Category: Chicago Web Designer

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New Web Design for Authors Web Site

Last week saw the release of a new book by one of our clients, Edward Bison. His book, Mr Bison’s Journal,  is a very funny collection of stories and observations and is a laugh out loud read. I was commissioned to not only illustrate each of the stories but also design the book cover.  It was a fun project and fingers crossed it will become one of the top humor books of 2012/2013.  It would make a great Christmas gift -see it on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle ebook

As part of the launch we updated his website www.mrbison.com moving it from a blogger powered blog, to the  all singing and dancing WordPress platform and giving the site a mini design overhaul.

The home page now features a prominent call to action to buy the book and a video clip of a sample chapter. The site navigation was revised to include such as his Facebook fan Page

mr bison website chicago

We also took the opportunity to re-code it as responsive website – I’ll fill you in on the ins and outs of that tomorrow.

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Keeping a website fresh: Chicago web designer tip of the day

As well as designing websites from scratch one of the services we offer our clients is website maintenance.

This can involve anything from updating text, adding  pages for new services or updating a look and feel with new photos.

We have refreshed the look of The Lincolnshire Academy of Dance website today, updating  all the photographs with recent ones taken during their June recital.

chicago web designer

Keeping a web site fresh with new content,  photographs and news will keep you visitors engaged and more likely to pay you repeat visits. Search engines love fresh content too, so it is a win all round.

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer

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New Website for Chicago Home Remodeling Company

Launched today is a new website for Restore North Shore, a Chicago home remodeling company.

Chhicago Home website

We designed and built a custom WordPress template which incorporated not only a blog but pages for project galleries, client testimonials etc.

chicago home website

If you are in the Chicago area and are looking to update your kitchen, bathroom or even an entire house check out the project galleries

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer

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New WordPress websites in progress

I have been working recently on a number of custom WordPress sites.

Ruth custom wordpress siteThe first is a double project for Ruth Hasser, a St Louis celebrant. Ruth wanted to move her current site over to WordPress so she could take advantage of the content management (CMS)  it offers. She also needed a new site for the funeral and memorial side of her business.

We have kept the design the same for the wedding side of her business ( she loved it so why change it) but designed a slightly different look for the funeral site, with a more muted color scheme and different imagery.

Both sites are in the final phase of production and will be launched shortly.

Humble catholic custom wordpress websiteThe second custom WordPress site is for a Chicago group, The Humble Catholic.

This site will serve as a community allowing users to upload prayer requests, affirmations and suggest stories, all driven by the excellent blogging capabilities of the WordPress platform

The site is just going through some final testing and client review.

©: 2012 Chicago Web Designer

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A distraction for the Chicago Web Designer

Sitting beside me as I work on this grey dreary Chicago day, is a vase of beautiful tulips. Nature does a wonderful job of creating color palettes and  my eyes keep drifting from the website I am designing to these beautiful blooms. I had to photograph them to capture the fabulous colors.

open purple tulip color inspiration
Anything interesting on your desk today?

©: 2012 Chicago web designer

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10 things you didn’t know about the Chicago Web Designer.

I recently had my personal blog, Creative in Chicago, reviewed in an anonymous  review process. The reviews were great but it did get me thinking as to how much I share about myself. In general I like to keep my personal life to myself and am not one to share what I had for lunch on Twitter or announce my exact location via Foursquare.

But in the essence of giving a little more of myself I thought I’d share with you today 10 things you never knew about the Chicago web designer!

  1. First off my name is not Chicago Web Designer, it is Zoe Feast. It is amazing how often it is mispronounced. I  recently received a phone call from someone asking to talk to Zoo Fest!
  2. I originally come from the UK but became a US citizen in 2009 . I have yet to lose my English accent despite living in the States for over 15 years.
  3. I am passionate about what I do and love the ying/yang aspect of my job; putting on my creative hat for the design part and swapping it out for a technical one when it comes to coding a project.  I sometimes dream about coding which is the geek in me surfacing.
  4. If that wasn’t geeky enough I have a degree in Physics and a Masters in Engineering.
  5. My favorite type of project is building brand imagery from the ground up. Everything from a logo, to establishing a color palette and typefaces then putting it all together in an engaging website. Fun!
  6. I moved to Chicago 18 months ago and live in the North suburbs. For the first 6 weeks of so I was completely reliant on my GPS  … Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Lincolnshire, Highland park and the other North Shore suburbs are now my friends!
  7. I am most productive in the morning and dynamic weather such a thunderstorms or wild winds really help me focus my creativity. Weird right!
  8. I work on a PC not a MAC
  9. A friend help me come up with the name of my company ” Indigo Image” . We were eating curry at the time.
  10. I cook from scratch nearly every night. I have eaten horse, kangaroo and ostrich but never snails.
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The Eye of the Chicago Web Designer

I can’t help myself, it seems it is not enough for me to be creative during the day designing websites, logos and the like. My creativity spills over into my spare time too.  The outlet for my endeavors  is my personal blog “Creative in Chicago” which is just sky rocketing along.

Here is one of my latest creation, a piece of String Art where the negative space does the talking!
String Art

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer

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Chicago web designer tip of the day: Check your Google Ad preferences

The Chicago web designers tip of the day.

Here is a little short and sweet thing for you to check out on this amazingly warm Chicago afternoon,  it’s 40 deg F and I have just been out WITHOUT a coat on!

If you have a Google account click HERE and  see if the profile Google has of you, is correct. They use information gathered from your web browsing history ( if you have that enabled) to show  ads more relevant to your interests.

But it seems not all profiles are correct.

Here are the categories and demographics of my profile.

google ads optout

Amazingly I only seem to have three interest categories which is a little odd as the very nature of my web and graphic design job, means I run a huge gamut of searches across a wide range of subjects and industries. Secondly they have me pegged in the 25-34 age range …which is sweet … but incorrect. Just about the only thing they got right was my gender.

Google allows you to remove or edit anything you like and also opt out of the tailored ad system completely.

Does Google have your profile correct?

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer