Our resources
Design tools - Every site we build starts with a blank sheet of paper and we build your site from the ground up. You will have provided us with a design brief or used elements/snippets from our design guides or made reference to established or classic designs as a baseline. From there we build a series of static or image-based sketches of a finished site. Design changes can be made right through the site building period and even after the site has gone live. We will typically begin the building of the site structure before the design is finalised as the finished look of the site does not usually effect the site's functionality.
Site building - All of our sites are 'hand coded' which means that we do not use website building programmes but instead write each line of layout or site programming by hand. This gives us the flexibility to provide exactly the site that your organisation requires. By using core elements on all pages and separate body content for each page, the structure and layout of a site can be changed quickly and easily when required during the design phase or at any time afterwards.
Programming - Our sites use standard HTML markup language and a dynmaic programming language called PHP. Some elements make use tools such as jQuery and Ajax to control dynamic and background elements. Customer side dynmaic elements are controlled using Javascript and layout/colour schemes are determined by CSS. HTML describes to your browser how the page will appear on the screen while PHP creates conditional information such as customer login, showing different site elements on different days of the week or making site content change in response to information that the site visitor has input. We are increasingly using the new HTML 5 language which makes for better handling of media files and is progressively replacing the previously popular Flash format for moving images and graphics.
Site hosting - Ideally we will host sites that we build on our servers as we understand best how these work and should enable use to develop your site more quickly. We can, of course, work on a site on any hosted platform but note that we only work on Unix or Linux based servers and we do not build sites using Windows server technologies.
Domain names - We manage all domain names through our master account with UK Reg, a division of FastHosts UK. Domain names are registered in your name but at our address - this is avoid you being approached by fraudsters. Domains are always entirely yours and we will release control of them at any time with no costs or charges.
Images - We have an in-house library of over 1 million images and have bureau access to several million more royalty free images. We can also access millions more images under a licence fee arrangement. We can arrange for commissioned photographs to be taken if required.
Graphics - We can create any graphical elements needed for your website. Basic graphics such as buttons or headers can be produced quickly and easily in-house and more artistic creations are created by a panel of graphic designers in and around North London.
Fonts/typefaces - We have a library of over 10,000 fonts on our system but increasingly websites are built using fonts from online font libraries such as Google Apis. Today the range of fonts for websites is unlimited and the notion of a 'web safe' font is no long valid. If you need a specific font that is under copyright, we can buy a licence to use that font as part of the development fee.