It took two months, but I’m delighted to see Deb Hadley’s Spicendipity launch today. The site features a full catalogue and shopping cart system, products linked to a recipe index, and a blog. (Come to think of it, I think this is my first ecommerce site in Ireland.) For this start-up, I designed the site, logo and branding, and in a rare foray into the world of print - which I hate - I also did the business cards:

Seriously, I hate print, so every time something comes off the press with the correct spelling and even vaguely centred, I’m inordinantly happy. Plus, vertical cards are just cool, man.

When Maz of Style Treaty emailed to ask if I’d be interested in doing a craft blog, I practically whimpered with happiness. It’s nice to take a break and do something that is just plain old fun. Bugger branding; Made Marian is all about the pretty colours, groovy stripes and every woman’s secret affair with duck egg blue.

After several weeks of behind-the-scenes action, I was delighted to see TwitterFone launch today. This was a slightly unusual project in that I did the design and provided mock-ups, graphics and copy for the whole flow from the home page right through the registration and confirmation process, but the actual coding was done by the TwitterFone internal team - and a very tasty job they did, too. Also very cool to see a site I designed on TechCrunch.

A brand new blog, Me and My Mac, for Ken Stanley as he chronicles his transition from being Bill Gates’ bitch to Steve Jobs’ rent boy - a slogan I came up with mysef and of which I am inordinately proud. In the annals of my web design portfolio, this ushers in what may retrospectively be known as The Illustrator Phase, which is odd as I usually dust off Illustrator about once a year - but it’s just been the right choice for a handful of clients in the pipeline.

A transitional re-design for Irish interactive voice messaging provider VoiceSage.com. This is an early iteration of a planned migration to a content management system (CMS) and still uses tables so they can carry on with their internal updating system. My favourite parts: the typography and the How VoiceSage Works slideshow.

A simple blog redesign and re-launch at a new domain for Irish telecoms superstar Pat Phelan at PatPhelan.net. (I’m allowed to call him a superstar because not only is he one, he’s one of my favourite clients. Ever.) This site features a customised WordPress template and header. Clean, simple, and nicely grided with a prioritised sidebar.

A campaign website to help Irish women leverage their tax euros and their votes to demand better access to breast health care. The site features quick online activities (online petition, downloadable campaign letters and postcards for purchase) to lobby politicians, and received extensive media coverage.

This was one of those projects where you’re just so excited to get the contract, because hey, it’s Deepak Chopra! And then the client says “You know that 30 day development window we talked about? Is there any way we can get a redesign in four?”

Luckily I already had a complete home page mocked-up, so DeepakChopra.com got a whole new blog in double-quick time. This site was something of a style departure for me, what with there being not a hint of blue and no trace of a Verdana font, but it’s been a lot of fun and I have to say - the people involved in this project have been a delight to work with. Given the short turn around, there will no doubt be changes, and there are plans to add more new toys over the next month, but I’m pleased it arrived on time and all in one piece.

Recently I did a map based on the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama for online study site eNotes.com. Drafting the setting for To Kill A Mockingbird was a lot of fun, satisfying in the same way building houses for The Sims is - everything all tidy and neat and mathematically perfect.

Obviously, I can’t show the whole 800×1700 map or that would defeat the purpose of their website, but I think it came out nicely. They were certainly very happy with it, which is always rewarding.

SwitchNow.ie is a site designed for a new utility brokerage company, using a logo developed by their print designer. The site was designed to match their stationary, business cards, etc. It uses WordPress on the back end, so the client can update the site’s content easily.