history
janleeks.com has now entered its fifth year of trading.
During this time janleeks.com has built up successful relationships with numerous digital design and development agencies, as well as assembling a diverse range of direct clients.
January 2007 - present day | janleeks.com
The last year has seen janleeks.com working for companies as far away as the Middle East, throughout Europe, and of course building a varied client base in the UK.
As part of our growth strategy, janleeks.com is now a limited, VAT-registered company.
janleeks.com is always on the lookout for talented people to join or work with, so please get in touch if you would like to discuss employment opportunities.
Prior to the start of janleeks.com, Jan Leeks whom heads up the business has a varied and interesting career, highlighted below.
December 1998 - January 2007 | Likemind Group/formerly Corporate Edge
During this time I was employed as head of development for the online team at Corporate Edge, a leading independent branding and design consultancy. The role changed drastically during this period as web design and development techniques evolved. It really was an amazing time to be working in this industry.
At Corporate Edge I worked on some extremely prestigious and award-winning web projects. This experience has given me an in-depth understanding of how businesses of different scales operate - from FTSE 100s to small charities.
Working for such varied clients also helped me to keep on top of the latest web development techniques. All work produced had to conform to best practice and legal standards. This provided me with extensive experience in the area of accessibility, generating code that passes many accreditations, including RNIB See it Right and Segala.
As well as web development work, my role at Corporate Edge also involved working on many Flash applications, enabling me to keep an eye on how Flash had evolved. I also acted as technical project manager, liaising with clients' technical teams and third party suppliers such as content management system (CMS) providers, web analytics providers, back-end developers and accessibility experts.
You can see examples of the projects I worked on at Corporate Edge in my portfolio.
April 1997 - December 1998 | Look Interactive
During this short period of time I once again teamed up with Bob Searles, MD of Associated Design Consultants (ADC). Bob knew I wanted to work full-time on digital work and decided to offer me the opportunity of going into a partnership with him. This partnership was called Look Interactive and ran as a sister company to ADC. Look was only in its embryonic stage when CLK.MPL (subsequently renamed Corporate Edge) approached ADC with an offer to merge. At this stage Look had produced a handful of websites and interactive CDs.
July 1996 - April 1997 | MPL
The role of IT/production manager at MPL was too big an opportunity for me to turn down. It was, with respect to ADC, the opportunity to work for a larger company with bigger clients. Although I was employed by MPL for less than a year, it was a fantastic time in my life. Opportunities in the online arena were minimal so when the opportunity came along to start something in this field with Bob Searles, I jumped at the chance. Perversely around time I left MPL, they announced they were going to buy themselves out of their group and become an independent design consultant with a merger with CLK. I didn’t realise at the time, but this would have a massive effect on my career.
September 1989 - July 1996 | Associated Design Consultants
Fresh from school at the age of 16, I managed to find myself a role at Associated Design Consultants (ADC), a mid-sized consultancy with a wide range of clients and projects. I was a keen school leaver who had ideas of going back to college after a year or so working for a design consultancy but this role changed my life completely.
Timing proved to be everything. ADC had only just invested in Apple Macintosh computers - an IICX if my memory serves me correctly. Hardly any of the designers could use the Mac but I was a natural and it wasn't long before I was knocking out typesetting, scanning and helping with artwork (along with those dreaded PMTs for those of you old enough to remember them!).
I soon became proficient with the operating system and it wasn't long before I was running the network and keeping the computers in order. Over the years I managed the growth of the network from two computers in 1989, to a large network by the time I moved on. I was fortunate to work for a company that gave me the opportunity to really learn and was often thrown in at the deep end.
By 1996 I was not only responsible for handling the entire network, back ups, filing systems and training, I was also a fully-fledged artworker producing print-ready Quark XPress, Photoshop and Illustrator files. Towards the end of my time at ADC the internet was beginning to become a serious medium - one that I was get involved in.
Down but not out productions part 2
Hi, A quick post about my most recent complete project. It is the redesign and re-build of the Down But [...]