ago 05
We are creating a free network whose primary purpose is to bring together in the most simple and immediate way possible to all students and all teachers of University of L’Aquila.
The project arises directly in the university with the ease of using a social network (well known by the student generation but also by many teachers) and enables the transmission of information between multiple individuals possible in a simple and immediate way.
apr 22
When I started my own design business, one of the first things I put in place was a well-written contract. Before I spoke to an attorney about drafting an official document for me, I made sure I had my design process established. I also did a lot of research as to what other design firms and freelancers were including in their agreements. With something as subjective as design, there are lots of gray areas that need to be clarified as much as possible on paper.
If you’re in the process of drafting a client contract, or if you are considering revising one that already exists, I would recommend including the following list of items:
When starting a new project with a current or prospective client, I’m always sure to estimate the project time first. In my experience, giving yourself a bit of extra time on the estimate is a good thing. It will cover you in the event any unexpected snags come up. My clients are only billed for the time I spend on their projects, so if I don’t use up all the time allotted on my estimate, I look like a hero who came in under budget. On the flip side, if I find the project needs more time for completion (for whatever reason), I’m sure to notify my clients before continuing work and racking up additional hours.
There are some items that are hard to estimate for such as any special fonts or stock images the client may want to purchase later on. In such cases, I’ve stated on my estimate that these costs will be added to the client’s remaining balance. Of course, I’m sure to get the client’s written approval first, before I incorporate these elements into the design.
Other items I try to include in the project bid are rush-order charges, any special project fees, and any other professional costs that may be incurred along with an estimate expiration date. An exact description of the service/product you are providing to your client in the estimate is helpful as well, along with an invoicing schedule. It is my advice to have your client sign your estimate individually before starting work. This not only ensures everyone is on the same page at the beginning, but it also helps in the event a legal issue should arise.
How many changes or project revisions are you willing to make? After deciding on your design process, you should easily be able to answer this question. I provide my client with three rounds of changes before additional charges will apply.
It doesn’t hurt to mention how quickly your client should expect to see completed work. This often comforts the client as they know they aren’t being ignored while waiting for a proof. This also requires that you, as the designer, stay on track and provide your clients with project proofs and deliverables in a timely fashion.
How should the approval process work? Do you send hard-copies of the design, ask the client to sign-off, and then return to you? Is email approval acceptable? Will you send a print-design to the printer if the client is in a rush, without written consent? All good items to discuss in your contract.
It is written in my contract that I am allowed, as the designer, to show client work in my online portfolio and in printed form. I also ask my clients to allow me permission to enter any pieces I see fit into design competitions and promotions. Some clients are uncomfortable with this and I deal with them on a case-by-case basis. However, is there a general rule you’d like your clients to agree to?
During the course of working with your client, chances are you will be exposed (and they, likewise) to private information. By signing my contract, clients are agreeing that they will not make public any confidential information pertaining to my business. They also acknowledge that I will keep their business information confidential as well.
Some designers feel it is important to clarify that by working with the client, they are not considered an employee of the client. Work will be done as a freelance or business service, operate on the designer’s schedule and take place at the designer’s facilities. Where and when you complete your client work is up to you, and should be included in your contract. Some clients ask their freelancers to work strictly on-site. Is this agreeable to you?
Say you created a website for a client and the project has been completed for a month or so. They have even paid their final balance. Out of the blue, you receive a phone call from the client saying they discovered a typo on the site. Are you willing to fix this at no charge or is there a fee? For how long after the work has been published or completed are you willing to repair any broken links, re-submit any artwork to the printer, or fix grammatical errors?
For whatever reason, you or your client no longer want to work with one another. Can you terminate your agreement and how do you go about doing so? Does any work have to be completed or can you quit the job cold-turkey? What about client property? If they supplied you with discs and images for the job, how soon do those need to be returned? All good items to think about when creating a contract.
There are “acts of God” that can prevent us, as professionals, from completing a job. If a fire takes down your home office or if a flood destroys your small business location, chances are you won’t be able to meet your clients’ deadlines. Just as a precaution, I would suggest including this in your contract. Worse case scenario, you have no home nor computer, the last you thing you would want is an angry client coming after you for not completing a job in time.
Other items to think about may include how you and a client may handle a dispute should it arise, third-party involvement and which party would be responsible for any legal costs, should they be incurred.
After all has been written and your attorney has approved, don’t forget the signature. Simply submitting the document to your client doesn’t count as an agreement. To make matters convenient, allow the client to return your contract signed via snail mail, fax or email.
Again, let me stress that I’m not a lawyer and this does not count as legal advice. These are simply points for you to consider including in your contract, which should be drafted by a licensed attorney. Over the client relationships I’ve had, there have been times where simple questions pop up regarding my process or payment plans. Having a contract on hand, just to answer simple questions, is a great resource. It can offer you a little piece of mind and protection as well.
feb 04
Let’s first take a closer look at the main trends we identified, discovered and observed over the last months. In this overview, you’ll find a review of each trend and more beautiful examples that can inspire you in your next project.
feb 01
The Woork Handbook is a free eBook about CSS, HTML, Ajax, web programming, Mootools, Scriptaculous and other topics about web design.
“The Woork Handbook” is ready to be released. This book is a miscellanea of articles I wrote on my blog in the past year. During the period form January to December 2008 “Woork” has been visited from over 4 millions visitors and I received a lot of requests to distribute a printable version of its contents. In the past days I worked hard to prepare a first version of this handbook and distribute it for free.
You can download it e found more information here
gen 30
highlab’s graphic plans to participate in this contest:
Designing a dream WordPress theme?
Anyway, what do you believe in designs? We believe that great designs are designs that speak and function. They were developed through insightful inspirations and born to convey an important message to the viewers. Although designs are always eye-candies, we do believe that awesomeness lies beyond.
Talking about WordPress, what do you think an awesome high quality WordPress themes should look like? Should they have vivid colors? Clear typography? Great content readability? Or perhaps something that conventional graphic design theories forget?
Well, we guess this is your time to decide. Express your insights by designing a theme concept for us. Show yourself off, gain some recognition, and not to mention, there is a total prize of US$ 3500 available for you, talented designers.
You can read more here
gen 29
1. Open Cart
OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online shopping cart system. A robust e-commerce solution for Internet merchants with the ability to create their own online business and participate in e-commerce at a minimal cost.
OpenCart is designed feature rich, easy to use, search engine friendly and with a visually appealing interface.
Magento is a feature-rich eCommerce solution offering complete flexibility and control over the look, content, and functionality of an online store.
Magento Features:
Site Management
osCommerce is an online shop e-commerce solution that offers a wide range of out-of-the-box features that allows online stores to be setup fairly quickly with ease, and is available for free as an Open Source based solution released under the GNU General Public License.
osCommerce was started in March 2000 and has since matured to a solution that is currently powering 14,055 registered live shops around the world.
Today, osCommerce has been taken to the next level, moving towards an e-commerce framework solution that not only remains easy to setup and maintain, but also making it easier for store administrators to present their stores to their customers with their own unique requirements.
PrestaShop™ is professional e-Commerce shopping cart software that you can download and use for free
The big advantage of open-source software: you’re never ‘locked’ to expensive commercial software.
Our dedicated team and growing user community join forces to fix bugs and add new functionality at a rate proprietary software companies can rarely claim. Join the Open Source revolution!
AgoraCart – The powerful “Free” Open Source ecommerce shopping cart software solution that offers a very wide range of “out-of-the-box” features that allow you to setup an online ecommerce solution ranging from a simple template based store to the integration of a complex visual design concept containing all the creative magic of your web designer.
Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software with limitless flexibility in many areas including full design controls through Cascading Style Sheets (css), template systems, customizable layouts, custom individual product category layouts and templates, customization of nearly all cart features for the code hobbyist, modular “drop in and go” code as well as AgoraScript, our own scripting language inside parsed HTML pages, that experienced programmers can appreciate.
StoreSprite is ecommerce for web designers a powerful, free php/mysql shopping cart easy to install, customise and maintain, no complex scripting to negotiate design and deploy a top rate store that your
client can manage with little or no training.
Freeway is an advanced Open Source eCommerce platform which can sell using methods only previously available in enterprise class or niche bespoke systems. Without having to purchase a commercial system and then paying a developer to build a custom installation, Freeway does what you need out of the box. Of course Freeway is great for selling products but it also sells events AND services AND subscriptions. From appointments and time based bookings to event ticketing and subscriptions Freeway is the eCommerce platform for how we want to sell.
Ubercart is an exciting open source e-commerce package that fully integrates your online store with Drupal, the leading open source content management system. This is a killer combination for anyone looking to build a community around a product, sell access to premium content, offer paid file downloads, and much much more!
Ubercart was designed to take advantage of Drupal’s major core and contributed systems, providing our users with shopping cart functionality that seamlessly integrates with other parts of your company or community website.
phpShop is a PHP-powered shopping cart application. It is released under the GNU General Public License. The primary purpose of phpShop is to provide a simple shopping cart solution that is easy to customize to suit any purpose. phpShop has less features that many other shopping cart applications, but is generally easier to customize. All that is required to effectively customize phpShop is a basic knowledge of HTML, PHP, and SQL.
Free Shopping Cart Software for Joomla! & Mambo
VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution to be used together with a Content Management System (CMS) called Joomla! (and Mambo). Joomla! and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made easy for use in a PHP/MySQL environment.
Here the original post by insicdesigns.com
gen 29
Here we are with a new logo for highlab!
Yeah, we know.
The old logo reminds many sleepless nights based on coffee and derivatives…
but it is time to change.
highlab and its components are continuously evolving and its image on the web with them.
Rock on!
gen 28
We are still here, writing thousands of lines of php and cutting thousands of eye-catching layout.
We are working on some projects that you will discover later