A Few Followups
One thing I know I'm bad at is following things up. I'll talk about something I'm looking in to and never bother to let you know what I found. Two examples of recent:
- In Need of a CRM
Response to this request was good and there was lots to choose from. However, the only one I found that I really liked was SugarCRM, which is free and Open Source. It's too much for me and tries to be everything every business needs. My needs a small and so I decided in the end to write my own CRM package. I'm using Domino and I've decided to call it Relate. As and when I think of something to add, I do. Whether it will get to the point where it's a commercially viable product I don't know. It's going to be tailored to my needs and this won't be everybody's thing.
I'll talk about some features and how I achieved them in more detail later.
- In Need of a Designer
A few weeks back I was looking for a good, reasonably priced graphic designer who was readily available. A lot to ask but I found somebody in the end. Thanks to Carl Joseph who recommended a fellow Australian - Trevor Hutchison. I've just finished working with Trevor on our first project and hope I get the chance to again. He's done an amazing job and both I and the end client are over the moon with it. Thanks to the exchange rate it worked out "reasonably cheap" too.
No matter how good you think you are at graphic design, you're never as good as a pro. The difference between my mockup and what Trevor came up with is a million miles apart. Hopefully I'll get permission to share some screenshots with you. This project is turning in to another of those that just go to show you can make Domino apps look amazing.
I know there are others things I should follow up and I'll try and do that over the next week or so.
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Hope you are allowed to share those screenshots. Its sounds like your well chuffed with the final result.
I clicked the link to Trevor's site and got slapped by the Internet police on my company's firewall. Just how graphic is the site? :)
Me too Ed. I am chuffed with it. It's like my newly laid kitchen floor - {Link} - I can just sit/stand there and look at it in admiration for minutes on end. Modest aren't I ;o)
Michael. Here's a quote from his "about me" page that might expain it: "Trevor likes to throw girls around while wearing big pants".
You definitely got a good one with Trevor -- he has done some of the best work I've seen in Canada, and Canada is a tough graphics market. See {Link} to see what Trevor's competition looks like.
If you are going to use the CRM system just for yourself, you may as well XUL. Will be a great learning experience and save you a lot of time:
{link}
Hi Jake,
Glad you found Trevor useful. There is nothing like a designer who actually understands the web AND knows how to make it communicate well to it's users.
Looking forward to seeing the results.
Cheers,
Carl
The thing we some graphics people is that they're often one-trick ponies. The hard part is finding somebody with a diverse portfolio, like Trevor's, which shows he can turn his hand to things other than "brochure sites". With the app we worked on it was obvious that he took the time to understand what the end product was and this shows in his design.
The great thing with Trevor is his stunning ability to take the seed of an idea that you give him and turn it into something really spectacular. He knows exactly what you're looking for even when you don't!
It's difficult to have a site that stands out in my field but he managed to do it and do it with style.