There is a great article over at FreelanceSwitch called 60 More Places to Get Design Inspiration - Online and Off.

Also, I have just rediscovered my love of COLOURlovers - check em out!

Ok, so its 50 days until International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and I have come up with the following flyers for you to print out and distribute (one is UK and the other is International).

Click the thumbnails to see the full-size version (A4 size so get to printing):

69% GeekMingle²

Okay, some of you have asked what sites I use for my design resources, so now I give them to you in alll of their glory!

They are all listed under the Design Resources link and are appropriatly categorised.

Enjoy my pretties!

Since my new role is including quite a bit of design, I have decided to use alot of Web 2.0 design styles.

I have determined that they all have the following commonalities:

• Simple layout
• Centered orientation
• Design the content, not the page
• 3D effects, used sparingly
• Soft, neutral background colours
• Strong colour, used sparingly
• Cute icons, used sparingly
• Plenty of whitespace
• Nice big text

Do you know of any others?

Do you have any fave web 2.0 sites?

If so, please share.

Numerous people have been writing in asking how much should a well-designed website should cost.

I have come up with the following ESTIMATES:

Informational/small business web site cost:
8 to 16 web pages
Custom graphics
Stock photos
Little or no flash
Web forms sending to email accounts
Project duration: 30 to 75 days
Web site cost range: £2,000 to £6,000

Corporate (100 or more employees) web site cost
25 to 75 web pages
Heavy use of flash
High quality design work on all web pages
Content management system
Extra components: Intranet, calendars, web site search
Project duration: 60 to 90 days
Web site cost range: £10,000 to £25,000

Ecommerce web site cost
100 to 1000 products
Shopping cart
Payment gateway integration
Product descriptions and images
Sales tax and shipping calculation
Customer and administrative control panel
Project duration: 60 to 120 days
Web site cost range: £5,000 to £15,000

Database driven website or web application
Dynamic web pages 20 to 2,000
Administrative control panel for web site management
Advanced programming skill sets required
Interactivity with web site visitor
Enterprise database (MS SQL Server or MySQL)
Project duration: 90 to 180 days
Web site cost range: £6,000 to £35,000

I hope this answers your questions, and if you want to enquire about my services, please email me or visit my portfolio.

Started my new job last week and I must say that I LOVE IT!

I have all of the responsibilty of a freelancer, the budget of a very successful company, and a regular (and pretty damn good) salary.

I have great benefits, good healthcare, and colleagues I respect.

I get to travel with my role, and will enjoy meeting all of the different people at all of our locations. Luckily, our headquarters is close to home.

My title is a very formal one, and luckily most people do not see that as threatening, I think.

I really love my role as well. I spend equal amounts of time developing and designing at the moment, and I get great pleasure from the two. In the coming months I will be implementing new information systems and streamlining current ones, so it looks like I will have plenty of challenges.

The people I work with are very professional and carry vast amounts of knowledge. I have learned so much in the past two weeks about this industry, and I am sure there is much much more to learn.

Do you know what motivates a programmer?

I just read a great article about what motivates programmers over at Assemble Ron - click here to check it out!

As I go through some of the photos taken by friends and family, I am adding them to the gallery.

The professional ones will be back in a few weeks!

Off to our honeymoon, back in a week!

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, not the jobs, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.

Today then I am resigning from the hurly burly of the company but I will take with me many memories of a role that was stimulating, challenging and usually far too relaxed.

I thank you for your kindness and your consideration.

I will leave you with a few of my favourite quotes that will hopefully help you get through your days:

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. Is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be. You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I hope that my achievements in life shall be these - that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need that I will have left the earth a better place for what I’ve done and who I’ve been. ~C. Hoppe

The important thing is not to stop questioning. ~Albert Einstein

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

Attitude
You are optimistic and enthusiastic about your future. However, your impatience causes you to overlook details and ignore choices previously made. You are abstract and imaginative, and enjoy philosophy.

Mental Abilty
You learn slowly, by repetition. You begin with the most fundamental parts, skip nothing, and do not jump around. You make decisions very carefully.

Communication
You keep your inner-most thoughts to yourself. However, you enjoy discussions and are receptive to other opinions. You can be deceitful to yourself.

Goals
You set ambitious, long term goals, though sometimes vague. Fortunately, you have strong will-power, enthusiasm, endurance, and self-confidence, helping you to achieve those goals.

Self Image
You are confident and self-assured, and resultantly set ambitious, long-term goals. However, you are also sensitive to criticism and need approval.

Emotional
You are a cautious person who thinks carefully before acting. You keep feelings inside and do not express them openly, in order to protect yourself. However, you can be empathetic and sympathetic, and forgive and forget quickly.

Social Skills
You are a solitary person, and desire to work alone, and be alone most of the time. However, you do feel isolated sometimes.