Net Work
Web Design
Beginning in 1998, I have done many designs and re-designs of both my own sites and for others. I progressed from the table layouts of the 90's through to the pure CSS designs of the current era. In some cases I have adapted and modified currently available designs to provide a personal look at a very affordable price for my clients. In other cases I have created new and original designs fitting the needs and desires of the customer. I am fluent in XHTML/CSS and have a working knowledge of Javascript and PHP.
Accessibility/Seo
My belief (and I'm not alone) is that accessibility, combined with good and relevant content, is the key to a successful website. By ensuring that your website is easily accessible to all types of browser and crawler without hinderence you both make it available to the largest possible audience and easier to index in search engines. In my work I have modified a site specifically for that without any other work, but all websites and designs that I have built from the outset have been with made with accessibility in mind. This means that the sites are search engine optimised by default.
Web Hosting
I'm currently hosting seven sites (including this one) on a shared hosting space in California, though I work from the UK. We can host fully interactive, database driven sites with no problem.
Some Examples
All the sites listed here are hosted on my webspace.
oonagi.co.uk - Created for the original music community in a South East region called Thanet. This was the first site that I built and the reason I have become interested in community building on the net. The site is a combination of three systems: e107 provides an initial news management system but doesn't include general user login, only administrators. The forum is powered by the popular phpbb3 software and shares user login with the sites wiki software. The wiki was originally deployed using PhpWiki but is now powered by Mediawiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia. The designs are mostly default for the software with a simple, common navigation bar of my own design.- manstongardenclub.co.uk - A small website for a village garden club. The site is built using Wordpress blogging software and includes Flickr integration to allow easy administration by members of the club. The theme is based on Cutline with some variations to better suit the club's profile.
- skillbanditz.com - Another site based on Wordpress, for this I simply set the system up on my hosting space with a basic framework and provided advice during the content creation period.
- nakedinthanet.com - After being ejected from yahoo space for pictures featuring nudity I offered to help this upcoming photographer by providing server space and a Gallery2 system with which to manage his catalogue.
- boxfire.org - This is a work in progress. I am building an evaluation system for Oxford events based on the Ruby programming language. The .org address will be used to host the code project, whereas boxfire.co.uk will host the site itself.
brogaracing.co.uk - A site in the final stages of construction. This is a completely original design for a car customisation specialist based in North Wales. I am building the site a Drupal base system and hosting on my server space.- skinofstars.com - You are here. This is built using Drupal software and hosted on my own space. At this time there is no individual design work as I am focusing on usability and content. As they say, "content is king".
All work I do is powered by Open Source Software. This both reduces any overheads by eliminating licensing costs and provides a flexibility unparalleled in proprietary solutions. If you are interested in having your site hosted, your web applications managed or even getting a fresh original design then please feel free to contact me: kevin@skinofstars.com for a personal quotation at 'mates rates'.