Big Catch Website
February 12, 2009 by Duncan · 2 Comments
Well the Big Catch Fish and Chips Family Restaurant website is complete and was launched this afternoon. The web site was the last part of the huge project which included logo and full branding, 10 30 x 40” poster, vinyl wall netting installations, takeout menus, a 13 x 5 foot menu board and storefront signage.
This is only the second time I have had the pleasure to design a full package project from the ground up and I have to say as challenging as it was I really enjoyed it. Anyways on to the Big Catch web page.
I would like to start off by saying that once again I have programmed and coded a web site which validates with strict compliance. It has been tested in all browsers even that old piece of crap ie6 and works flawlessly across the board.
When I first started researching fish and chip shop websites all over the world I quickly noticed that most never had a site and those that did never really put any effort in to them. So right off the bat I not only wanted to outdo all the competition but I wanted to annihilate them all.
I began drawing some mockups and decided that this website was going to have a lot of character and I also wanted to have an animation of the sea. After playing around and figuring out how I was going to execute the effect the rest of the site kind of just fell into place.
The web site has a few other little interesting tidbits and graphics that I will leave as a surprise. Not only did I have a blast working on the website but I really enjoyed the whole project, it challenged me and allowed me to use a lot of skills that I haven’t used in a while and it taught me a few new ones.
Visit the website
ElectroGuy Website
December 10, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Electroguy Website
Just completed another o2ecs web project for the ElectroGuy which launched today. The ElectroGuy is a technology specialist who provides the installation and service for many different technologies such as security, computers, internet, satellites and electronics.
The site was designed in Photoshop then sliced up and programmed with some XHTML 1.0 strict compliant code. The main idea behind the side is to show the audience that the ElectroGuy services all sorts of clients from the city to the country and everyone in between.
To get this point across we literally created a landscape graphic of the big city (in this case Toronto) morphing into the countryside. A silhouette of a satellite dish pointing to the company logo was added to give the eye a more interesting course to follow.
And speaking of the company logo it wouldn’t be much of a Digital Deceptions creation if I didn’t add a little animation to really give it a personality. When you mouse over the ElectroGuy logo it electrifies and right below that I have placed a wind turbine which produces electricity (are you getting the theme here?) giving the landscape graphic that element of the third dimension.
All in all this project isn’t the most complex I’ve worked on but just like the ElectroGuy I to work with clients of many different sizes and I’m able to provide them with solutions to their problems no matter how large or small they are.
Visit the website
Getting Caught in the Web of Technologies
September 8, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Well the redesigned site has been up for a week now and I have been looking through and comparing the old site statistics and have been pretty impressed with the amount of unique visitors and the length of time they have been staying on the Free Lance site.
The last five Digital Deceptions sites have either been full Flash sites or hybrids (using both Flash and HTML) which as with most technologies have their pros and cons.
Back in early 2000 when I was in college Flash was quite new and everyone wanted to use it. I’m sure you all remember those huge Flash intros; you could literally wait a couple of minutes just to see a company’s logo spin and they probably paid a fortune for it as well.
After finishing school and coming from a multimedia program I naturally used Flash to create most of my websites. I would be lying if I said that Flash wasn’t always my first choice because I definitely felt more comfortable with it as opposed to other web platforms, but if a clients website didn’t need to be animated, flashy (for lack of a better word), contain music, video or their target audience was much older I used Flash very sparingly if at all.
Most of the work I did was a reflection of my own website Digital Deceptions, clients would say “I loved what you did on this or that project” and usually to achieve what they wanted the only option was Flash, that’s why they came to me. So I guess what has made me stand out from the crowd has also kind of painted me into a corner in some respects.
To Flash or Not to Flash
I have never liked being pinned down or labeled a one trick pony and to me being the go to Flash guy was just that. Way back in college one of my teachers noticed I started all of my designs on a black background and he told me to get out of that kind of habit right away and use colours that I am not comfortable with or he would choose the colour palette for me which happened to be one of the final assignments that I already had plenty of practice at.
So once again I have come out of my comfort zone by making the latest Digital Deceptions website The Free Lance which is PHP and database driven. Just because it much more search engine friendly the traffic to my site has almost tripled and the average time visitors stay on the site has multiplied tenfold which is one of the major goals I wanted to accomplish with the latest build.
Don’t get me wrong I still love to use Flash and I’m very aware of its uses both good and bad believing it has a time and a place in certain projects, for instance I have used it for the search box in my website because I could customize the look of it much more closely to resemble the look and feel of the site’s design.
Is the Medium the Message?
In the end as with any project it is about the message and the information you are trying to get across to your audience, whatever technologies you use are just tools to support those ideas and shouldn’t in any way dictate anything different.
Being your own boss we as freelance designers sometimes get caught up in all these technologies and get lost forgetting the fundamentals, so as with any business model it is a good idea to evaluate your game plan. It is also a good idea to reevaluate your skills, equipment, what technologies you use and make any necessary adjustments before they become major changes.
Comma Recruitment Website
September 4, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Comma Recruitment Website
Comma is in the Recruitment business which is an industry that I never really knew anything about. Upon meeting with the client a few times and doing some research myself I quickly found out that it is very competitive and each company can cater to many different fields and professions.
With this in mind the website was created in a way that it could easily grow with Comma into any direction that they want to take their business to.
The site was build using PHP and some of the highlights include a logo rollover and Toronto city skyline animation as well as a secure email system allowing candidates to attach their resumes right from the site.
Visit their website
Unique Auto Tinting Website
September 4, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Unique Auto Tinting Website
Unique Auto Tinting is the first website I have done in the automotive industry and I have actually been dying to go into that direction ever since first playing Grand Theft Auto III…lol. So the idea behind this one was simple, “what if a tinting shop in GTA had a website?”
The client showed me a couple of websites from his local competitors and we took a look at what they did right and where they went wrong, what the client was really looking to do was make his competition’s websites look dated and leave them in the dust.
The website is Flash based due to some decent sized animations; some highlights of the site include an XML image gallery, custom map and Tint Simulator. Unlike the client’s competition he was very pleased with the gritty and aggressive look and feel of his new site.
Visit their website
