day that I didn't have a single complaint about it, it turned out pretty awesome! (That, and I didn't have anything to do with it this year), just awesome! There were also an assortment of baked goodies too, from Pumpkin pie, to some kind of Spice Cake and even cookies. She went all out this year and it turned out awesome.

My mother came over, and we spent plenty of time playing games and socializing. There was even a spy game in there I think, found the to-do list from my little spy... Just not sure why finding Willow is so far down the list :) Overall, it was a good week spent with the family, so there are never any complaints about that. I did plenty of art and even some music in between. I'll update my post later with a live recording of a song I'm working on.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Forced downtime... again

6:10 PM Posted by Unknown , , , , , , , , , , No comments
I have been busy lately, so please forgive me for the lack of posts recently. For starters, I have almost no work on the table, three projects in limbo, just waiting for a green light, and a tiny trickle of gas and cigarette money coming from one web client. So I have a bit of downtime. This doesn't mean that I haven't been bust cold calling businesses or answering requests for websites and graphics work off the web though, I keep myself pretty busy, just in things that don't generate immediate income.

I started taking out some time to make some animated backgrounds for my Church's projectors during the songs. Some... less psychedelic ones perhaps ;) Here is a playlist of a good portion of the animations. I am willing to donate high resolution animations for any religious organization that may want it, otherwise, I think I will ask for a donation.



I also got a little flame under my butt on music too, trying to make a couple new songs and a couple remixes of things I hear here and there. Here is a little taste of one song I'm working on recently:


As usual, I'm always up to something, so keep posted for updates on what I'm up to next.

Thanks ;)