Nick Toye Studios | Wirral based Web Design, specialising in web standards, content management systems and eCommerce solutions

The Designer

Since graduating in 2000 I have accumulated 7 years worth of experience. Working as a freelance web designer as well as working for several web agencies across the North West of England. Having left university with a Business and Media degree, the path to the present was long and winding.

Many hours were stuck in the books and online publications, absorbing as much current web knowledge as possible. The result is a fairly rounded designer/developer with an aptitude for attractive interface design and standard based web products.

The Studio

Here I concentrate on providing our clients with the best service and a product that they feel exceeded their expectations. To do that, I need tools to make it all work.

• Adobe Suite, without Photoshop I wouldn't be able to push those pixels around and provide the visuals.
• TextMate, this product allows me to develop code in any language I wish. From xhtml to ruby, and css to xslt, there isn't a known computer language that this product can't handle.
• CSS Editor 2, a fantastic application that has enabled me to write the CSS that I want to, it also has some nifty features such as live preview and code milestones.
• Transmit, all the files need to go somewhere, this ftp application does the job with minimal fuss.
• Basecamp, efficiency is key to a healthy environment, and with Basecamp it is a dream to manage my projects.

The Science

This is for those who don't understand what I do, but would like to know all the same. Well I write in code, XHTML to be precise. I use this language to markup web content, but its not 1995 so I am able to style pages in this revolutionary age.

Enter CSS, the most efficient way to style web pages. Without them, updating 100 pages in one site would be a chore nobody wants to do anymore.

You may have heard the term Web Standards flying around the web, well basically it is a set of methods and constants that allows me to maintain best practices whilst creating web content.

It can be likened to the development of the common screw. Many generations used various screws from various countries until it became apparent that a standard screw was required. The same can be applied to web development. So what are the benefits? Well The Web Standards Project can give you all the answers.