Annomedia

Designing and creating a website for your organization - your website - is a process that takes a lot of creative energy, and requires dedication from both parties involved. So while working for you, I expect to work in close cooperation with you - my client. Therefor you need to be able to make time for this. From start to finish usually it takes about a month, sometimes it takes two. That is from the moment I am free to start working on your website until the day it is finished. This does not mean that I am working full time for you during that period, but it does mean we have to stay in close contact to discuss the various aspects of your website that need to be dealt with. If you know beforehand that you will not be available during that time, let me know, and we have to discuss other options or a different timeframe.

The website I deliver as a finished product can be at least one of two things:

• If your website is a static website - that is: all the content for the website is inserted by me and can only be changed by me - I need to have all the content you want to have in your website (texts, photos, logos, etc) before I start working. At the latest I need to have it as soon as the design is ready.
• When creating a website with a CMS (Content Management System) this usually means that the finished product is an empty website that is ready to be filled with content by you, which means that as soon as my job finishes, your job starts. In practice it is wise to start to working on your content in parallel with my work.

Both types of sites will start with us getting together and draw up a plan. This plan will describe the structure and purpose of your website, the look and feel, and the technical requirements. When I start working on your site, this plan is the reference for all things I do and it describes how much effort I have to put in your site.

When I start working on your website, the first design is usually ready within a week, usually less. You will have to give your feedback on the design, and I hope to have a final design after the first two drafts. After that I can usually work independently from you, because then starts the time I have to create (code) a template, and turn the template into a functional website. In the case of a static website I need to create the website structure (menu, perhaps sub-menus) and fill them with content. In case of a CMS driven website I will program a website you will have to fill with content. After I am done with that, I will then be available for questions and I will teach you how to use the program.

With Services for Designers I support designers who are less experienced in working for the web, and I offer support for those designers who do not want to deal with the coding and programming part of web-design.

• I offer support and advice during the design phase.
• I code for you, thereby turning your designs into standard compliant (XHTML 1.1 / CSS2) templates
• I can also offer to turn them into a CMS (Content Management System) based on Silverstripe.
• On top of that I can also take care of the hosting for you

In short: As a designer you get access to my knowledge and experience, and I make sure you can offer your clients a web ready product with eventually even hosting and support.

There are some things that are important for you to realize when cooperating with me:

• It is important for me that the people you work for are your clients, not mine. During the design phase I will not contact your client, nor should I during the coding phase. But the CMS system that I implement comes with support and your clients need to get an introduction into that CMS. I therefor need to contact your clients and your clients need to be able to contact me when they have questions (and in my experience they always will, and it ensures that the customer is satisfied with a project when they know how to use it).
• In order to successfully create a website for your client based on your designs I need to have access to your designs in digital form and you have to be aware I might need you to work in a certain way - this will be discussed beforehand. This might mean you have to work differently from the way you are used to work.  In short: a 300 dpi tif image is not what I need, I need to have a layered psd at 72 dpi (screen resolution).
• Certain things work differently for web as compared to print. You have to think about the flow of text and elements on your page, you have to be aware of the way your layout might change based on different screen sizes, and you have to think about what happens when the visitor of a site hovers over an element or clicks on it (in a menu for instance). These are some of the things you have to think about.
• The web is advancing with great strides - and I have seen it advance enormously since the days of Explorer 2 / Netscape 2. However there are limitations - and my guess is there always will be. There might be certain things you heard about that you would love me to implement, but it could be that these things are outdated, proven not to work from a usability stand point or these things might work in some browsers but not in others because they are too new (and therefor still need a few years to become a usable standard).
• Based on the previous point it might be that you need to create not one but two designs: one for the visitors of the website who have more modern computers and use browsers that are ready for more modern features and the other design for people who have less modern computers/ less advanced browsers or who choose not to enable certain features.

Later - in the chapters on the right - I will start to explain various points that might be of interest to you if you want to design for the web and are not or do not want to be a coder.

Under the name AnnoMedia I offer web-design, coding/templating and services for designers. Under the name Alien Saints I offer designs for the people who are interested in something different. Alien-Saints.com is the website where I show my art, but it is also the entry point for those who want something a bit more extreme.

My name is Jeroen Goulooze. And I am a freelance webdesigner/coder. I live and work in Berlin, Friedrichshain (Kreutzigerstraße 18 10247 Berlin to be exact). My website is www.AnnoMedia.com.

I can be contacted by phone with the number (++49) (0)15 772 753 760 when you are in Germany. You can also contact me via (++31) (0)6 13 203 439 when you are in the Netherlands, but it can be that I have to call you back when using that number because I do not always have it with me.

You can also contact me by email.