Allchorn Blog

Why the new design? Well, aside from the fact that the old one was feeling, well, old to me is that I have changed my role a bit. Not so far as throwing out my job title, but rather revising how I do things, who I do them for, and when.

Why Have I Changed Focus?

Those who know me will be aware that things have been relatively successful since I started Allchorn Design in Feb 2004, but things in the website design industry are taking a bit of a turn at the moment. Or so it seems.

With an influx of amateurs, and the increase in quality of themes and “cookie cutter” solutions these days, people seem to be losing sight of uniqueness and the preservation of their specific identity online. With services like Blogger, Wordpress.com, Hetzner’s Site Builder, Synthasite and the free website builders offered by some hosts, people are seemingly jumping on the band wagon and burning their fingers.

Something I’ve always remembered from when I was working in marketing and dealt with ad agencies is a saying that goes loosely as follows:

“Buying a bad designer a state of the art macintosh won’t make his designs any better.”

I believe the same rings true of these off the shelf offerings. If you bought me the most expensive guitar in the world, with a state of the art amplifier, I’d still reduce you to tears with my lack of musical skill. Set an aesthetically impaired individual free on a beautifully designed and crafted template, and you’ll have the web equivelant of my piece of music!

Well, this is why I’m shifting focus, but doesn’t tell you how. I’ve chosen to focus rather on smaller websites for small and medium sized companies and individuals. If a large company wants an elegant little website for some reason, sure thing. But indecisive committees, lengthy approval processes, and difficult “foodchain” communication is a thing of the past for me.

With the launch of Sitepress, I’m putting out an offer for anyone to afford a custom designed website integrated into a content management system and coded to perfection, according to web standards.

The New Look of Allchorn.com

Do you like it? Comment if you want. It’s a change for me and being a designer, I’m never “entirely” pleased with my own work. Especially the stuff I do for myself. It wasn’t a quick process. It’s something that has built up in my head, on paper and in little disposable mockup designs I’ve done in Fireworks over the last… well, ages!

The last leg of the final leap came from a desperate urge to get away from the Cutline theme created by Chris Pearson. Nice as it was, as I mentioned above, I don’t believe in using pre-made designs.

It All Started On Paper

I started the new design with my sketchbook, a 4B pencil and my little blue eraser that never seems to rub out. The same 3 things you can see at the bottom right of this page actually. As you can see, it pretty much mirrors the layout I have now on the site.

Sidebar On The Left

I chose a left to right layout with my sidebar on the left to serve as a quick glance of who I am and whats on offer in brief. Going down it shows some more info on what is on this site in the form of a category listing, and the tag cloud to see whats most popular.

Catering For 1024px Users And Above

The main content area I have made as wide as possible without having people moving their heads reading like they’re watching tennis from the middle of the court. The over all width of the site is 960px which accommodates 1024px resolution using visitors and above.

Scalability, Better Than I Could Have Imagined

The site scales beautifully! Even better than I expected. Try enlarging it and everything elegantly moves out the way for whatever is before it.

Light Colour Pallette And Little To No Frills

The most noticable aspect of the design is it’s simplicity and light colour pallette. This is to shift focus onto the content. There is a big fat chunky navigation at the top, so if you want to see my portfolio, or read my rambling “about” page, you can do so at your leisure, but the meat of the site is in the main, wide right hand column… throughout the site.

Putting Things Into Fireworks And Fleshing It Out

Working from my sketch, I created my master template visual in Fireworks. I prefer working with a more vector based program and I am most familiar using this awesome design package. It came out exactly as I wanted, and the clouds, birds and the subtle blue gradient from the top finished off the header of the page.

Working my way down, I used the thick bar on top of, and thinner underneath to quite clearly differentiate the headings for the sections in the sidebar. A trait of Cutline that I quite liked.

Finally, the footer. I took my pencil, sketchpad, eraser trio and photographed them with my 17-55mm lense really close up on a low f stop to give it a shallow depth of field, and managed to slot that into the bottom right hand corner of the design.

The latest posts and comments section in the screenshot of the design are still to be added at the time of writing this post.

Taking It From Design Comp. To A Wordpress Theme

Aaah, this is the part I truly enjoyed. It’s been a while since I got down and dirty with HTML and CSS. A touch of PHP was new to me, but it was all such basic stuff, I wouldn’t brag about it.

I followed Small Potato’s 16 step Wordpress theming tutorial which I did in one sitting. It took me about 5hrs and after it I feel I know a hell of a lot more than I did before about Wordpress. It also had me delving into the Wordpress codex shortly after to learn more about what the system can do.

Cutting images out of my design was simple. Just the logo, clouds, top gradient and the footer image were needed. Nothing complex, no strict measuring of bits and pieces. Just the valid XHTML accompanying a Stylesheet that tells everything where to be and how to look.

Typography, Keeping Things Simple

With the myriad of fonts available to use, why on earth would I stick to only two on my site? Well, Only one if you don’t count my logo which uses Trebuchet MS as an image. Thats right, only one font on this entire site; Arial.

The reasons for this are as follows:

1. Firstly, Arial is very easy to read on a screen. Usability studies have shown that Arial and Verdana are some of the most readable on-screen fonts.
2. I am a big fan of Helvetica (they even made a movie about the font), and Arial is Microsoft’s Helvetica, I thought I’d use something I prefer the look over most other type faces.
3. You are limited to the fonts you can use on a website, and Arial is one of the most widely installed fonts on computers. It’s been a standard font on Windows machines since 1992.

Well, thats about that… for now. I will add the other two blocks in under the posts soon, but there isn’t a desparate rush.

UPDATE: My installation seems to have come right completely. As with the installation of cForms, I think it may have been cache. Go ahead, upgrade now, but remember CTRL+F5 (hold down command and click refresh on an Apple) if you experience any problems.

I wasn’t planning on doing any work this weekend, but when I saw in my Wordpress admin section that the new version I’ve been eagerly anticipating has officially been released I did my duty and upgraded.

While I like the new design, and it’s always nice to stay ahead of the game, or at least on the same pace, I have already encountered some bugs. I’m not sure if it’s because I upgraded, rather than a fresh installation, but I did follow the upgrading instructions word for word.

I advise waiting until these glitches have been sorted out, and as is the nature of this CMS, it is usually sorted out pretty damn quickly. In the meantime, I can make do and I’ll roll with the punches. I must admit, the plugins I use work fine in v2.5.

Just thought it appropriate to warn those wishing to upgrade their site or their client’s site(s).

I’ll post a follow up on this as soon as I’m all fixed up.

Before your eyes glaze over and you click on a link to go elsewhere, read the definition of a CMS:

Content management system (CMS).
The computer software, housed on your site’s Web server, that manages the publishing of content (text, images, video, documents etc.) to your website. Popular examples include Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, Realm Platform and even Blogger.com.

View this page which shows some types of content a CMS can manage. Document created for rdCMS (now Realm Platform).

My Experience With CMS’s

Am I qualified to write an article on what is, or should be the world’s best CMS (Content Management System)? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll let you decide that by telling you briefly my experience with them.

I started designing websites in 1999 (9yrs ago at the time of writing this) and after developing sites for larger and larger clients, the maintenance of the content became so much of a handful that I was forced into the realm of CMS powered websites. I started by introducing small pieces of manageable bits of content, like news modules and custom written photo galleries, to going the whole hog with some open source systems.

In between all that we somehow managed to write our own CMS, which is now a thing of the past. A beautifully created system that went by the name of SimpleCMS, we stopped development on it only a few months ago for various reasons. The main ones being that the open source generation is creating such wonderful pieces of software and the proprietary (commercially sold) systems spend so much money and time not only on their creation, but their marketing and sales.

Am I qualified? You decide.

The Short Answer – It Depends!

I hate giving that answer to a question, and I hate receiving that answer when asking one. Quite frankly, there is no other way in this instance. It depends on your requirements, it depends on your budget, it depends on your timeline, and it depends on what your user’s skill level is.

I’ve tried. I really have. I’ve tried to get one CMS that just fits every need, and there is one system that I can say almost fits the bill. That system is Realm Platform. This brings us back to budget. Not everyone can afford the price tag that comes with a site running on a system as advanced as that. You may wish you could, and think it’s unfair, but I’d also love to own an Aston Martin DB9. Sometimes you have to settle for what is realistic.

If you’re a small company or even an individual (photographer, freelance writer etc.) then you might not have the capital to spend on a custom designed website running on an easy-to-use CMS. You can go as low as free, by setting up a blogger account and just choose a theme that is suitable. Not very unique, but you can.

The next level up would be registering your own domain and setting up some low cost hosting. With a database available, you can install something like Wordpress, or have it installed for you. Choose a theme from any of the many available on the www and there you go. Still not very unique, but it’s yours and a good start should you want to commission a designer and themer to modify or create your own look and feel.

Edit: Just a quick comment on that paragraph. We’re offering a rent to own service over at Sitepress where you can pay your site off over a period of 1 – 24 months.

A custom design. I will always maintain that design is how something works, not how it looks. Window dressing only makes people get that warm and fuzzy feeling, but if there is no purpose behind a design, nor any consideration to how people will use and interact with your site, then your efforts are ultimately wasted. A decent custom design shouldn’t break the bank and if you choose your (experienced) designer wisely and communicate effectively with them, you should come out on top. Make sure they know the CMS you’re using, else you’re in for a rocky road.

Do Your Homework

Most systems offer a certain amount of versatility with regards to how things are displayed and the way they work. Most , if not all however have certain aspects that cannot be changed. They are built into the core of the system and overlooking something you deem integral can spell disaster when your business model doesn’t reflect that of the CMS (eCommerce specifically here).

One of my freelance programmers (Mike from SkipJack) once said to me about X-Cart, a proprietary eCommerce system, “don’t expect to modify the system to suit your business, rather look at it as adjusting the business to suit the software”. And although that sounds pretty harsh; unless you have a pretty damn large budget it’s the gospel truth.

You can browse a large number of open source content management systems on OpenSourceCMS.com, read reviews and demo the back end and front end of the systems. If that boggles your mind, then speak to someone like me and I can put things into laymans terms.

So What Is The World’s Best Content Management System?

Depending who you ask that answer could vary to at least 50 different systems. Joomla zealots will shout “Joomla!” in union while the poetic code writers and themers for Wordpress will make their presence felt. Drupal, Plone, Vignette, DotNetNuke, Movable Type, Expression Engine, Typo3, Xoops, Nucleus CMS… I can go on, I wont.

Your best CMS is the one that:

1. suits your requirements
2. has a healthy community or company to support you and your website
3. is secure
4. is browser compatible (works in all major browsers)
5. is fast
6. suits your budget

Well, thats my take on it anyway.

It’s nice, and quite flattering for me to see that Google has appointed me as South Africa’s number one website design consultant. You can see in the SERP (search engine results page) that they have appointed me the organic position number one (at the time of posting this).

I think this goes to show quite effectively that if you just concentrate on your content, and keep putting things out there that show what you do… for the visitors -not just the search engines- you will reap the rewards.

It’s actually been happening a lot lately. Smaller clients of mine that haven’t invested much, or anything in SEO are achieving nice results. Not enormous amounts of traffic that would impress people with numbers, but rather highly targeted traffic that actually converts into sales.

Case Scenario 1 – Perfect Bounce

Perfect bounce is a pleasant company that offers the construction and maintenance of all sorts of sporting facilities. My contact at perfect bounce is organised, professional and has been a pleasure to work with. They took my advice on how we should construct the site (on a tight budget) and over time, the search engines have picked up their content and ranked them accordingly.

They are receiving traffic for the terms “cricket nets“, “indoor cricket nets” and “concrete cricket nets” amongst others. This shows that people coming to their site are actively searching for what they offer. From that fact, the conversion rate (conversion of casual visitor to paying customer) is very high.

Case Scenario 2 – Active Soul

Active Soul is another one of my smaller clients that offers the production of quality promotional sportswear. At least thats what they started out offering, but as things have progressed, and the demands being shown by the marketplace, they have branched out into other promotional clothing avenues.

The couple that own Active Soul have been awesome, and through my recommendation they commissioned GnuWorld to optimise and market their online presence online. It took a bit of time (as it sometimes does) for them to be ranked effectively in this highly competitive market, but they are now receiving traffic for terms like “sportswear“, “gym wear” and “promotional clothing“.

In Summary

I might come across as an arrogant jerk with the heading of this post, but since Google appointed me that position; at least in their eyes it’s the truth. I don’t really view myself as number one anything, but I do try hard, work hard and aim to provide services that perform for my clients. With a friendly and mutually respectful relationship, these two sites illustrate why I am pretty good at what I do, and these guys are feeling the results where it matters; in their pockets.

If you’re wondering why I linked to those two sites with those keywords, it’s not merely to confuse you or annoy you, but to give them a little link juice from my site which has a relatively decent PR (Page Rank). More on that at another time. Nothing below board, but a healthy recommendation for them, since thats what they do.

No rest for the wicked, or should that be “no rest for the industrious”. I’m hoping the latter is the case as I don’t feel particularly wicked. With a slow start to 2008, things have thankfully picked up quite considerably around here.

From the inception of a new professional photography service called From the Camera with my photography partner Jason Wilkinson, to the creation of Sitepress, for affordable yet professional content managed website design and the every day running of the constantly growing motorsport photography blog, Circuitchaser.com.

Yeah, I’d guess you could say I’ve been busy. Working during the week sorting and editing humungous batches of images, writing newsletters and blog posts, while setting up Sitepress and From the Camera from a business, legal and financial standpoint. No small task, and I hope it doesn’t all go unrewarded.

From the Camera – Professional Photography Service

As briefly mentioned above, Jason and I have officially teamed up in a 50/50 effort to provide a professional photography service specialising in functions, sports, weddings and food. With our experience combined, we have a considerable amount of expertise in all of those fields of photography.

I’ll be the first to admit that Jason is a more experienced photographer than me, and I am constantly learning from him and new things just about every time I go out in the field. My most recent shoot at Killarney providing me with one of my most prized collections of images thus far.

Sitepress – Affordable Content Managed Websites

Not everyone can afford to cough up the initial R10 – R15,000 required to get a custom designed website with an elegant, easy to use content management system to edit their own content. I thought it would be a good idea to offer this service including…

• a free initial consultation
• domain name registration
• web hosting with email
• custom design
• configuration
• training and support

…all on a slightly different payment model. Based on the cellphone industry’s contract system, I’ve introduced Sitepress to accommodate budgets with 4 options. You can get the site on a 24, 12 or 6 month contract, or go the whole hog with a 50% deposit and balance on completion. Pricing is all on the website, so check it out if you’re interested.

Circuitchaser.com – Motorsport Photography Blog

My baby for the last few years. Circuitchaser has grown and matured since I started it in the beginning of 2006. My grand plans of hitching a ride to the world’s MotoGP’s a little humbled by my realisation of what it costs both in time and money to get to that level, but as things progress, I know I’ll get there one day.

Concentrating mainly on local events like the Boland Bikes/RST track schools, as well as the Mike Cameron Track days, the WPMC regional racing and the occasional national or international events that come our way.

With a newsletter that now goes out weekly(ish) I’m keeping people in touch with whats happening on the coming weekend, as well as what galleries are up from the previous one. The unique gripes of HTML emails rearing their ugly heads and giving me a headache, but nothing that cannot be countered.

Well, for what it’s worth, thats what I’ve been busy with lately, and with what it all entails, I’m likely to be good and busy well into 2008. I thought it would be nice to share with you all what is on the cards, and keep you up to speed.

I’m busy working on and have recently launched a beta(ish) version of a new concept. It’s called Sitepress and it’s a combination of all my accumulated website design, content management and consulting knowledge rolled into one offering. It has a twist however, and one I hope will bring professional website design to those that previously couldn’t afford it or couldn’t justify the cost in their budget.

That twist is that it comes more in the shape of a cellphone contract than a huge once off or phased costing. Starting with 3 packages, you get a host of features and special services which you’d otherwise pay no less than R10 – R15k for.

It’s an idea that just could bring quality website design, development and consulting services to small and medium sized businesses, or even individuals. It’s a concept that poses a certain element of risk to me, but with things planned out properly, I have minimised this risk and with me not out to “get” anyone we can settle into some good productive design work.

My one aim behind this is to minimise the crap that is currently being spewed out by the hoards of newbie web designers and moonlighters that clients seem to be so readily commissioning for quite an important, powerful part of their business. At the same time making it affordable with the option of payments split over your choice of term (6, 12 or 24 months).

Whether or not this will pick up, I have put a fair deal of effort into it’s modelling and planning. I started with a business model document which outlined the offering, the conditions, the pricing and what ever else needed to be put in writing from a business perspective (this is still a work in progress, but will probably never be “finished”). I had Cobus over at Fresh01 integrate my design which I created using some of the content I wrote in the business document into Wordpress and the legal side of things is underway by my lawyer.

I’ll most certainly post updates on the progression of this endeavour as and when they happen.

Designing websites for a living, or for extra money, is an exceptionally popular part of life for people all over the world in all age groups. There are kids and recent school leavers either doing it as a hobby or full time, as well as many people with intentions of making it big in the industry after growing bored of their nine 2 fiver..

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately, with the drowning flood of insurgents bombarding the market with half baked proposals with ridiculously low price tags. It seems to be happening more and more frequently, and with these newbies not fully understanding the nature of design as a business, the commodity market continues to spread like a disease.

I Repeat, Design is NOT a Commodity

Designing a web presence, not only visually appealing, but designed to perform and communicate effectively is not something I can offer on a half price special, or a buy 2 get one free business model. You will invariably end up with work that is squeezed out of the lower creative orifice. Something that makes the designer or the client go “oh cool!, but ultimately not perform, or in more severe cases, actually damage the company reputation.

Spec Work and Free Pitching

I’ve had a bit of a lengthy email conversation with Cathering Morley from no-spec.com and contrary to my previous article on spec work vs pitching, she has convinced me how damaging the practice of spec work and free pitching really are. I mistakingly perceived pitching as a necessary evil where a portion of the work should be a sacrifice of time to land a possible large project.

An excerpt from one of her emails:

“I’ll bust my butt doing my best for them, but I want to start off right. I want them to respect what I do as much as I respect what they are doing.”

Catherine effectively convinced me that not only was I wrong and it will waste my time on the whole, it’s also an irresponsible and damaging practice. What you’re effectively doing is giving your uneducated, un-researched “opinion” of what the client needs and leaving it to them to choose the prettiest of the bunch.

The portfolio should represent the quality of one’s work, and a frank, honest discussion with a designer and the possible commissioning of him/her for a paid pitch is an ethical and effective plan of action (should you not be 100% certain about them).

If you don’t like the resulting work, talk to the designer. Maybe the brief was not clear enough. Maybe the designer went another route to that what you expected. Worst case scenario is you pay them for their time and use it as a learning step towards reaching your goal. If you choose a good, professional, reputable designer with trade references, you’ll likely not have to do this. Pick someone amateur or unqualified, then you probably will and spend more money either taking ages to get the desired result, damaging yours our your company’s reputation or having to pay somoene else to fix their mistakes.

Design Business & Ethics

AIGA, the professional association for design have published a series of brochures explaining the necessary ethics and business acumen of both the client and designer on a professional level. Well worth downloading, reading and keeping as reference.

One thing I read in the client document mirrors mine and all professional’s thoughts on the topic:

“Unlike so much in today’s business world, graphic design is not a commodity. It is the highly individualized result of people coming together to do something they couldn’t do alone. When the collaboration is creative, the results usually are too.”

Download the client’s guide to design brochure here (216KB PDF).