Blog Entries

CGS Asset Management Website Launch

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:07:06 +0100

We just completed the design and launch of a new website for CGS Asset Management at www.cgsam.com. Check out some more details about the launch here.

Project Management Revisited

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:38:25 +0100

As a follow up to my previous post on web project management, after trying those tools out for a decent trial period, I still hadn't really been able to find something that was simple enough for my clients to be able to work with reliably, or powerful enough to do exactly what I needed it to do.

Lately, I have been doing a trial run of activecollab, which is derivative of Basecamp. I have been pretty happy with it's simplicity/power balance, and for the most part was pretty impressed w [...]

Digg Interview with Trent Reznor

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:34:57 +0100

Awesome interview with Trent Reznor by Kevin Rose at Digg. It is lengthy, but he goes into some great detail on the state of the music industry, and shows that his new models are based on a true understanding of how it all works, unlike most of his peers who have their head in the sand about what the consumer wants.

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Web Project Management Tools

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:04:42 +0100

At least once a year I try to take a good hard look at the day to day operations of the company to see if there are any areas that I could trim the fat, or streamline. This means checking out new tools, or analyzing what processes are taking up the most of my time and if there is a way that I can modify those to work a bit smarter. Not coincidentally, this analysis usually runs around tax time.

This year, aside from the new website and transparent approach to the business, I also wanted [...]

Joomla Tricks for Multiple Templates

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:58:21 +0100

While I do think that Joomla is probably the best open source CMS out there, it is not without some serious drawbacks. I won't go into them much now (cough multiple access levels... cough), but one area that I think is pretty mediocre is in how they handle using multiple templates, or subtemplates.

When I was looking for a way to have the floating lightbox blog entries that are found on the home page, the challenge that I had was in forcing the popups to not open the main site template [...]

Triple Helix Studios Website Re-Launch

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:34:36 +0100

It has definitely been a process, but the new site is now live. This is something that I have had on my list for quite some time, but only recently have been able to actually roll up my sleeves and get to it.

I decided some time ago that the previous iterations of the site had gotten away from me a bit, and the message was about a million miles away from where it should be. I suppose that I should have figured this out a while ago, after the 10th friend or family member asked me " [...]

Portfolio Updates

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:58:22 +0100

A large part of the reason for the new site is because of how difficult it was to add to the portfolio on the old site. The new portfolio is pretty slick, so you should check it out when you can. It's still missing the nice SEO links, but that should be coming soon.

Of course, there is still the old issue of whether or not it is a good idea to print your whole client list on your website. I really do want to go for the whole transparency thing as much as I can, but there is also [...]

Website Engine Basically Complete

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:48:33 +0100

So, the site is progressing along nicely, and I am coming to the point where I need to put on my project manager cap and find a cut off point. I have spent a lot of time playing in the sandbox - tweaking Mootools scripts and CSS to death, but it comes to a point where you need to stop with development of new features and get your content live.

Generally, with client work you need to keep your chops sharp, as there are always milestones and strict deadlines that you have to commit to. W [...]

Yes, people still use Internet Explorer 6

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:19:20 +0100

In planning out the development of any site, I always like to take a hard look at the numbers for usage and base browser support on that. When I was doing this analysis, I usually like to model it based on my own historical data for current sites, rather than what comes up when you Google browser usage. Like anything, you take what google returns with a grain of salt, because the sites you get will always be served with an agenda. Not only that, I like to use the specifics of the demographic [...]

CSS Compression Using PHP Function

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:27 +0100

I stumbled upon this trick not too long ago when I was looking for ways to maximize the efficiency of my websites, and reduce the footprint a little. When I am developing css, my preference is to keep the code in a readable format, so I prefer something like:

p { float:left;
display:block;
font-size: 2em !important;
background: #FFF url('/dev/../images/bg.png') no-repeat 0 0;
padding: 10px;
width: 300px !important;
margin: 0px; [...]

Logo and Branding Refresh

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:20:04 +0100

When I actually sat down to take apart this web project and start on some mock ups, I found that I was spending a ton of time trying to integrate my existing branding into a new design, which was starting to feel like fitting a square peg into a round hole. This was causing any fresh ideas to drift back to early 2007 when a lot of these materials were created, and this was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

So, I decided to take a swipe at my Corp Id first, and see if some changes the [...]

Site Development Progression

dave@triplehelixstudios.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:43:29 +0100

As part of the process for the redesign and redevelopment of the site, I am planning on doing several postings about the process, and pitfalls of taking this approach, as well as some of the challenges that I ran into as the development progressed. My plan is to basically go for a pretty decent level of transparency, and hopefully some of the information proves useful to someone.

Part of the main difficulty of taking the time to deconstruct your business and see how it can be improved, is in t [...]