Like many freelancers, I’ve been a bit lazy with my portfolio – it’s so easy to keep putting client work at a higher priority than my own projects, so it’s hard to find time to get them done. I felt it was really time for a refresh though, both in terms of the design and the work that I’m featuring.

So I’ve finally made the time to do it, and here it is!

The design and colour scheme is a more subtle version of the ChiGarden colours, with a bit of a paper cut theme. The intention was to be clean and professional without stifling the fun and casual aspect that clients (hopefully!) value in my work. I wanted to try a single page design utilising spacing with anchor tags and scrolling effects to create division between the different pages, inspired by sites such as Peter Pearson and Voll. I’ve done all I can to make it useable and accessible without sacrificing aesthetics and the interesting navigation style.

Teresawatts.com is built on Wordpress for easy updating; the scrolling effect is from deziner folio; original background image from cgtextures.com; all illustrations, graphics, design and theme development by me.

If you have any feedback, negative or positive please let me know!

It’s easy in times of economic crisis to start chopping marketing budgets, however we believe the web is a solution to survive economic hard times, not a budget item to cut. Simply put, the web is more important now than at any other time.

- www.embracetheweb.org

Embracetheweb.org seems to Bam Creative’s latest little side project, and I couldn’t agree more with its message. Having an appealing and functional website isn’t just a necessity to compete with others and cater to an internet-savvy audience – it’s an extremely cost effective choice for marketing. If you ever had any doubt about the importance of having a website, take a look at these reasons and I’ll be surprised if you’re not convinced.

Of course, if your budget doesn’t allow you to hire a web design firm to work on your project you can always consider hiring a quality freelancer such as myself ;)

A bit over a year go I posted instructions for creating an Internet Explorer Voodoo Doll, and was amazed at the huge response from web designers and developers all over the world. I didn’t expect it to take off in the way that it did, and I definitely didn’t expect this story I’m sharing with you now.

Not long after posting the tutorial I was contacted by Jörn, who runs a company in Germany. He liked my idea enough to ask a tailor friend of his to make one for each of his staff members as a Christmas present, beautifully packaged and everything.

IE Voodoo Dolls from Jörn

I thought it was fantastic, especially seeing photos of so many of them! But that wasn’t the end of it. Just after Christmas this year, Jörn contacted me again. He said that after calling his tailor to tell her how successful the Christmas party and presents were, they started talking more, going out together and fell in love.

In October they were married in Berlin, and guess what they decided to model their wedding cake after in memory of how they got together?

IE voodoo wedding cake

Yes, that is a giant Internet Explorer voodoo doll cake, complete with a giant needle!

So there you have it, a tale of love, voodoo and Internet Explorer. Thank you to Jörn and Julia for allowing me to post their story, and I wish them all the best for the future.