Category: Design

Cork County Council Crest

The Cork City Council crest is an excellent example of simple, representative design, but the County Council one is much more interesting. Well, for nerds anyway. Here’s the logo:

corkCOCO

And here’s your anecdote for the pub:

TeachNet: In May 1899 Mr. Robert Day was appointed by the Council to select the most appropriate design for the seal of Cork County Council from 65 submissions. The winning entry was from Guy and Company Ltd., Cork, and is described as follows:

“The design contains within the trefoil shape the shields of four ancient boroughs corporate, Youghal, Kinsale, Bandon and Cork, the latter occupying the central position as the chief city of the province, and which gives its name to the county. In the angles of the trefoil are placed the shields of three of the less important towns within the jurisdiction of the County Council. The whole enclosed in circular form, the upper part bearing the title and at the bottom the year of institution. The raised outer rim is composed of a running border of shamrocks. Celtic ornament is introduced into the sunk trefoil shape.”

The three towns not mentioned are Castlemartyr, Charleville and Midleton, all of which had been boroughs corporate prior to the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act, 1840. Clonakilty had also been a chartered borough but surprisingly never had a shield or coat of arms and this perhaps explains its omission from the shield.

Website Costs

[This is more philosophy than an answer, but I feel people should know why web development pricing is so variable.]

“Is it £35 or £35,000,000?”

I think the best way to answer that question, in true web development style, is “Yes.” My usual answer, when people come to me is, “It depends.” :)

It’s not that we’re trying to be difficult, it’s just that there’s no set price for website design, and there shouldn’t be. Every single site is different, and that’s the way it should be – if all sites were the same, the web would be a very boring place, and eCommerce wouldn’t exist. Of course, there are development companies out there that offer “packages”, but I don’t subscribe to that way of doing things, because when you do business that way, someone *has* to lose out, and it’s usually the client – you get a “site in a box”, just like another hundred the company produced that week or month. In my view, that’s not very innovative, and it’s innovation that stands out on the web. Let’s be honest – if you’re not going to do it right, you might as well not do it at all.

The problem is that you have lots of people jumping on the bandwagon at the moment – people whose knowledge of computers and the Internet could be written in marker on the back of a stamp. (Note to self – what’s a stamp? :) One person I met described them as “Copier Salesmen” – they’re the same guys who saw the boom in copiers back when they first came out, and followed the money. The same is happening with the web – you’ve got people following the money, and these guys shouldn’t be allowed *near* a computer, because all they want is your money. And they’ll do that by selling you a “site in a box”.

Another problem is that web design is quite like traditional design – it’s a service industry that relies heavily on talent, not training. So, in essence, *proper” web development companies don’t have to subscribe to pricing guidelines – we can pretty much charge people what *we think we’re worth*. That may seem harsh, but it’s simply supply and demand – if you want good, you gotta pay for it. If you want average, you pay an average price. If you want cheap, you’ll get tack.

The only exception to that rule are the few companies out there who do damn good work and charge a fair price for it. And they’re few and far between, and the prices are still very variable. I mean, my own company’s pricing has gone up a thousand-fold in the past three years (I kid you not), and I still feel that I’m cutting myself short half the time. I’ve quoted people £20,000 for a website, and found out afterwards that they had been quoted £1m for it. And I wouldn’t be kicking myself for that – I’d be laughing at the gall of the people quoting a million. I couldn’t quote that much money for a site, the guilt would bring me down! :)

Ok, now to answer your question slighly more directly:

How much would I be expected to pay for a site that will contain:

  1. Introduction page.
  2. Contact page.
  3. Host my catalogue of products.approx 120 products.
  4. Including all set up costs, search engine registration, domain name reg, etc.
  5. Also annual costs involved.

If you came to me with that spec, the first thing I would do is tell you to go away and come back with a better spec. The problem I have is mainly with point 3 – lots of questions immediately pop into my head when I see that:

  • What kind of products are you selling?
  • Where/how will you be shipping them?
  • Have you researched the tax and shipping costs involved in international orders?
  • Do you have a merchant account?
  • Will you be breaching your contract by taking orders on the web? (Chances are you will.)
  • Do you want to process the transactions in real-time, or will it suffice to receive the orders by email?
  • If the former, do you want to store user and credit card data?
  • If the latter, do you have an encryption application installed on your computer?
  • Do you want to track orders?
  • Do you want to integrate the online system with your current system?

I could go on and on. And that’s the reason no-one will quote you directly for website development right off the bat. If they do, or they’re not asking you those questions, you shouldn’t go anywhere *near* them. Why? Because there’s huge variations involved in the questions above. For example, if you want to track orders, or integrate the system, that means more programming on our part. If you want real-time transaction processing, you need to set up with a provider. If you want to store credit card data, you’re jumping into serious money. It means setting up proper security procedures, and shortly that will mean a dedicated machine on your own premises, connected via a (very expensive) leased line. (Why? Because Visa are currently introducing new measures for online trading, and that’s the only way around it.)

My advice? To be honest it’s hard to know what to advise people. The best I can do is to tell you to set aside a good chunk of time to set out *exactly* what you want out of the site, bearing in mind some of the question above, and the way your business currently operates. Don’t be afraid to put every piddling little detail in there – the things that may seem unimportant may be hugely important on the site. Then have a good look around the web and directories for the developers that appeal to you. See if they’ve done sites like what you’re looking for. Look at their style, and their own sites, and their attitude, and use that to judge if they’re up to the job.

Now, don’t phone them and relay all that information to them, email them the spec you spent all that time on. Web developers spend most of their time on the net, and they work best sitting in front of a computer, not on the phone. Plus, when they have the spec in front of them, they’ll be able to go through it in their own time, at their own pace. When they reply, they’ll be able to comment on everything, and explain why this costs that, and any difficulties that might be involved. You also get a price that’s much closer to reality.

If they’re interested – and they should be interested, because creating a website for someone is a lot like going into a partnership – you should try and arrange a meeting, to sit down a sort out any niggles between ye. This is good because the closer the developer can get to an exacting spec of the site beforehand, the less chance there will be of problems halfway through the development, because, for example, you wanted to add something new, when the drafts have been finalised (grrr). After that meeting, then, and only then, will you get an *exact* quote.

And you should understand another thing too – this drawn out process can be bad for us too. I get calls every day from people looking for sites, and I have to go through this process with each and every one of them, because it’s the *only* way you can do it *properly*. And a lot of them call off at the end, because the price is too high, or the project is a lot more complicated than it seemed. That comes down to the fact that an awful lot of people think that setting up a site is a walk in the park. But unless you’re talking about a straight brochure site, it’s not, it’s *hard*. And when they call off, that’s my time and money wasted. It’s a tricky business!

And finally, a direct answer. How much would I quote you for a website like that? Between five and twenty-five thousand pounds. Sorry, best I can do… :)

Micro-USB Mobiles in Europe

Obsolete before it actually happens?

Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.

The Commission said the agreement would involve the creation of an EU norm, and that the new generation of mobile phones would use a standard micro-USB socket to ensure compatibility.

via Reuters.

Sliding House

You’ll be seeing more of this kind of thing from now on, as I gear up to buy a house in the next year or two. Obviously this is pie-in-the-sky for someone on my current income, but the ultimate aim is to self-build something unique, for life. We need to buy something in the interim to get ourselves on the ladder though, if possible something that will prove we can actually self-build! :)

(Home-Designing.com via Digg)

Palm Pre

[This has been in my drafts since January 9, only noticed it now. It does have a motion sensor and landscape mode btw.]

The wife’ll kill me, I want one of these and I only have my Treo Pro a couple months.

Palm Pre

It seems to settle a major deficiency in the Treo Pro, namely Windows Mobile. It’s not a bad mobile OS per se, but the hardware is a tad underpowered for it, and it has niggles that can’t be addressed because of it’s closed nature. That said, I don’t know if the Pre’s webOS will be open either, but hopefully Palm will have generated Clue from their Windows adventure. And drop it forevermore…

One other apparent deficiency would appear to be a motion sensor and/or landscape mode. You’d think that if it had it, the presenter in these PC Pro videos – well worth watching by the way – would have demoed it; although it has to be said that despite best effort, he’s no Steve Jobs and might have been better off deferring to someone with more charisma.

(Via Slashdot.)

Bookstairs!

Gizmodo: Here’s a great idea for anyone who loves books and doesn’t have enough apartment space or a Kindle: a “secret staircase” made of English oak, lined with books left, right and center, leading to a loft bedroom in a Victorian 1898 apartments block.

Bookstairs!

The Evolution of Tech Company Logos

You’ve seen these tech logos everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they came to be? Did you know that Apple’s original logo was Isaac Newton under an apple tree? Or that Nokia’s original logo was a fish?

I prefer the old Adobe logo.

The Bean

Sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Milennium Park in Chicago. Officially called “Cloud Gate”, but the colloquial Bean is so much better. More shots here.

The Bean