NextGen Gallery again

The existing Comlongon Castle website image gallery module was struggling to cope with the volume of images so it was time to employ a Wordpress installation with the renowned NextGen gallery plug-in to help organise the photos into themed galleries (AJAX pagination) with slideshow and piclens options.

This is to be achieved using an alternative Comlongon Castle domain as a sort of mirror to the main site so that web visitors can switch between the two resources, with each resource being able to provide either text content and documents, or images.

By extension, this could also be applied to video content - at the moment the Comlongon YouTube channel is in it's infancy but this is the ideal resource to host video content that links back to the main 'outcome' site, where web visitors can complete goals such as make contact or use the wedding calculator to generate a guideline wedding quote.

Property in north west London

Callisti is currently assisting with Glentree homes with their West Heath Place website development for new apartments in NW11 (off Finchley Road, near Hampstead Heath.)

The site will include virtual tours of selected properties, interactive floor-plans for the apartments, and sold/reserved notifications.

Selling property in London is a highly competitive market so some sensible SEO strategies are required...

What is the standard screen size anyway?

What are you designing for?

There is a glut of possible display resolutions or screen sizes for your viewing interface now, largely due to variation and convergence of traditional computer display screens, digitalisation and wide screen, then HD television.

These are roughly split between 3 main contenders:

18% approx - 4:3 ratio (following in the great VGA tradition)
42% approx - 16:10 (Widescreen)
20% approx - 5:4 (1280x1024 pixels)

It is a design consideration for fixed width display websites but also for desktop wallpapers based on bitmap images. There are some new Allan McNish images available on the official website...

Upset the form book

Well done to FC Twente Enschede! Especially after holding their nerve on the last game of the Eredivisie season away to NAC Breda, while Ajax had been on a free-scoring run of games to keep the pressure on.

(van ons)

Event decor hire

This is a recent customised Wordpress CMS website for a Dumfries-based event decor hire company.

The wordpress installation is based on a customised theme in line with the existing printed marketing materials of Tantrum Events.

The image galleries are controlled using the NextGen Gallery plug-in which also allow for the jwplayer slideshow effect based on random gallery images.

The functions.php file for the theme has been updated to use the post thumbnail feature present in Wordpress 2.9 onwards. More details...

Thornhill blues fundraiser and website

After a mayday fundraising blues jam evening in Thornhill the Thornhill Blues event is up and running for next year.

Tickets were sold out for the event at Thornhill Bowling Club and the large support augurs well for the official opening next year.

The headlining blues bands expected to play at the 2011 festival are listed on the website with links to their respective youtube and myspace pages.

Pay-as-you-go e-marketing

Finally, a sensible pay-as-you-go e-marketing service!

Callisti was in contact with Contact Multimedia's team in Glasgow and it was a breath of fresh air knowing that small organisations that need intermittent e-marketing services don't have to sign up to a monthly contract or get charged hefty set-up fees.

The user interface is very straightforward and any imported email lists are checked externally to ensure the email addresses are recent, not spammy, and that the end client has a proper opt-in/opt-out policy for subscribers.

The reporting system is easier to grasp and there is ready reckoner guide for what the average response is to e-marketing campaigns depending on the nature of your organisation.