My latest project is to create a website for www.porouspave.com

This is going to involve working with WordPress themes since the website is being hosted by WordPress.

At the moment the site is using an ‘off-the-shelf’ theme.

porouspave.com homepage (rainfall – 1)

porouspave.com homepage (rainfall – 2) – slightly more technical feel

The background image is created in Photoshop and composed from three original images. I also tried some colour variations on the background image.

porouspave.com background (rainfall – 1)

porouspave.com background (rainfall – 2)

porouspave.com background (rainfall – 3)

Just been briefed on a new website project for www.porouspave.com

PorousPave is also the product name, which is a plastic porous paving system for grass or gravel.

The ‘Under Construction’ page is not one of my designs, however. Watch this space for more developments!

Some of the layouts supplied from the manufacturer for me to work to

All the image files are done in Photoshop and built up in layers. The finished illustrations will be used on the website and in brochures.

The finished illustrations will be used on the website and in brochures

Funny things, coincidences! Just as I started to look for new business an old friend rang me up, ‘out of the blue’, and asked me to meet him to discuss a brochure design.

MFA Building Control Ltd was set up by Malcolm Fuller as Approved Building Inspectors offering an alternative to Local Authority Building Control services.

I had a meeting with Malcolm on the 22nd March and he has asked me to design an eBrochure for them, and possibly look at an image make-over.

With my youngest lad starting full time school this coming September, it’s time to think about pushing for more business. So, I have been busy designing a CV, and a covering letter, and drawing up a list of potential customers. Some companies will get emails and others will get hardcopies.

Covering letter to go with hardcopies of the CV

I’m targeting freelance work for other agencies and some direct customers. In fact I’ve already had one freelance job as a result of my emails.

I began a new collaboration recently, as a direct result of my push for more business. One of the agencies I approached were looking for some spare capacity to produce a 40 page document in Quark 6.1. Not a software I use that much now (All of my major clients migrated over to Adobe InDesign some years ago).

All text and images were to be supplied. Just needed to design a cover and style the text, but to a short deadline. (what other kind is there?)

Typical double page spread of the finished report

Cover design and logo for the project were designed on the Monday, whilst waiting for the text. These were done in Photoshop and Illustrator respectively.

Setting up style sheets in Quark makes life easier in a 40 page document

First section of text arrived on the Tuesday and the finished job was required by Wednesday to go to print. The biggest part of the job was styling the text.

Although it takes time to set up style sheets, time spent early on in a project this size pays dividends later on (i.e. when the text looked like it wasn’t going to fill the 40 pages it was a simple matter to change the bodtext style size and leading to make it occupy more space).

Paragraph, heading and bullet styles applied to a typical spread

My latest challenge has been sent to me as a ‘Template’ for a flyer. Why do organisations send out these things in ‘Word’, assuming that everybody else has got a compatible version. Personally, I don’t think it’s even entered their consciousness. Anyway, to the job in hand.

The original Mircosoft Word ‘template’, as supplied.

Bear in mind that, as a graphic designer, by default I’m working on a Mac, not a PC. Nothing against PC’s, it’s just the weapon of choice for graphic designers. Already that puts me at odds with most office environments which, by default, will be running some version of ‘Word’ on a PC.

Also bear in mind that this job is being done out on site, with the software and equipment to hand. So…

Step 1 – open the supplied ‘template’.
I couldn’t do that on the Mac because we have an ancient version of Microsoft Office which only runs in Mac OS 9. I could open it on the PC, but in ‘Open Office’, not ‘Word’ which is what is installed on the PC available to me on site.

Step 2 – Convert it to something I can work in.
Because I don’t work in either ‘Word’ or ‘Open Office’ regularly I’m loath to work in them for small one off jobs. By the time I’ve remembered how to use them, I could have done the job in something I do use everyday. (Bigger jobs are a different matter. I’ve done some huge projects in Word, consisting of hundreds of pages but for those it’s worth reaquainting myself.)

Anyway, from the ‘Open Office’ file I exported the file as a PDF.

The PDF version of the file opened in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 3 – Edit the file.
I then opened the PDF in Adobe Illustrator on the Mac. It converted all the text to paths, but it was easy to regenerate the small pieces of text that needed altering and add in the logo.

Filling in the minor text change details and adding the logo.

Step 4 – Recreate the table.
The biggest problem was the table, which I decided to recreate in Adobe InDesign, which is another quick and easy task, when you know what your doing.

Creating the table in InDesign.

Step 4 – Finish the layout.
The table was than copied and pasted into the Adobe Illustrator file.

The finished flyer with the table in place.

Step 5 – Put everything back into ‘Word’.
Finally, I exported the whole file from ‘Illustrator’ as a HiRes .JPG and placed that in a new empty ‘Word’ file and saved it for the client.

Job done, and quicker than if I’d had to do it in ‘Word’.

Veerle’s blog – A CSS styled table

Although the example is a lot more colourful than I needed, it lays out the principles of creating CSS tables really clearly.

And here’s the result. The technical specs are available to download as PDF files, but I wanted to duplicate them in HTML as well.

My CSS styled tables on the website

Veils & Vows are wedding planners, who specialise in creating stylish, bespoke weddings, and I was recommended to them by another of my clients.

The logo, photography and text for the website already existed. All I had to do was marry the three together (excuse the pun) in a suitable design.

Designing the initial pages of the Veils and Vows website