Krimo's Web Designs...

In Spring 2008, I took a course in web design. Last month, I was invited to collect the certificate below. I could not make it though I wish I had, because the ceremony would have meant wearing a robe, hood and mortarboard.

So, I used my artistic licence to fit myself with a customised graduation dress.

Casa's Website is up...

They say practice makes perfect...
I say practice makes faster...
Casa's website was a piece of cake to do after Krimo's.
I'm hoping that Portofino's will be just as easy.

Eight weeks at the University of Teesside helped a lot. I've really enjoyed the exercise.
I wonder what I'll do once the web design is over...

Computer whizz...

Richard is the man who set up my first computer over fifteen years ago.
He is the computer whizz kid I call whenever there is a loose mouse in the house, a deadly virus bugging me or a simple case of forgetting to plug in something...
He doesn't just fix the problem, he also teaches me how to do it myself in case it happens again.

The fact that I got a first (yes, a FIRST, thank you very much!!) in the Web Design course I attended back in June, may not be all down to Richard but I could never ever have considered going for it had it not been for what I've learnt from him over the years.

Yersterday, Richard came to Portofino to upload my finished Krimo's website. You know, the one I've been building since I finished the course. And he was quite impressed, I think. After all, I have been a good student...
But then my server went down and we weren't able to see the new website online till this afternoon. It is not yet the finished product as I have been known to constantly tweak things but I am quite proud of it.
Please feel free to tell me what you think of it...
Sod's Law has brought down the server again, so you may not be able to admire my handywork...

Web design...

Since finishing the web design course at Teesside Uni, I have been playing web designer. I am thinking about taking up another course on Flash so there is a bit of movement in the website. We'll see if I have time...

Back to school...

Last night I started my University course. Design for web publishing!

It felt like the first day at school. Nerves. Expectation.

Does anyone remember the beautiful smell of new books?

There were no books but the Apple Imac computer made up for them. It was the first time I had worked with one of these technical marvels.

So slick compared to my work pc!

The first lesson was quite simple but very interesting. Those of us among the twenty-or-so students, who had a background knowledge of web design found a few new tricks with the Dreamweaver software.

The next lesson is on Wednesday when we'll be issued with our student card which will allow us 24-hour access to the facilities! Yeah, right!

When I came out I was horrified to find that my car was the only one left in a LOCKED car park in Middlesbrough. A frantic search for a janitor revealed that, though the car parks were not usually padlocked overnight, a new security firm that had just taken over appeared to have changed the rules.

A few phonecalls later, I was finally freed to nip into Central Park for a bowl of mussels and a tomato garlic bread to settle my nerves.

Can't wait for Wednesday!

Casa's Menu...

I spent yesterday working on Casa's menu front page.

Adam and I reorganised the menu to make sure all the different offerings were in one single folder and avoid confusion.

I reduced the square drawing which I did for the original menu and found that it was too small and stretching the image would have resulted in a loss of sharpness or as they say in the trade, "depixelation".

So, I got my magic Wacom tablet and added the surrounding illustration including some mosaics.

Piece of cake!

Next Monday evening, I join Teesside University!!!

To do a course in Design for Web Development! Can't wait to see what I learn to improve the look of our websites.