A history log of milestones accomplished by Western Sydney based web development business; RMW Web Publishing.

Friday, April 21, 2006

GOLD AWARD - Peter Blake

We've done it again. Last night an email was recieved telling us of our latest award. This time the honours go to the Peter Blake website. Peter's site has been chosen for a Gold Award by the judges of the Australian Web Designers Network for excellence in graphics, artwork, layout, navigability, functionality and originality.

An illustration of a gold medal. Dated 2006

Although RMW Web Publishing did very little to get this scalable and complex site off the ground we did a lot of research in finding something that would suit the purpose while looking good. Like most most projects we do, we look for Open Source projects that can do the hard work for us. This has many benefits for example our customers get tried and tested tools that are continually getting better. It also allows us to pass on massive cost savings and allows you to have a functioning site much quicker than if it was built from scratch. Althouh it sounds simple, there is still a lot that goes into using pre-built packages to make complete and usable site. Often installing and setting up the software is a complex process prone to errors resulting in many hours troubleshooting. Once the package is working we then have to get our "heads around" the code methadology in which it was written to then customise the default design to our clients requirements. During this phase we often come across bugs or better ways to write the original packages code. When we do, we write a detailed description of the issue and inform the package owners of a fix or improvement. Taking the time to do this benefits all users of the package and our clients.

The Peter Blake website for instance uses a modifed version of a pre-built theme named iRoybots SlatyStain by Erik Poehler. Changes to the theme include a custom header, a visit counter and a "pages" category among other small changes. This modified theme sits on top of the very popular blogging platform WordPress which allows Peter and this team mates to update the site instantley from any internet connected computer.

Peter Blake is an upcoming Sprint Car driver in car 48N. Peter currently races in most meets at Parramatta City Raceway. Peter's site was created free of charge in exchange for advertising space on his car.

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