Re-designing the site for Staple’s Karate Studio was a very fun project. I was looking to make something that is simple, easy to navigate and get the required information about the business, and potentially sign up for Martial Arts classes. Subtle oriental design elements fit in with the Martial Arts business itself.
As long as I’ve been designing, one of the biggest gripes Web Designers have (other than Internet Explorer) is the limited stack of web-safe fonts. What we mean by web-safe fonts are fonts that are installed on a very high percentage of visitors Operating System. Web-safe fonts (Georgia, Arial, Verdana) work well, and are nice to show to the guests visiting a site designed by you.
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Brothers Construction is a professional Design/Build Construction firm. As a small business which focuses on form over function, they wanted a very simple and lightweight site to match their building identity.
Client:Hopped Up Beer
Project Description: Hopped Up Beer is a social networking site for Craft Beer enthusiasts and brewers. Built with Buddypress and a custom design that is currently in beta.
Client: Fantasy Race Team
Project Description: This design was created for Fantasy Race Team. It is a new type of Fantasy NASCAR and Auto Racing game that has each user control a team of drivers throughout an entire Racing Season. This is a Work In Progess and in Beta Testing for the 2010 Racing Season. This is a custom built PHP script as well as site that will be launching for the Second Half of the 2010 Nascar Series. There are also plans to make it for other racing series as well in the near future.
Client:TorqNetwork
Project Description: TorqNetwork is a new media forum and social website network that houses some of Andy’s Communities. The simplistic design is a work in progress during free time.
If you’re like me and one of the select few web designers and/or developers who doesn’t carry around an iPhone all day long I’d first off like to welcome you to our exclusive club. Secondly I’d like to point you to the Motorola Droid or other Android Phones (preferably the 2.0 android phones coming out soon). Its rare that a Web Designer isn’t an iPhone owner, but I have my reasonings, one large one is the network carrying the iPhone and its horrible service around Buffalo.
Anyways, No worries, because I’m in love with my Motorola Droid anyways. I’ve owned both, and personally recommend the Droid over the iPhone. One place where it does need some work is to get some more Web Design & Development Apps in the Marketplace. This is what I’ve found to be useful to me as a designer, I’ll keep this updated as new apps come out for the android platform.
(free)
If you’re a designer and don’t have Google Voice, this one might not help you too much, but I love this application. This is one of the “iDon’t” apps that the iPhone can’t use because of Apple’s App Store Restrictions. Anyways, It’ll let you sync your Google Voice account to your phone and even allow you to choose to make calls from your Google Voice Number all the time, internationally, or let you choose before each call. I find this great as my Business Phone Number is a Google Voice Number and being able to use my physical phone to call from that number is a great feature and one of the big selling points of this phone to me. If you don’t yet have a Google Voice account, let me know and If I’ve got any invites I’ll send one your way.
(free)
This is a simple, yet handy cheat sheet that has CSS Elements that are in a dropdown category system for quick and easy navigation and searching.
(free – requires RTM Pro Account)
Remember The Milk is one of the fastest and easiest to use task lists on mobile devices. The Pro Account for Remember the Milk is only $25.00 and if it saves you even a few hours in time you’d otherwise not have organized it has already done its job.
(free or paid)
There are literally a ton of Google Analytics Apps in the Marketplace for you to choose from, but I do suggest grabbing one that you enjoy. I’ve yet to test them all, so if you’ve got suggestions as to what GA apps are the best don’t hesitate to let everyone know in the comments.
(free)
This is another App that is for a specific piece of software, but this is one of the most popular CMS/Blogging Platforms in the world. wpToGo is a fast and easy way to connect to your WordPress Blog via mobile and add posts. There are some features I’d like to see added in either a paid version, or updated free version but this is still a very good app so far.
(free)
Mind Map Memo is a free app that lets you easily create mind maps while on your android device. It works quite well with my Droid and makes what would seem to be a tedious process on a mobile device quite simple and powerful. I love to use mind-mapping software to organize my thoughts and ideas so this is a must have for me.
One thing that I do really enjoy is the Google Calendar that comes installed on the Motorola Droid. I won’t list that since its a common thing for most Android phones.
I’ll be updating this as more apps become available or I discover some that I have yet to run across. If you’ve got any apps that help you out with your design or management add a comment and I’ll check them out and possibly add them to the list.
I’ve got some exciting news; I’ll be attending my first ever Wordcamp on November 14th and 15th in NYC. Very excited to go to one and have been trying to get to one for a couple years now. As most of our clients know we almost always suggest wordpress as a CMS or blog for our sites because it is so flexible, powerful and open source. If you’re going and would like to meet just let me know as I’m looking to network with as many people as I can during the event.
More information on Wordcamp NYC
