Amanda Hannen Photography

New website showcases the work of Amanda Hannen Photography.

Amanda Hannen specialises in creating high quality creative images.  She covers a range of disciplines from editorial and commercial photography to portraits and weddings.  Her recent work has included a collection of images to capture the spirit of North Shields Library and a personal look at the experience of seeking asylum in the North East.

Amanda asked me to develop a site that would help to showcase her portfolio of photographs.  The site needed to be clean and simple and put the images centre stage.  It had to look great on a wide range of devices and screen sizes, from small mobile devices to large desktop monitors.  She also wanted to incorporate a blog so that she could write more about her experience of taking photographs.

The site provides a way for Amanda to meet these requirements and display her best shots without having to be concerned about the complexities of managing a website.  Using a content management system allows her to manage the website easily by herself.  She can add new images and galleries, move pages and post new articles – all at the click of a button.  She also has the ability to add private password protected pages to display work to clients.

To make sure the site was accessible to the widest range of devices, including iPhones and iPads, the galleries use JavaScript rather than Flash.  In addition the home page automatically adapts to the size of the devices it is viewed on.

Talking about the development of the website, Amanda said:

“William listened to what I thought I needed, helped me work out what I actually needed and always took the time to explain the technical aspects of the site. He was approachable and professional throughout. I would highly recommend William to any small business.”

I recommend that you visit the site yourself to see a stunning selection of photos:  Amanda Hannen Photography

Launchpad Marketing

More than ever, businesses need support to help them grow and develop and Launchpad Marketing aims to help them do just that.

The new service, which was launched last week, provides free marketing resources, workshops and individualised support.  Launchpad Marketing was set up by Melanie Hill, who has been advising and developing small businesses across the North East for several years now.  Melanie has a great deal of experience in managing and developing brands and products and wants to use this experience to help support other businesses.

An online presence for the new business is essential, and I was very pleased to help Melanie by developing a modern, attractive website for her. The site features an eye catching banner animation on the home page and has tight integration with social media.  WordPress was chosen as the content management system, which enables Melanie to easily and quickly keep the site updated and add new content.

Talking about the new website, Melanie said:

“I cannot recommend William highly enough for his knowledge of WordPress. He undertook the development of my site at very short notice and delivered on time and on budget. He demonstrated an excellent understanding of my development brief and produced a site which is perfect for my needs. William also provided training on the use of the site and how to update it with new posts and content, which was invaluable. William is a great developer but more importantly can translate this knowledge to the average layperson in a clear, concise way. I have no hesitation in recommending William for the development of WordPress websites.”

Visit the website to find out more:  Launchpad Marketing

Schmazz

Tyneside jazz promoter, Schmazz, launched its new website this week to promote its upcoming gigs. Schmazz aims to bring excellent original jazz to Tyneside and has a monthly programme of gigs, which are mainly held at The Cluny in Newcastle.

Schmazz’s previous website had served them well for the last ten years, but they felt it needed an update. They asked me to modernise the site and make it easier for them to manage.  I provided them with a custom-built site using WordPress as a content management system.  This allows them to manage their upcoming gigs through a easy-to-use web-based interface.  They no longer need to worry about the technicalities of HTML and FTP to keep their site updated.

The integrated events calendar makes it easy to find upcoming gigs and once you’ve found a gig you want to attend you can add it directly to your calendar using the iCal download.  Alternatively, to keep informed of the latest events, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds for news or events.

Behind the scenes the site uses the latest web technologies with HTML5 and a smattering of CSS3.

On launching the website, Diane Jones of Schmazz said:

“We’re really pleased with our new website, it looks good and it works well! It’s very easy for us to update and maintain and there’s scope for us to add a lot more pictures and sound clips in the future. In the process of planning the new site, it was a pleasure to work with William, he explained everything clearly and was very patient while our committee made decisions… So thanks very much William, and we would certainly be pleased to recommend you to anyone looking to develop a new website!”

See the site for yourself at: Schmazz

VONNE’s Blog judged best blog at SMACS Awards 2010

The ICT section of VONNE’s blog was judged best blog at North East award ceremony, the SMACS, on Friday.

I was very proud to receive an award for this site, which was launched in May.  However, most of the credit should go to Andrew Samuel (Sam) at VONNE for his entertaining and informative blogging style.  Well done Sam!

Congratulations to all the other winners of the SMACS 2010.

You can read Sam’s blog here: VONNE’s ICT Blog

… and you can view the coverage in the Journal here: Awards aplenty for the best business websites

VONNE Blog

Regional voluntary and community sector organisation, VONNE, launched their new blog today. The idea of the blog is to give VONNE’s staff the opportunity to comment on issues of relevance to their members.  It will complement their popular website, which is well used by charities and other voluntary organisations across the North East.

Having worked as Information and Communications Officer at VONNE for three years I have a good idea of the needs of the organisation.  I wanted the site to be clean, simple and easy to use.  It also needed to complement VONNE’s main website, which I achieved through the use of the colour scheme and a consistent header.  I anticipate that there will be a good number of posts on the blog so I made sure that it was easy to find them – they can be selected by policy area, author, date or tag.  News feeds are available throughout the site and allow visitors to subscribe to posts in a particular policy area, from a particular author or with a particular tag.  You can even subscribe to the comments on an individual post – useful if there is a lively discussion that you want to follow.

The site uses standards compliant XHTML and CSS and follows best practice for accessibility and usability.  It is all built with the popular Open Source blogging platform, WordPress, which means it is very easy for staff to add their own posts and maintain the site.

Information and Communications Manager, Carrie Brookes, said:

“The blog is great – easy to use, clear and simple. It mimicks the design of our main VONNE website but still retains its own identity. William enabled lots of useful features such as looking at posts in different ways, by author, date, tag or policy area. We’re really happy with it and most importantly staff have embraced it by using it straight away. Just what we asked for from William.”

Have a look for yourself:  VONNE Blog

The Comfrey Project

The Comfrey Project supports the health and well-being of refugees through horticultural sessions at allotments in Newcastle and Gateshead. I know the charity very well, having volunteered there now for about six years. I was therefore very pleased to be asked to design a new website for them.

The brief was to create an attractive site that was simple for the staff to use and easy for them to update. They also wanted to incorporate their new logo and highlight the fact that they had recently been awarded Guardian Charity of the Year 2009.

Manager, Jayne Butler, said:

“William spent time at the start of the process of designing the website by working with us to understand what we wanted to get from it and who we were aiming it at. All the way through the process he kept in touch and helped us to understand how things worked and make our website more accessible. The result is a great website that looks great, is really suited to our needs, and importantly, one that we can maintain and update ourselves, with minimum effort. We’re really pleased with the results and really enjoyed working with William to achieve this.”

See the site for yourself:  The Comfrey Project