It’s coming close to the date I come off maternity leave, and start back to work at full throttle! I decided before I went on leave that during the timeout from the business, I would give some time to thinking about it’s future and the direction I want to take it. Part of this included rebranding!

So, I figured I’d take it the whole hog, rebrand and relaunch in August 2010. I’ve spent some time working on the new logo, and I’m currently in the middle of a new site design. I also decided to set up on Facebook, as there is information I find interesting to hear about, and thought perhaps others would like to hear about it as well! I’m surprised that already, thanks to a few individuals for spreading the word of my existence, that I’ve got a number of fans!

Following all of this, I will redraft my content, and specify the new direction I am taking… Well not so much new, as redefined and committed if that makes sense.

I’m really excited about the whole process, and of course the end result!

So the new logo, well it’s made up of three butterflies. The significance behind the butterfly… Well a butterfly transforms from a caterpillar, with part of the process being contained in a cocoon. What has this got to do with web design and technical writing?? Well I personally think there’s a lot of similarities: a caterpillar, well isn’t quite as nice looking as a butterfly (to me anyway, I’m sure some might disagree). The coding behind a website isn’t so pretty looking to some either – I personally love code and seeing how a bunch of text (kind of random looking) can create something beautiful. So caterpillar=coding! A caterpillar, metamorphoses to a butterfly; similarly, the code behind a website creates, what should always be, a visually pleasing (aka pretty lol) website!So butterfly=website.

Something similar can be said of technical documentation! The unorganised, and often uncreated, content is like the caterpillar. The (set of) documents created, which are usable, consistent and give added value to your business & product, are the butterfly.

What about the cocoon?? Well I liken me, Anna @ AMOSH Designs, to the cocoon! I take your caterpillar and take care of it – coding the website, or creating/updating documentation – turning it into the butterfly!

Make sense now??? I hope so! Some might wonder why the three butterflies together like a flower? Well like anything good, it takes more than one to create it! So there’s you the client, consideration of your customers, and me! All these are required to create the perfect website or documentation!

So, if you want to turn your caterpillars into butterflies, contact me!

Anna @ AMOSH Designs

Do you use Twitter? Do you have a ‘Follow on Twitter’ link on your site or fora signatures?

Perhaps you should think about personalising or BRANDING your link image…

This morning, RosieDays asked for a Twitter link on their site & blog, so I sent them a few links to have a look at what was available to use… They wanted something cute and a little different, so I had a wee notion: why not incorporate THEM into the Twitter link image!

The resulting image uses a free Twitter stock image from http://www.bloggertricks.com/2009/04/collection-of-twitter-bird-vector.html, but tweaked to include RosieDays branding (recognise their rose?). I am happy to say RosieDays were delighted with the results, which at the end of the day is what I’m doing all of this for

Following the idea suggested by Ruairí at Kro, I thought I’d blog about this in the hope that someone might be able and willing to offer assistance to those struggling due to the recent floods in the West of Ireland.

As a South-Westerner, my heart breaks every time I see the horrific flooding that people are currently dealing with, just 2-3 hours drive from me here in Kildare…

Therefore, when Ruairí blogged about his idea, I had to sign up! If Amosh Designs can help in anyway, then I have to do it!

You can see Ruairí’s post at http://www.kro.ie/blog/2009/11/can-your-business-help-with-flood.html

I will freely admit that I never considered how my business could help other businesses in this sort of situation, but having thought about it; why not? I can provide a business with a way of continuing trading (online) or even just help them sell stock that would otherwise be sitting around while they are unable to trade as normal.

So for anyone wondering ‘what can I do’? I’m sure there’s something you’re good at and able to offer… Thinking outside the box in these wet times

Amosh Designs is first and foremost a provider of affordable services. One of these is Prêt-à-porter web sites! So designs that you can ‘slip on to’ your website and get going adding your content quickly!

I have three such sites displayed here http://www.amoshdesigns.ie/readysites.html, each only €150 per site, which is hard to beat! For this you get a site design, set up using WordPress to allow you to add and edit your site content yourself, easily! WordPress, while a blogging system, is a nifty backend Content Management System for websites, and I have the site set up so that it doesn’t have a ‘blog’ look!

So you don’t feel like you’ve been dropped in at the deep end, I also provide a back-up service in the proceeding weeks after handover (no extra charge, just lots of good karma!).

I have a selection of these sites ready to go, all you have to do is contact me and I can send you on the images!