jansblog

Hello,

It’s been some time since my last post, so Happy 2010.

I realised earlier this month that it’s three years since I left my full-time employment at Corporate Edge (now likemind) and started up my own business. Today is the third year anniversary. (Well at least it feels like today as I finished on the last Friday of January 2007).

I have to say it’s been an amazing three years, both professionally and personally – fun, hard, rewarding and brilliant.

So a quick thanks to all the companies and individuals who have worked with me in that time, long may our relationships continue.

I’ve had a busy few months since my last post.

One project I am proud of is down but not out productions a very different project from my normal. This is an online store, blog and website for the clothing brand created by youmeatsix’s front-man Josh Franceschi.

Working on a website like this was a fun and interesting experience. This is just phase one of the site, so keep an eye for future updates, new clothing and accessories.

I also have another project for this client in the pipeline right now, so more information on that soon.

I’ve also undertaken a large update to the dataquestuk site.

I have built another wordpress site, this time for the UK Film Council – a site about raising awareness on green issues in the Film making industry.

I worked with AKGConsulting on this site, cheers guys. Check out Greenfilm.info

I have also worked on my first expression engine project, the build and backend for brightspark. This site is basically a libary of videos created by brightspark. The site allows the client to fully administer the site’s content and video libraries. (You have to sign up to see more than the three videos on the homepage). I will be adding a further level to the site shortly, a client specific extranet.

I’ve also been doing lots of other bits and pieces including some work for my friends at ibrow and some work with my old crew at likemind.

Well I’m off to dream about an iPad…

hello,

I know it’s been ages since I have posted anything. It’s been a manic few months, and I have just not had time to post anything.

Yesterday, I moved home and so also office. I am tapping this away in my temporary office in the new house. It says something when the first thing you have to unpack is your computers and hard drives. Still we are (kind of) set up and rolling, so I can keep all of my clients happy – and I’m pleased to say that at the moment I am very very busy.

Since September when I last posted, I have worked on several project both directly, and as part of collaborations. Unfortunately I can’t speak about all of them here yet, but here are some names and companies I have been working for and with.

I’ve been working with my friends at Corporate Edge Branding on a number of online treatments for new brands, including animated idents – thanks guys.

An interesting project for my friends in Germany, hello ibrow -working on version 2 of this project right now.

Also worked with the lovely weare:london on new templates for the new NSPCC website (amongst other things), thanks gang.

I’ve also been doing lots of email marketing work for my friends at Uffindell West, many thanks.

I’ve also worked on a number of smaller websites, including ignitefire and the website for Agency Bell, cheers tony and samantha.

Currently, like I said working on a lovely project with ibrow. I’m also working on version 2 of dataquests’ website (launching next week – if I can get all the work done this weekend)! and another exciting new project that will also launch shortly. I will write a specific post about this next week – as its something a little different for me.

Future work is also lined up for the rest of the year, and several irons in several fires for 2010.

Thanks

Jan

p.s. good luck Peter Cameron on your new life in Vietnam – please follow peters exploits at http://blog.runawaypancake.co.uk/

Hello,

Having (only yesterday) installed Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6 to those who like numbers) to my mac book pro, I felt I had to post something positive about it. Such a speed improvement (I guess it helps that I have a very fast laptop with lots of ram anyway), compared to the previous incarnation of OSX. Rebooting is much faster, and I have noticed simple things like opening applications, iTunes, and iphoto and general use has seems much slicker. Long may it continue.

Whilst talking about apple, I have recently purchased a morphie Juice Pack for my iphone. I was finding (quite often), when out for a days meeting that my iphone was running out of power. Bearing in mind, we use these devices for music, games, email etc etc, its no wonder the battery is under stress.

I’ve found the morphie Juice Pack to be most useful. Yes it does make the unit a bit more bulky, but it’s just so handy to be able to re-charge your iphone half way through the day. A good purchase, and one I would recommend, unless of course you have the new iphone 3GS. I’ve heard from a friend that the battery life is much improved.

I also recently purchased a Kensington Hands Free Visor Kit for my iphone. This bluetooth device slips onto the visor in your car, and very neatly connects to your iphone. The bluetooth connection is very good, and as soon as you turn the unit on the iphone connects. All very easy.

Furthermore when you get out of your car (and forget to turn it off) the kit turns off soon after no bluetooth activity, thus saving the battery. The only problem I have had is when driving on the motorway it can be a little difficult to hear, but a vast improvement to my previous apple bluetooth headset.

I’ve been a busy man of late, not all at work mind you.

The week before last I got a few pals together from the local pub, and headed down to Goodwood for the day. Now I’m not a seasoned gambler, but I like a punt based on the name, maybe even as scientific as the colour and odds.

Unfortunately for me my process didn’t bear my and fruits and I lost on every race. That said a great day was had by all – we were very lucky with the weather, so it’s not all bad.

As well as going to Goodwood, I have been away from the office catching up with several of my clients, partners and friends. It was really good to catch up with the old digital team from the Corporate Edge days last week, nice to see you all (shame some of you couldn’t make it), especially nice to see Tara over from India (or is it Africa now)?

This last few weeks has also been an impressive time for leads, and new business. Thanks to my friends at designwerk, I have just finished the first website of four for my new friends at Bitch Productions. Thanks very much for the lead and the work. More on those sites as they are published. I will be using Expression Engine on two of those sites, and will let you know how I find that experience shortly. Having heard such good things about the system I am eager to get into it.

Again thanks to designwerk for the introduction this week to another potential new client, this site will be a new area of business for me as it’s for a nightclub promotions company. More to come soon.

I caught up with Ross and Jean from K&M Decorating Limited this week (thanks for lunch). We are plotting the next steps of their website, and I’m pleased to say they are delighted with the work undertaken so far – next stage to include online questionnaire, blogging and much more .

I’ve also just hear that a partner of mine and I have just won an interesting project for the early Autumn, more on that soon but it will be a real feather in our hats. This will be another Wordpress based site.

Well the footy season starts this week, and I can’t wait to enjoy the games again. I have got tickets for the first home game at the Emirates Saturday week, and will be looking forward to catching up with my gooner friends for a few beers  and some banter.

Well must crack on, enjoy the sunshine if/while it lasts.

It’s been a fairly busy few weeks since my last post.

I’ve been working with my friends at Inaria on templates and online store integration on a site promoting and selling QMSMEDICOSMETICS products. The online store is not available yet, but you can see the basic site at http://www.drschulte.com/homepage.html

I’ve also been collaborating with my pals over at Uffindell West on a couple of website development projects that will be up and running very soon.

Later this month I will be working on a project with my friends over at weare:London again. Very much looking forward to that, as it’s been a month or so since we have worked together.

I’ve also been attending several meetings in the last fortnight, regarding some interesting projects and possible collaborations that should hopefully prove fruitful.

Currently I am beginning a project for a video production house, the first of four websites. Two of which are small HTML sites, but the other two are to be content managed, with password protected areas and many other functions. Watch this space for more news on those.

Bye for now.

I’m pleased to tell you that we have just launched the new website for K&M Decorating Limited.

K&M Decorating are a London based decorating contractor, who have been plying their trade since 1988. This large organisation employs over 100 decorators and work in a number of decorating sectors.

K&M needed a website that allowed them to promote their business and services. The main focus of the site is the large portfolio of work that is divided into operating sectors.

This is just phase 1 of the site, we are hoping over the next year to build in a news/blog, twitter integration, and email newsletter functionality.

Please have a good look around: http://www.kmdecorating.co.uk

Thanks

Hello and welcome to my new website. It’s been a while coming, but I have finally found the time to get it transferred from my development environment.

There are a couple of things wrong with the new site, but hopefully I will have them sorted very shortly.

I hope you like the new look, I have several new case studies to go up in the next few days. Please, if you see anything you may think is incorrect, please let me know.

It’s been a couple of months since I have posted a blog entry, mainly because I have been working on the new site design and build. I have also been using twitter alot more for micro-blogging, but now my site is fully in the wordpress environment I intend to start posting regular news again.

So since April, its been a busy time.

I have been working on several different projects for a number of my partner organisations, including projects with weare:london, uffindell west, dot digital group, Corporate Edge Branding, Likemind, Inaria as well as working on several projects for my own clients. These include a major update to the blinds4uk site, near completion of K&M Decorators site (very very soon) and other smaller projects too numerous to mention.

Thats all for now, thanks.

So far 2009 has been an interesting year. In these uncertain economic times, one can’t help being worried about how it will effect you. I’ve found that things were definitely much quieter at the start of the year, in fact January and the first half of February were very quiet.

Of course, this gave me the opportunity to catch up on some projects that had gone dormant, and catch up with a few of my clients and friends. I find it always good to get out and see people, and meet new contacts regularly – remind people that I’m still here and keen to work.

Then things went crazy busy, turning work away and really getting going again. I hate to turn work away, but being realistic in delivery is a highest priority for me. So some opportunities were missed, but thanks to all those who have offered me work this year, even if I have not taken the projects on.

As per the title of this post, it’s been very quick of late but having just completed a nice little project with my friends at weare:london, i’ve got a little spare time.

The project is for a major travel company, and is a sports related site. My role in this one was to create all the templates and integrate the whole thing into WordPress.

Now that that project is out of the way, i’m taking a few quiet days and hopefully finally completing my new website, that is also completely administered thought WordPress.

Upcoming projects include the completion of K&M Decorators website that pretty much just needs the portfolio completing. I also have an online store to build toward the end of April with my friends at Inaria.

I’ve also got a few other projects on the horizon for a mortgage company that specialises in expats, an interior design company and a motor accessories business. Lots of other proposals flying out too, so more to come soon. Keep coming back, as the new site should be ready by the end of next week.

Hi,

Just launched a new website for Quest Property Services.

It’s a simple site, advertising the services provided by Quest Property Services, along with a registration form, contact details etc. This is just a phase 1, for Quest Property Services and in the future we may look at creating their own property database. For now the site simply links to findaproperty.co.uk.

Please let me know what you think of this site.

Other news, well I am currently bang in the middle of a re-design of the janleeks.com site. The new site will be run through WordPress and should be up and running by the middle of March.

Ongoing work for several clients, I will hopefully have the site for K&M Decorators complete by the middle of March also.

Currently in talks with several companies and organisations regarding all manner of online endeavours.

Please return soon to see the progress on all of these forthcoming projects.

P.S. Still loving media temple (mt).

Hello and Valentine’s wishes to all!

Love is in the air, and I’m in love with my new webserver that I purchased this week.

After a dreadful relationship with EasySpace and their EasyVserver, I decided to break up, having the service for a month and having working access for about 24 hours.

I will still use easyspace for domains, and small website hosting that I don’t put on my server but that’s all.

My new service is with the ultra-cool media temple. A looker no doubt!

You can have a look at their services at http://mediatemple.net/, I have gone for their entry level Grid service, but I understand they will soon have a faster more reliable cluster service (coming this year). I will no doubt upgrade, but for now having a solution that works fills me with love. I will soon have my new website up and running on this server so more news on that soon. The only issue I have had so far is that it’s been a little slower than my previous service, but it works and that is a big plus!

I’ve also been getting acquainted with my NAS in the last month, and that has been a difficult, but I think I might be finally falling for the charms of the little Thecus N299.
Inside this cute little box you will find 2×500GB hard drives that I have set to mirror.

Getting this box working was a nightmare I have to admit, first up SCAN recommended 2×1TB drives for the box, which it later turns out are incompatible. The fan also sounds like a low flying space cruiser, so if you are interested I would recommend getting hold of a nice quiet replacement fan (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=555F) before you get a headache… And you will, configuring this annoying little box can be very frustrating.

Still as I said, touch wood, I now have a NAS that is mirroring all my data and being seen by my whole network. When I’m feeling a little more adventurous I’m going to set it up as a media/itunes server and see how that works. All these features are built into this little bundle of chips. More on our ongoing relationship soon.

As for work, well I have recently hooked up with a new flame in the dotdigitalgroup. Our brief fling so far has been on me building templates for their new group site http://www.dotdigitalgroup.com/ but I think we are both hoping to do some more work together in the near future. Check out dotDigital and their range of products and services, the most well known are dotMailer and dotEditor.

It’s been proposal crazy this month, and without going into too much detail if one or two of those come off I will be mega busy… Fingers crossed.

Well I think I have done enough relationship and feeling puns for one blog post, so I will LOVE you and Leave you x