As the Holiday Season is well and truly upon us, we here at ChillyBin Web Design & Consultancy find ourselves reflecting on the past year and on those who have helped to shape our business in a most significant way. We value our relationship with you and look forward to working with you in the years to come. We wish you a very happy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with peace and prosperity.

I’ve compiled a list of my favourite applications, most of them I use on at least a weekly basis, and in no particular order.

Perian
A must have download for anyone who wants to consume video content on thier mac. Install it and let Quicktime open all your video files with ease.

Tweetie
Tweet much? Well if you haven’t already downloaded Tweetie for your iPhone or your mac then you are missing out. It’s a wonderfully designed application that features multiple accounts, independent compose windows, search trends, threaded dm’s, user details & bookmarklets which make it my Twitter application of choice. Best of all, they offer a free version (ad supported)

Billings
Since starting my own business (ChillyBin Web Design & Consultancy) earlier in the year Billings has been an essential piece of my daily routine. It looks after all my job estimates, client briefs, time tracking, invoicing and accounting. It’s a very powerful little tool for small business and something that I could not do without.

Things
I’ve been using the GTD method for a few years now to manage my tasks and Things is a neat little app for iPhone and mac that facilitates all my todo lists and syncs across both devices seamlessly. I no longer have to worry about forgetting anything either with ChillyBin or in my personal life. I’ve recently integrated it with Mail.app so I can send new items to it effortsly from my email.

Textmate
I’ve recently just upgraded to Textmate after running BBedit for a number of years. Textmate now looks after all my text editing across my systems, it opens, reads and edits any file I throw at it. Since I spend most of my day writing and editing XHTML & CSS this is one tool I could not do without, it also has a set of really strong bundles inbuilt which allow textmate to be extended easily.

Adium
I use chat for business and for pleasure and Adium is my multiple protocol application of choice, there are tons of community developed plugins, icons, message lists and contact lists themes available which makes this app a constant on any system I run.

Transmit
I love Transmit, it’s been my SFTP/FTP application since i first migrated to mac and it’s developed my the Panic team who really make some great software. I use this religiously to get web content around to both client and personal websites.

Transmission
I don’t tend to download much through bittorrent anymore but when I do it’s with Transmission. It also monitors a folder hooked up to Dropbox so I can download even when I’m out of the office or on my iPhone.

Speed Download 5
Multiple threaded download management application which I use to download and sort anything downloaded through the web, it also allows me to connect it up with my rapidshare account.

Adobe Creative Suite
Photoshop, Illustrator, & Dreamweaver are my tools of choice out of this suite which has been the main tool of any creative project I’ve undertaken.

Pixelmator
For those little image edits which I can’t be bothered opening up Photoshop for.

VMWare Fusion
Alas, there are still times we need to run windows software, especially when testing and checking a new website design across multiple browsers, helps with streaming and decoding any files specifically written for windows too (I’m looking at you WMV!) I highly recommend checking it out and the new Unity mode in v3 is fantastic.

Parachute
Backups are important, I use this little app in conjunction with Time Machine to keep backups of my hard disk content across on my 2TB NAS storage device.

1Password
Strong Password generator and managment application that keeps all my passwords synced, strong and secure. Helps when I am setting up new passwords and websites for clients as it allows me a quick and simple way to archive these very strong passwords and bring them up when I need them very quickly. Oh, and it syncs across to my iPhone too.

Balsamiq Mockups
Prototyping tool developed in Air which allows me to quickly send clients a basic mockup of their project quickly without having to worry about colours and/or opening up Photoshop at the first stage of a project. A real lifesaver!

Sequel Pro
Helps me manage online and offline database content for client websites.

Bowtie
iTunes notifier and last.fm scrobbler that sits alongside my dock and allows me to quickly see what track in playing in iTunes and either rate it or skip it, has a strong set of keyboard shortcuts too.

CandyBar
I use CandyBar to customise icons & docks across my systems with a little help from the amazing icon designers at macthemes2.net & deviantart.com.

Dropbox
I love my dropbox, it allows me to send files aroundthw web seamlessly and effortleessly. I can sync a new design file easily with a client which will then get downloaded to their dropbox folder on their system. I also use it to share large files over the net via email to clients or friends as I’ve got 2.5GB of storage to play with. I also sync my .torrent files here with Transmission.

iWork Suite
Pages, Numbers & Keynote are all really undervalued applications in my opinion and they take care of all proposals, briefs, spreadsheet and presentation tasks I throw at it. They also all open ad export files in PDF and the Microsoft Office file formats so you can share this with PC users too.

MainMenu
Set of system tools which allows me to clean and maintain my snow leopard installations and keep them running up to spec. I also use it to clean my browser and dns caches when editing and viewing website designs as well As repairing and corrupt file permissions.

iStat
Remote monitoring tool that allows me to check the status of any of my machines my iPhone.

Drive Genius 2
For anything that MainMenu can’t handle I load up Drive Genius, it also helps with defragmentation of my drives (yes, it happens even on a mac), repartitioning, shredding files, scanning & integrity checks.

iLife Suite
If you own a mac you will have at least used these applications, but I really couldn’t do without iMovie, iPhoto & Garageband.

UnRarX & The Unarchiver
For all your unarchiving needs.

ChillyBin Web Design & Consultancy can provide your business or organisation with a Content Management solution tailor made for your needs.

What is Content Management?

• A Content Management System is a way of updating your site text, images, products and services from a suitable location.
• The Content Management System should be easy to use but yet comprehensive, covering all apsects of your website.

What we provide
ChillyBin Web Design & Consultancy can custom build a Content Management System for an existing website we have developed or if you have a website designed by somebody else we will be more than happy to discuss developing a Content Management System for your existing site.

What is included?
Our Content Managament System includes.

• Secure administrators login to the administration panel.
• Simple user interface.
• No technical knowledge required.
• Quick and easy updates of text, images, audio and video.
• Updates are shown instantly on your webpages.
• Can be accessed from any computer with internet access.
• No need for any intervention from ChillyBin Web Design.
• Each CMS is tailored to your individual website.

We are also familiar with a number of leading CMS systems (WordPress, Magento, Joomla, Drupal & Expression Engine)

WordPress is a state of the art web publishing platform that is hugely powerful, yet really easy to use and the first choice for the large majority of website owners

Drupal was designed for multiple users and is implemented more frequently in more corporate/community driven environments. With a heap of add-on modules like social networking, e-commerce and discussion forums you’ll soon discover it’s possibilites are endless.

Magento has taken the e-commerce market by storm and quickly cemented itself as the market leader in e-commerce applications. It’s feature set boasts impressive catalog management, marketing promotions and tools, analytics and reporting, product browsing, checkout, and shipping facilities.

Expression Engine prides itself on it’s flexibility, where WordPress and Drupal sometimes forces you to work a certain way, Expression Engine adapts to your creative process.

For further information relating to our Content Management Systems, or any of our services, please contact us.

Are you struggling with your web strategy? Getting lost in the world of Web 2.0? Are you looking to harness the power of social communities to grow your business? Then you have come upon the right people, we will assist you in planning and performing the right online marketing strategy for your products and services to maximise your return on investment and grow your audience. If it’s online, then it’s our specialty & we can maximise your brand through the right channels.

Web Design

From scratch? No problem. We are methodical and thorough. We’ll cast a wide net over your ideas and develop a strategy based on careful research. Our planning phase does not begin without a good grasp on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and competition. We’ll work with your vision in mind. And if your vision needs focus, we’ll jump in with our experience and expertise to help you fine-tune.

Web reDesign

Is your website not converting? Outdated look? User experience not clever enough? We love breaking down and analyzing websites, after which we fine-tune your strategy and make additions, subtractions, modifications, or complete overhauls to your website.

Web Development

Want more functionality for your users? Want to achieve more by doing less? Want to sell? Well, you get the point. We’ll help you take it to the next level so that you can position yourself competitively. Most importantly though, your users will have more reasons to come back again and again. Our functional addiction to trends will become your innovation. There’s virtually no feature we can’t implement or create for you. Don’t worry, we don’t just throw in features without thought. We’re smart about it, because in the end, we know it has to pay for itself.

Online Marketing

Get your site noticed. We attract the right people to your website with our range of Online Marketing services. Analyse conversions, traffic reports, rankings reports, control your online business. We can help you to improve your customers’ lifetime value.

Search & SEM

Get complete control over your website. We’ll show and help you update and optimize your website for major search engines. We’ll build a dynamic online business that is guaranteed to bring back your investment in no time. Take advantage of our expert SEO services, to improve your business!

And More…

• Logo + Identity (e.g. business cards, stationery, etc)
• Print stuff (e.g. flyers, newsletters, etc.)
• Want a blog but have no time to write?
  • Need product descriptions?
  • Compelling narratives about you and your business?
  • We can professionally write these for you.

I pride myself on being an easy going designer to work with. I’m fanatical about communication with my clients, keeping in touch with them, and keeping them up to date on project progress is all paramount. I’m always easily accessible and ready to help you.

I’m able to work on any size of project. I typically specialise in small business websites where I’ll design several page variations that can be implemented into the rest of the website’s structure. However I can also work on larger projects with complex backend systems, and integrate Content Management Systems to help you run your business.

My clients specifically love two things about my work. They firstly love the quality of my work and how it usually exceeds their expectations, as well as the speed in which I deliver it. But secondly clients love that I understand the position that most of them are in. Most of them don’t know half the technical terms I could throw at them – so I don’t throw them. Too many designers and developers confuse their clients with jargon that they’re never going to understand, I explain and communicate my ideas in a simple, easy to understand manner.

I’m a friendly guy and I’m here to help you and your business thrive. An impressive web presence has never been more important, so if you’d like to have a chat about your project, feel free to contact us. me.