The last few months have been quite busy for me in regards to business. I have been working steadily on the new websites for the Lacombe Foundation and Sundance Realty and Management. Both of these projects should launch in the next couple of weeks.

Design prototyping is continuing for the 2010 revision of www.imaginemediadesigns.com and I hope to have it finalized by early next week. The next step will be developing the website and connecting it to a content management system. This step should be completed by mid February and the website should be ready for launch by the end of next month.

I have decided to make iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS more social and I have created accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The Facebook fan page is still being populated with content, but you can view my LinkedIn profile or follow me on Twitter.

Summer is now in full swing and it seems like the perfect time to review my current website and decide how the 2009 revision should be reworked. Last years redesign was fairly basic with regards to layout and colour changes, but for this years revision I plan on starting from scratch. The development will be treated like a Client-based project and will include research, wire framing and design prototyping, standards compliant HTML and CSS coding, custom programming, implementing WordPress as my blogging platform, and applying some serious search engine optimization to help boost my placement on Bing’s, Google’s and Yahoo’s search index.

Research will consist of reviewing what is trendy in the web design industry today, what designs are effective and user friendly, the pitfalls of certain Web 2.0 features, and a peek at what the internet may look like in the next twelve to thirty six months.

Moving onto the design part of the development, wire frames and design prototyping will play a big part in creating an effective user interface. Wire framing consists of sketching out the most basic design of the website layout. Pencil and paper are the best tools to use and allow you to draw out the website using boxes and captions. Nothing beats being able to scribble and erase during the planning phase of developing a new or revising an existing website. After the design has been wire framed and the basic layout has been realized, the next step is to jump into Adobe Photoshop (my preferred design prototyping tool). Design prototyping takes the basic wire frame and applies colours, shapes, and typography to produce a near-final design (fine-tuning is always needed) that can then be sliced and recreated using HTML and CSS.

Once the design is finalized and prepped for coding, the real fun begins, HTML and CSS provide a powerful framework that allows the web designer / developer to take their design prototype and re-imagine it as a working user interface. The website is coded with strict adherence to web standards. This means that certain guidelines are followed to make sure the website is available and easily viewed by all audiences. Following web standards also ensures that any website that is built by iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS will be easily viewed in all current and future web browsers.

Custom programming will provide the much valued functionality to the website. This will include a contact form that validates each input field, prevents the website from being spammed, and formats the user submitted information in a nice, presentable fashion. Nobody likes to have lines and lines of text to look through for the important information submitted by their website visitors.

WordPress, the number one open source blogging platform will be implemented to provide the perfect vehicle to deliver regular updates to the website. My previous blogging choice was clunky and not powered by a database (on-line content storage) which made creating new entries difficult and editing old entries even more difficult.

Finally, one of the most asked questions Client’s ask is: search engine optimization and how do I get ranked high on Google? With this year’s revision I will use the skills and techniques that I have been practicing over the last twelve months to help get www.imaginemediadesigns.com ranked very well in more general categories and search keywords on all of the major search engines. Everybody likes to focus just on Google, which does hold a large portion of the market, but I make sure all of the websites that are designed and developed at iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS are easily found using Bing, Google, and Yahoo. Broad exposure ensures high visibility to many potential customer’s on the internet.

Well that about wraps up this very long blog entry, but it is nice to keep general users’ and returning Client’s informed about all of the happenings at iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS. Check back in the coming weeks to see the new website and possibly some other branding changes.

iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS has joined the thousands of other businesses and millions of individuals that are supporting Earth Hour ™ 2009. Support the effort by turning off all of your lights and non-essential electronics at 8:30pm on March 28, 2009 for one hour. This small gesture helps convey peoples willingness to do what is needed to help stop global warming.

Visit: Earth Hour 2009 today to sign up for this awesome event.

I have just recently completed three exciting projects. Two multimedia projects and one website.

The multimedia projects included video editing, slide scanning and editing, and DVD production. Print work was also required for the DVD covers and labeling for the DVD discs. These projects provided me the first opportunity to work with Adobe Premiere Pro (Video editing) and Encore CS3 (DVD production) and I must say it was a definite learning experience.

After spending the past nine months working exclusively on websites, entering the video production realm was a real eye opener. Working with both the creative and technical side of video editing fills up your day quite quickly (it also fills up the CPU hard drive as well). The amount of time spent editing footage, adding transitions, and adjusting audio tracks to match the length and mood of each scene adds up quickly. Also actively trying to tell a story with the video footage is a taxing duty.

Overall, I believe everything for the two projects was executed very well and the final products achieved their desired affect.

The website I recently completed was a contract project with Idea Market Design Inc. The project was for PROMETAL Management located in Lacombe, Alberta and it consisted of design prototyping, HTML and CSS coding, and implementation of a custom lightbox photo gallery.

The design matches their metal recycling image and pairs dark greys and rich oranges with a grainy metallic edge. Subtle drop shadows and edge blurs also add depth and dimension to the design.

The custom lightbox photo gallery utilizes the JQuery Javascript framework and provides a border-less presentation and smooth animations to effectively display their work-related images in a unobtrusive manner.

I have begun work this week on a new multimedia project. The scope of this project includes the scanning and archiving of 1200 slides, editing and restoring the images, and building a slide show DVD presentation. There will also be custom print work designed for the DVD covers and custom labeling for DVD discs as well.

The project will take up to four months to complete and the final product will be a full-featured DVD slide show experience.

Today I have completed the redesign of my freelance website. I have changed the design and layout and also updated the colours to be bolder and more vivid. The new website includes some new features including a custom contact form and a very dynamic light box gallery.

The redesign of the website displays the new skills I have learned in the past nine months and also includes some very cool technologies I have learned to utilized. You can check out the Portfolio section to see the ‘Fancy Zoom’ light box in action! It is a very smooth effect. You can visit the creator of Fancy Zoom at: www.cabel.name.

My aim with the new website is to keep a more up to date blog and also have more of my photography up for display. So please stay tuned and watch for updates.

Yesterday I was able to finally get my first mobile advertising tool. I had my logo and some text placed on the rear window of my 2008 City Golf. Everything is displayed in white and is very clear to the eye. Now my business can be promoted every time I head out for a drive in and around central Alberta.

The vinyl printing and installation was courtesy of Signs Now in Red Deer. They did an awesome job on the install and the customer service was excellent. If you are ever in the need of vehicle graphics make sure you visit the team at Signs Now.

Starting as of March 3rd, I will no longer be taking on new Client’s as I have taken a job working for Idea Market. All current Client’s will have their projects completed and will be displayed on our Portfolio page upon completion. Also, I will be posting the updated iMAGINE logo and a new web site design over the next six weeks. The new web site will consist of portfolio items and photography from my many adventures.

Please stay tuned to see the new web site and all the exciting photo’s that will be on display.

Welcome to 2008, a new year and many new opportunities to look forward to down the road. 2007 was a very interesting year for iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS. We worked with some awesome client’s, completed some great projects and have grown our reputation in the web design business. Along the way we have increased our knowledge base and skills to a level that would have seemed impossible only six months ago.

Working with HTML/CSS, Flash and Joomla CMS have given us the ability to provide new and exciting features to our client’s, new and old. Favourite amongst these new skills is Joomla, a content management system that allows extensive customization for web designers/developers and provides a unique experience for client’s to run the maintenance of their web sites all on their own.

We are currently using Joomla as we construct a new web site for Vision Truck Lines. The web site will contain many exciting features and will benefit from a unique design that sets it apart from other web sites that are related to their industry.

2008 will also bring about change for iMAGINE MEDIA DESIGNS. We are planning a re-design of our logo and also have a complete web site overhaul in the works. The logo will receive a ‘minor face lift’ whereas the web site will be re-introduced with a new, stream-lined design and it will utilize many of the new features and technologies that we have been using over the past six months.

But before we start all the exciting work for 2008, we must take two weeks and go enjoy the great weather in sunny Hawaii. We will be away from January 18th until February 4th.

We would like to thank all our client’s for their business this past year and are looking forward to all future projects.