About One Man & His Laptop

clients
skills

This section relies on javascript to run correctly, however if you would like to read about the firm without switching javascript on, I invite you to download our PDF brochure, which should give you all the information you need.

Clients

I've been privileged to work with and for the following companies and businesses, and maintain a strong working relationship with them today.

Happy Monsters::I am Happy Monsters' Studios freelance web designer of choice, and have created numerous web sites in cooperation with them.

The Blue Hydrant::For The Blue Hydrant Program I created a web site, packaging and numerous illustrations.

Global Marketing Company::Via Happy Monsters' Studios, I have designed the web site for Global Marketing Company.

Effortless Gardening::For Effortless Gardening I created an original logo and book cover design.

Sefre Architects::For Sefre Architects I created an advert for a local magazine.

HTML::HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It is the most widely used programming language used on the internet, providing the framework upon which most web pages are built.

XHTML::Extensible HyperText Markup Language, (XHTML), is a markup language which evolved from standard HTML. The key difference is that it conforms with XML syntax.

XHTML is seen as a middle ground between HTML and XML, as unlike HTML, XHTML allows for automatic processing using standard XML tools.

CSS::Cascading Style Sheets are used to seperate the visual look of a website, from the actual content.

In the past, web developers were forced to use font tags to style text, and the humble table was abused from it's intended purpose to become the most common way in which websites were laid out. CSS enables web designers to control all elements of a site's visual style from a single file, greatly reducing the amount of code neccessary to style a web page.

Flash::The now Adobe owned Flash technology, is most widely known for it's ability to create animated effects, but this is only a fraction of it's current ability.

With the use of it's programming language, known as "action script", it is possible to create an array of interactive features and games.

Adobe Photoshop::Adobe Photoshop is the premier digital editing software available to designers. With it's third release, it brought the use of layers, and revolutionised the way digital artists could work. Now up to it's 10th released, Photoshop remains unchallenged in terms of features and versatility within it's field.

Adobe In-Design::Adobe In-Design is used primarily for document layout. Launched in 2002 as a direct competitor to Quark Express, In-Design is now (arguably) the best layout software on the market.

Adobe Illustrator::Adobe Illustrator is now up to it's 13th revision. It's primary use is the creation of vector art, which offers it's users a wide range of controls and tools to precisely control the shape of such work.

Illustrator has proved a popular tool for the packaging industry, and also works well with Flash.

Web Design::Web Design by RAGE software has proven to be an invaluable tool. Designed specifically for the Mac platform, at it's heart it's a HTML editor, but it's beeen bolstered with many features which makes the hand coding of web sites easier.

Style Master::Style Master is peerless in the field of CSS editing. Offering many advanced features such as "x-ray" as well as a library of compatibility notes and information.

Style Master is fast approaching it's 5th iteration, which promises a host of new features, and across the board tweaks and fixes.

PHP::PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, and was created to produce dynamic web pages.

PHP is widely-used for general-purpose scripting, that is well suited to Web development due to how easy it is to embed into HTML. PHP is an open source language, which means no one corporation owns the rights to the code.

Javascript::Javascript was designed to be similar in ability to Sun's Java programming language, but be simpler for non-programmers to work with.

As the name suggests, Javascript is a scripting language, which is commonly used for client side web development.

Mootools Framework::Mootools is a light compact, modular, object-oriented JavaScript web application framework, intended to make the process of writing extensible and cross-browser compatible code more efficient.

Skills

Below is a list of skills and programs I have mastered or have a working knowledge of. For clarity's sake, I have only listed the programs and languages relevant to the services I offer, you can take stuff like MS Office as read :)

Mastered

Programming Languages

Design Programs

Working Knowledge

Programming Languages

Details

One Man & His Laptop was set up in August of 2007 by Graphic/Web Designer, David Perkins.

I've been working as a designer for over five years now, helping friends and friends of friends with their design needs, until eventually my client list grew to the point where I could ditch the day job and strike out on my own.

When planning the business, I knew exactly what I wanted it to achieve, and how I wanted to differentiate myself from the range of design studios out there.

When investigating competitors web design offerings, two things struck me. The first, was that small businesses were usually served with little more than a template based site, which would cost most web designers a little over two days work to produce, and was really nothing more than a glorified blog.

The second thing, was how dry web design had become. Whilst a web site should have a transparent interface, aimed around serving visitors the content they need in as fast and clear way as possible, many web designers seem to have lost the flare for design, often producing little more than a generic box to hold the content in, with the appropriate company logo stuck at the top.

With modern web tools and languages offering so many possibilities, I'm looking to establish One Man & His Laptop as a web design agency which specialises in exciting and visually engaging web sites, which uses modern web tools to include features that will enhance your site, making it a more interesting place for people to visit.

My graphic design follows a similar ethic. I like looking at a business, and seeing if there's anything clever I can do with either the design or presentation of the work, to give the final product a stand out touch.

It's my hope that by offering distinguished results at affordable prices, businesses who care about their print and online presence will trust One Man & His Laptop, to deliver what they need.