The website - respect is due!

A background sketch from the Anarchadia website is this working drawing for the Cadillac Platinumide

I’ll have a go at most things and this website is largely my own effort but after years of doing–it–myself and practising self–reliance, I have discovered that sometimes – sometimes – it’s better to get an expert to do it for you. 

It depends whether you want to learn how to do it or not. You may never need to do it ever again. It also depends how long it takes to reach a reasonable standard. Do you have the time or do you want a quick result? And, most importantly in my opinion, it depends if you enjoy it. If you don’t I believe it shows.

With the website, I was lucky – beginner’s luck, I suppose. I had a brilliant book to refer to. I wouldn’t have got anywhere without Build your website the right way using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd. Not only was I able to get the something together that worked but I began to understand how it worked. If I had any problems I used the Sitepoint Forum to which this marvellous book introduced me and help was always forthcoming even if I had done something really stupid late at night.

However, I had a firm idea about how the end result should look but didn’t know how to achieve it.

I discussed the Anarchadian look with my graphic designer friend Becky and showed her my ideas for the website. Beck, as well as being my neighbour, is a very accomplished graphic designer. Her professional name is Red Snapper Design and she’s responsible for designing Rachel’s Yoghurt yoghurt pots, Milk Link milk tankers and a surprising variety of packaging for speciality cheeses. The cheese packaging fascinated me in particular. How do you make the packaging cheesy without making it too, er, cheesy? To see how it’s done check out her website http://www.redsnapperdesign.co.uk/

Anyway, it’s true – blessed are the cheese makers (and purveyors of dairy produce in general).

Becky suggested some changes to my website ideas – all for the better – and we considered using some of the ready to use website packages. None of them really appealed or matched what I had in mind.

“‘I know what I want,’” I sang in my Jimi Hendrix voice, strumming the air guitar I always carry with me, “‘but I just don’t know – how to – go about….. gettin’ it.’”

Becky took pity on me. “What you need is a style sheet,” she said.

I’d read about these in Ian Lloyd’s book and had even got so far as to develop one of my own. It hadn’t really turned out as I expected.

“Why don’t you speak to Helen and Eric? They’re Flying Flounder and these are some of the sites we’ve worked together on. I say what it should look like and they take care of the technical details. Helen can advise you on website design and Eric can provide web hosting.”

So I gave them a ring and Helen said she could visit me to discuss my ideas. This was great. Flying Flounder is based at Bray Shop between Callington and Launceston so is virtually on my doorstep. http://www.flyingflounder.co.uk/

However, I was a little dubious about having a home visit. My house is not very homely. There is always something going on. The sitting room is a cat’s cradle of cables connecting laptops, scanners, printers, music systems, speakers, guitars and amps. The dining room is really the drawing room and full of paper, scattered ellipse guides and boxes of pencils, marker pens and pastels. I am a man of many parts – mostly car parts, which have infiltrated the cupboards, loft conversion and bedrooms. As for the kitchen, the less said about that the better. 

How would a highly strung, hyper intelligent hot house flower cope in my house? It’s really an annex to my shed. There was also a cold snap and I didn’t have the Rayburn on. Would Helen be warm enough?

Helen arrived in a builder’s van and wore a fleece and stout shoes. I apologised for the mess and the lack of heat and she said, “Don’t worry! We’re rebuilding our cottage so I’m used to far worse than this!”

Having since visited their place, this is not entirely true but I appreciate the comment.

I showed her how far I’d got and said I had this idea about a sketch book feel to the site, with text flowing over pictures on a page. “I’d like something that I can adapt for different webpages,” I told her, “something I can change for different requirements.”

“That’s okay,” Helen replied, “I’m not precious about my work.”

She listened, made some notes and said she’d come up with something. 

About a week later she sent me a CD with what she’d done. The result far exceeded my expectation. She’d taken my Anarchadia Publishing logo and animated it! She’d also laid out the webpages to look like a spiral bound sketch book and had overlaid my sample sketches with sample text just as I had visualised. I was delighted and in a burst of enthusiasm soon adapted Helen’s sheets to my own ends.

Then it was over to Eric for the webhosting.

Initially, I had some accessing problems. Eric talked me through setting everything up on the phone but when this still didn’t work – due to my firewall setup we subsequently discovered – I had a home visit from Eric, too. I don’t know what other Internet Service Provider would provide this level of service. Eric set up an ftp, told me what it was and showed me how to use it. He also showed me a range of other free goodies I could download from the internet. He even brought a couple of bottles of beers with him and wasn’t too disappointed when I explained that I didn’t drink.

So I cannot take credit for my website entirely. Becky, Helen and Eric have given me far more help than I thought I needed or feel I deserved and yet are still happy to answer my stupid questions. Although my site looks fine on Firefox, I am aware that some things get jumbled up with other browsers. Helen says this is the time consuming part. I need to compare the coding for what works with what doesn’t work. I also need to examine what I’ve changed from her original work and understand how I’ve affected the effects, as it were. That’s the trouble with do-it-yourself – sometimes it can do it back.