Catstache Design, LLC finished it's first website yesterday. While it would have taken all of a week or two had I been working full time, it ended up taking nearly a month. Productivity really takes a hit when 3/4s of one's time is suddenly involved in going to classes and working on homework.
Anyway it's a simple WordPress site, with custom home, contact, and portfolio page templates. I did have to fork a plugin that added a page widget, but overall it wasn't too complex. You can check it out at:
www.dggraphicsigns.com
The most complex part was figuring out how to install WordPress on a Network Solutions hosting package. There were several tutorials, all of which were out of date. Didn't help that their control panel is pretty terribly designed. But in the end it got figured out.
We're starting on our next project already. The initial design work was completed over the summer but it got delayed. And someday I need to find time to actually build out own site. Someday ...
Showing posts with label Catstache Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catstache Design. Show all posts
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
No I'm Not Dead
Yeah it's been almost three weeks, but don't worry, I'm still around. Life has just gotten really busy (Work, getting ready for school, a new g/f). But it's been fun. Catstache is on it's way, we're halfway through designing and building our first website. (Which I'll talk about more later).
The main topic of this post is about online presence. My own specifically. My full name is Andrew Z Mercer. So how do I go about starting a personal website about myself? I could choose andrewzmercer.com. That's a bit long. andrewmercer.com, andymercer.com, azmercer, amercer.com. So many to choose from. Plus, several are already taken.
The best bet is to wait until there's a good deal on cheap domain names, and then grab them all, and have 'em auto forward to the one I want to use primarily. So I'd pick andrewmercer.com. Then if someone goes to andymercer.com, they land on my website at andrewmercer.com.
The biggest problem is as mentioned above, the best ones are already taken. But hardly used well. AndyMercer.com for example is a single page in dedication to another Andy Mercer, who died in '08. AndrewMercer.com is a blank white page. The latter especially, isn't really being used. The key then, is just grab what is available now, and then over the next few years be watchful and when something pops up, grab it too. URLs are pretty cheap to maintain.
The main topic of this post is about online presence. My own specifically. My full name is Andrew Z Mercer. So how do I go about starting a personal website about myself? I could choose andrewzmercer.com. That's a bit long. andrewmercer.com, andymercer.com, azmercer, amercer.com. So many to choose from. Plus, several are already taken.
The best bet is to wait until there's a good deal on cheap domain names, and then grab them all, and have 'em auto forward to the one I want to use primarily. So I'd pick andrewmercer.com. Then if someone goes to andymercer.com, they land on my website at andrewmercer.com.
The biggest problem is as mentioned above, the best ones are already taken. But hardly used well. AndyMercer.com for example is a single page in dedication to another Andy Mercer, who died in '08. AndrewMercer.com is a blank white page. The latter especially, isn't really being used. The key then, is just grab what is available now, and then over the next few years be watchful and when something pops up, grab it too. URLs are pretty cheap to maintain.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Misc Updates
Been nearly 2 weeks since I last touched this blog. You might notice a new name though. No longer do you have to type in .blogspot between the name and .com. 1and1 was having a weekend special, URLs for $0.99, so I picked up thephilosophicalgeek.com. A small thing, but it makes me happy.
Catstache is finally fully official as well, we now have an operating agreement and a bank account, so we can finally start our first project. Additionally I've been picking up some work for TKOSEO, which has been nice. It'll be my first legit paycheck since December.
In other news, I mentioned several weeks ago that I was going out. And while things haven't been perfect, she hasn't told me to jump in a lake yet, so that's good! I'm going to see the new Spiderman movie with her later this week; I'm looking forward to it.
I'm going to try to start posting some things about Wordpress here soon. The stuff I've been doing for TKOSEO has been theme building from scratch, which has involved a lot of backend work. I've learned more about Wordpress in the past two weeks than any time before combined, and my first theme has a custom backend menu page that can change all sorts of options.
Hopefully I'll have time to start writing up some of the basics here. There are many advanced tutorials on the internet. But very few basic ones; everyone assumes the reader is familiar with Wordpress development.
Anyway, hopefully we won't have any more 2 week gaps here. Depends on time, as does everything.
Catstache is finally fully official as well, we now have an operating agreement and a bank account, so we can finally start our first project. Additionally I've been picking up some work for TKOSEO, which has been nice. It'll be my first legit paycheck since December.
In other news, I mentioned several weeks ago that I was going out. And while things haven't been perfect, she hasn't told me to jump in a lake yet, so that's good! I'm going to see the new Spiderman movie with her later this week; I'm looking forward to it.
I'm going to try to start posting some things about Wordpress here soon. The stuff I've been doing for TKOSEO has been theme building from scratch, which has involved a lot of backend work. I've learned more about Wordpress in the past two weeks than any time before combined, and my first theme has a custom backend menu page that can change all sorts of options.
Hopefully I'll have time to start writing up some of the basics here. There are many advanced tutorials on the internet. But very few basic ones; everyone assumes the reader is familiar with Wordpress development.
Anyway, hopefully we won't have any more 2 week gaps here. Depends on time, as does everything.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Catstache is Oficial
Well as of two days ago, Catstache Design is an officially registered LLC with the Indiana Dept of State, and the IRS. We're still working on getting our Articles of Incorporation written, but it should be done shortly
In addition, both my partner and I are being hired as sub contractors by another company who needs some temp help, on an hourly basis with pretty good compensation. It won't be under the Catstache name, but it will certainly help my bank account for the rest of the summer.
Lastly, I want to point out that I'm very frustrated with the universe because there isn't a 6th season of The Big Bang Theory out yet. Bah!
In addition, both my partner and I are being hired as sub contractors by another company who needs some temp help, on an hourly basis with pretty good compensation. It won't be under the Catstache name, but it will certainly help my bank account for the rest of the summer.
Lastly, I want to point out that I'm very frustrated with the universe because there isn't a 6th season of The Big Bang Theory out yet. Bah!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Catstache - Update 2
New iteration with a reworked button system. The buttons queue an animation that involves the top panel bouncing down, then sliding up under the header until it's fully hidden, and then sliding back out, with a switched panel. This is the last screenshot I'll be posting of this codebase, I'm going to be starting from scratch this afternoon on a new version, because there are several large changes that I want to do in how I'm coding it, things that have changed a little over and over and over so that they are coded very inefficiently.
What do you guys think of the background color? I like white personally, but my partner disagrees. And anything that isn't white or black has advantages in terms of making borders look 3D, so that's a nice little perk.
Thoughts? Better, worse?
What do you guys think of the background color? I like white personally, but my partner disagrees. And anything that isn't white or black has advantages in terms of making borders look 3D, so that's a nice little perk.
Thoughts? Better, worse?
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Almost Done
Seems that hell week went well, I've gotten back grades for all but one exams, and so far I'm standing at 2 As and a B. Plus two 100%s on quizzes. That said, some of the more recent material for construction as well as soils has been difficult, so over the next week I'll probably be spending more time in office hours getting help.
Finally found a class buddy to work on soils homework with, and she's been a godsend. I most certainly wouldn't have done well on the last few homework assignments, or the exam, without having someone to bounce ideas off of. If you out there ever get a chance to study with a partner, jump on it! It's very useful.
Dead week and finals are all that's left of the semester, and I still don't know if I have an internship for this summer. My interview with Janssen and Spaans went really well, but they still haven't told me one way or the other. I've got a phone interview with the Oregon Dept of Transportation this week though, so hopefully I'll have a backup.
Catstache is moving. Slowly, but it's moving. Hope you all enjoyed the look at it, though since I posted the last update it's changed quite a bit. I'll post an update in the next few days. With the design nearly finalized, I'll be able to move it over to WordPress soon, and get it up and running. Then it'll be time to start finding clients. The first two we had lined up have both basically canceled, unfortunately.
Finally found a class buddy to work on soils homework with, and she's been a godsend. I most certainly wouldn't have done well on the last few homework assignments, or the exam, without having someone to bounce ideas off of. If you out there ever get a chance to study with a partner, jump on it! It's very useful.
Dead week and finals are all that's left of the semester, and I still don't know if I have an internship for this summer. My interview with Janssen and Spaans went really well, but they still haven't told me one way or the other. I've got a phone interview with the Oregon Dept of Transportation this week though, so hopefully I'll have a backup.
Catstache is moving. Slowly, but it's moving. Hope you all enjoyed the look at it, though since I posted the last update it's changed quite a bit. I'll post an update in the next few days. With the design nearly finalized, I'll be able to move it over to WordPress soon, and get it up and running. Then it'll be time to start finding clients. The first two we had lined up have both basically canceled, unfortunately.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Catstache - Update
Yesterday I shared a first look at the website I'm currently working on, Catstache Design. I spent some time today working on it and polishing it up. I changed the colors somewhat, to move away from the green/teal look. Also added some shadows using the CSS3 Box-Shadow property. Which of course won't work on older versions of IE, so I'll have to create a work-around with images eventually.
IE is low on my priorities at the moment though, first I want to get the site design finalized. Granted, all this might change, because my partner has final say in how the site will look, given that she is the actual graphic designer. But for now, this is where we are at.
Thoughts? Better, worse?
IE is low on my priorities at the moment though, first I want to get the site design finalized. Granted, all this might change, because my partner has final say in how the site will look, given that she is the actual graphic designer. But for now, this is where we are at.
Thoughts? Better, worse?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Catstache Design - First Look
This week has been the busiest all semester. 4 midterm exams, 2 quizzes, and several homework assignments. Throw in a good 7 hours of driving and an interview, and it makes for very little free time. But I made it through, and classes got out at 2:30 today, so I had some free time to finally work more on the homepage to Catstache Design. Granted, my graphic designer partner is suppose to be doing said design, then handing it off to be to build, but she's been even busier than I have, and I was never one for patience *laugh*.
So, below is the first (4th, but first that it decent enough I'm willing to share) iteration of the widescreen version of the homepage.
I'm not really satisfied with bar that crosses the screen mid page; the coloring of it. It's basically a tab bar to change the box above to different panels, so we can hold more information. I'll hopefully be able to run it by the partner and get some suggestions. Any thoughts of your own? Let me know in the comments.
So, below is the first (4th, but first that it decent enough I'm willing to share) iteration of the widescreen version of the homepage.
I'm not really satisfied with bar that crosses the screen mid page; the coloring of it. It's basically a tab bar to change the box above to different panels, so we can hold more information. I'll hopefully be able to run it by the partner and get some suggestions. Any thoughts of your own? Let me know in the comments.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
First Client Meeting for Catstache? Or Not ...
I had a meeting with a potential client for Catstache yesterday, pretty excited about it because it was the first person who'd actually contacted us. And we haven't even started advertising yet.
Aside from the guy arriving over an hour late, the meeting went pretty well, except that it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Turns out, he just blind emailed everyone on listed on the ITaP SAC (student council) website, because he's not looking to hire a company to build him a site, he's looking to hire individual people to join his company, to build the site in-house.
Then there is the scale. Catstache builds personal sites, either statically or powered by WordPress. Anywhere from 1-10 pages normally, it's not really a complex task. This site is more on the level of Facebook, from the sounds of it. At least Facebook back when it started.
It did sound quite fun, and even though I can't talk about the content of the proposed site (had to sign an NDA), I can say it fill a niche that is unfilled, vaguely related to the concept I was working on last summer with the virtual career fair site, but on a whole different scale.
Unfortunately, there's no team in place, no direction really. The owner of the site isn't a tech person, and is really in the starting stages of gathering up a team. I told him he needs to find, before anything else, a web consultant, who's sole job is just, looking at the site, step by step, piece by piece, and figuring out who needs to be hired to complete it all. Once there is a list of necessary people, work can start on hiring them all, and there's no risk of individual web devs getting screwed because of lack of help.
It's not a Catstache project, that is for sure. But depending on if he can round up others, I might be joining over the summer. Updates to follow.
Aside from the guy arriving over an hour late, the meeting went pretty well, except that it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Turns out, he just blind emailed everyone on listed on the ITaP SAC (student council) website, because he's not looking to hire a company to build him a site, he's looking to hire individual people to join his company, to build the site in-house.
Then there is the scale. Catstache builds personal sites, either statically or powered by WordPress. Anywhere from 1-10 pages normally, it's not really a complex task. This site is more on the level of Facebook, from the sounds of it. At least Facebook back when it started.
It did sound quite fun, and even though I can't talk about the content of the proposed site (had to sign an NDA), I can say it fill a niche that is unfilled, vaguely related to the concept I was working on last summer with the virtual career fair site, but on a whole different scale.
Unfortunately, there's no team in place, no direction really. The owner of the site isn't a tech person, and is really in the starting stages of gathering up a team. I told him he needs to find, before anything else, a web consultant, who's sole job is just, looking at the site, step by step, piece by piece, and figuring out who needs to be hired to complete it all. Once there is a list of necessary people, work can start on hiring them all, and there's no risk of individual web devs getting screwed because of lack of help.
It's not a Catstache project, that is for sure. But depending on if he can round up others, I might be joining over the summer. Updates to follow.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Things are Moving!
Any reader of this blog knows that I love web design. HTML, CSS, PHP, jQuery. Recently I've gotten really into mobile, and I'm trying to push myself with the actual graphic design part, though I'm still quite terrible in that aspect. Yet, what is the point in all this, besides it being fun?
I was approached by a good friend of mine a while back about starting a web design company, and turning my hobby into a part time job on the side. (A profitable one, since an average personal wordpress site goes for anywhere from $700 to $2000). Still, it's been slow going, weeks passing with really nothing happening. However, over the past week things have finally started moving.
The first surprisingly difficult hurdle was creating a name. Catchy, simple, and most importantly, not already taken. And if you think that there are lots of names out there not taken, try googling random stuff followed by the word design. We progressed through Blue Hat, to Blue Beard, to Cat Beard, and finally came up with out new name: CatStasche.
Picture, the face of a cat, with a prominent mustache.
That done, we registered the URL, www.catstachedesign.com, and I put up a coming soon page. Then work started on our actual site. It'll be powered by WordPress eventually, but right now we're working with static HTML and CSS just to get the layout working. One major aspect I'm putting a lot of effort into is responsive design, which is one of the few areas that I both A, understand well, and B, am getting in on the ground floor of.
I've decided on standardizing upon 4 widths, and making the design flexible within each of the four.
Some sites have the region that I have as mobile split again, for phones in landscape vs portrait, but all my mobile designs are going to be 100% flexible, using no fixed-length values, so it'll scale, and make another split unnecessary. I've got the layout tentatively working for Wide and Normal, and will be working on the Narrow and Mobile versions over the next few days while my partner finishes the logo and starts working on the color scheme. Hopefully the site should be completely designed within the next week, so I can then spend the week after moving translating it to WordPress. And then we'll really be ready to rock.
I was approached by a good friend of mine a while back about starting a web design company, and turning my hobby into a part time job on the side. (A profitable one, since an average personal wordpress site goes for anywhere from $700 to $2000). Still, it's been slow going, weeks passing with really nothing happening. However, over the past week things have finally started moving.
The first surprisingly difficult hurdle was creating a name. Catchy, simple, and most importantly, not already taken. And if you think that there are lots of names out there not taken, try googling random stuff followed by the word design. We progressed through Blue Hat, to Blue Beard, to Cat Beard, and finally came up with out new name: CatStasche.
Picture, the face of a cat, with a prominent mustache.
That done, we registered the URL, www.catstachedesign.com, and I put up a coming soon page. Then work started on our actual site. It'll be powered by WordPress eventually, but right now we're working with static HTML and CSS just to get the layout working. One major aspect I'm putting a lot of effort into is responsive design, which is one of the few areas that I both A, understand well, and B, am getting in on the ground floor of.
I've decided on standardizing upon 4 widths, and making the design flexible within each of the four.
Mobile
0px - 600px
Smartphones, tablets in portrait mode
Narrow
600px - 1000px
Old monitors, and tablets in landscape mode
Normal
1000px - 1400px
Traditional 1024x768, and very common 1280x1024.
Wide
1400px - Infinity
Widescreen large monitors, normally 22" and above
Some sites have the region that I have as mobile split again, for phones in landscape vs portrait, but all my mobile designs are going to be 100% flexible, using no fixed-length values, so it'll scale, and make another split unnecessary. I've got the layout tentatively working for Wide and Normal, and will be working on the Narrow and Mobile versions over the next few days while my partner finishes the logo and starts working on the color scheme. Hopefully the site should be completely designed within the next week, so I can then spend the week after moving translating it to WordPress. And then we'll really be ready to rock.
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