Chris Burrows Portfolio

A.J. Cocker Associates

Chris — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:25:40 +0000

I have redesigned the A.J. Cocker Associates website making it more user friendly and modern. The site is fully compliant with W3C, XHTML and CSS Valid.

AJ Cocker Associates are a highly motivated firm of Chartered Building Surveyors and Architectural Consultants established in 1989, located in North Manchester, offering a full range of Building Surveying and Architectural Design Services.

(Note: website will be live shortly)

T-shirt designs - Nifty!

Chris — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:36:25 +0000

A short while ago I had the idea to start designing crazy t-shirts but never really followed it through. Well, a friend saw a little illustration I did and said it would look great on a t-shirt.

So here it is. It’s one of my blob creatures in the form of the devil, similar to the one you may have seen on my error 404 page. (That’s if you have been sneaky and tried to find something you shouldn’t be looking for!)

I think it looks pretty nifty and I will definitely be designing more and maybe even get some printed!

Character blobs

Chris — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:49:14 +0000

You may have noticed a couple of weird looking characters about my site, I can tell you there are plenty more to come and in a variety of funky colours and outfits! I call them blobs, because that is basically what they are.

These “blobs” indicate the page you are on. I intend on making one for each page on my website so stay tuned for an update to this post!

All about me

Chris — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:55:51 +0000

I did one of those silly question things on Facebook and I thought I would put it on here. It’s quite long so I don’t expect anyone to read it

The Basics

Hair Colour: Brown
Eye Colour: Hazel
Height: 5ft 11
Profession: Web designer
Relationship Status: Singular
Religious Views: Individuality

My Favourites

Colour: Black
Car: Mini
Movie: Withnail & I
Hobby: Guitar playing
Song/Singer: All of Grace album/Jeff Buckley
Book/Author: Nineteen eighty four/George Orwell
School Subject: Art
Vacation Destination: Anywhere with sunshine
Food: Indian takeaway
Restaurant: McDonalds..?
Animal: My kitten Halle
Store: Dawsons
Celebrity: I hate celebs but Kate Beckinsale
Childhood Friend: I’ve forgotten my childhood
Childhood Memory: See above
Baby Name: Caleb
Person In Your Life: At the moment I can’t say
Facebook Application: None, they suck!

This or That

Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
Big Mac or Whopper: Big Mac
Coke or Pepsi: Pepsi
Beer or Wine: Wine
Coffee or Tea: Tea
Apple Juice or OJ: Apple
Facebook or MySpace: Facebook
Summer or Winter: Summer
Windows or Mac: Mac
Cats or Dogs: Cats
Boxers or Briefs: Boxers
Rain or Shine: Shine
Chips or Popcorn: Popcorn
Salty or Sweet: Sweet
Plane or Boat: Boat (I hate heights)
Morning or Night: Night
Movie or Play: Play what?
Walk or Drive: Walk
Money or Love: Love
Breakfast or Dinner: Dinner
Forgiveness or Revenge: Tricky one
Paint or Wallpaper: Paint
House or Apartment: Apartment

Do You?

Have Any Pets: 4 Fish and a Kitten
Have Any Children: No
Smoke: Yup
Drink: I try not to
Exercise: Ish…
Spend Your Life On Facebook: No
Play On A Sports Team: No
Belong To Any Organizations: No
Love Your Job: Depends
Like To Cook: Yup
Play An Instrument: Guitar
Sing: Would like to
Dance: Like a geek
Speak Multiple Languages: Does this include programming languages?
Ice Skate: It scares me
Swim: Yes
Paint: Yes, but should do much more!
Write: Yep
Ski: Not yet
Juggle: Nope

Have You Ever

Stolen Anything: I don’t like where this is going
Been Drunk Before Noon: Yes…
Had Sex In A Public Place: No
Got Caught Telling A Lie: Yep
Got A Speeding Ticket: No
Been Arrested: No
Littered: Probably
Fantasized About A Co-Worker: Who hasn’t?
Cheated On A Test: Probably
Failed A Class: No
Eaten Food Off The Floor: Yep
Stuck Gum Under A Desk: Yes
Cried During A Movie: Yes but shhhhh

Other

Describe Yourself In One Word: Moonstruck
Biggest Fear: Heights
Biggest Mistake: Too many to name
#1 Priority In Your Life: To make an album
Dream Job: Musician
Causes You Believe In: Anything that helps
Where Are You Right Now: My bedroom
Where Would You Rather be: In bed
Famous Person You Want To Meet: Jeff Buckley, maybe in heaven?
Place To Visit Before You Die: Somewhere untouched by humans
Song Played At Your Funeral: Eternal Life

Kool Kitten

Chris — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:15:51 +0000

I decided that my kitten, Halle, was too cute for me not to do a little illustration of her. She is the best animal I have ever been in contact with and this is basically an ode to her. Halle is only 18 weeks old but since I got her, she seems to have grown to the size of a regular cat.

Her daily activities include, destroying a plant, chewing wires, eating, chasing her tail and shadow, but her favourite is sleeping.

My newly designed website

Chris — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:30:09 +0000

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by and looking at my new blog and portfolio. It’s taken me a while to get it all together as I have been very busy.

So, a quick overview about who I am and what this website is. My name is Chris Burrows and I am a designer from Manchester specialising in web design. This website is basically a portfolio of work which I have done focusing on web design, illustration and branding. I will be updating my blog periodically with my opinions on things and also write updates on what’s happening in my life.

Have a look around and I hope you enjoy my work and website. Also, please subscribe to my RSS feed. My website renders as valid XHTML.

Things I find useful

Chris — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:20:31 +0000

So, I have decided to make a list of things which I find insanely useful for my Mac and which I use on a daily basis.

Firebug

“Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.”

I think Firebug is probably the best thing I have ever found in regards to web design or development. Without it, it was hard to see exactly what the DIV’s were doing on the page and how the stylesheet was controlling them. There are other Firefox add-ons similar to this, but nothing as good in my opinion.

Yummy FTP

“Yummy FTP is an FTP and SFTP client application for the Apple Macintosh, built as native Mac OS X software from the ground up, with the goal of providing a reliable, powerful, yet easy to use file transfer utility.”

I know Adobe Dreamweaver has built in FTP support, but I think it is quite useless. To get full unrestricted access to your website, Yummy FTP has to be one of the best applications around.

VMware Fusion

“VMware Fusion makes your Windows-on-Mac experience the safest possible with a suite of features to keep Windows safe and sound. From automated, timed snapshots, to embedded antivirus and antispyware software, VMware Fusion keeps Windows on your Mac sparkling.”

There was a time when a designer needed a Mac and a PC, but with the introduction on the Intel Mac’s, that time has gone. I find the fact that you can run Windows perfectly, as you would any other application on your Mac, simply brilliant. In my honest opinion, Windows has never worked so well. There’s no need for Virus software really as Windows utilizes a shared internet connection with OS X.

Jacamo Menswear

Chris — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:35:13 +0000

Over the past month or so I have been working for a catalogue company called JD Williams who run over 40 fashion catalogues. Over this time I’ve worked on many different projects for a variety of their brands with my main focus being the redesign of Jacamo.co.uk. I worked very closely to their current branding, catalogue and TV advert.

As this is a catalogue, much of the content will get replaced frequently.

You can check out the result at www.jacamo.co.uk

Musical ramblings

Chris — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:04:09 +0000

I’ve started playing the guitar again, this time quite intensely. I picked myself a Fender Telecaster which has made me start some serious playing. I’ve become so engrossed in it that I have actually started trying to write some lyrics and match them to my guitar playing.

At the moment the lyrics are just ramblings and feelings, but I do hope at some point I can make sense of them and put them together to make a song. Be it a load of trash or not, I am determined!

Here are a few of them:

With our bodies entwined in bed
I feel our hearts beat as one
The covers so thick and soft
Keeping us warm and snug
Your hair draped over my cheek
Is cool at touch helping me sleep

I don’t really know what I can do with them, but meh! I’m sure something will come of it all.

I’m listening to

Chris — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:43:14 +0000

Well, currently I am very musically influenced at the moment and seem to listen to it none stop. My general preference is beautifully made rock music as opposed to the new wave rock which has hit the shelves. Recently though, I have found myself wandering into different genres.

I thought I’d share some of the artists and albums I am listening to, in no particular order.

Jeff Buckley - Grace
Gomez - Bring It On, Liquid Skin, In Our Gun
Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times
Air - The Virgin Suicides, Talkie Walkie, Moon Safari
Boards Of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
Eric Clapton -461 Ocean Boulevard
Incubus - Make Yourself, S.C.I.E.N.C.E
Kate Nash -Mad Of Bricks
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
Tosca - Dehli9
Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye

If you get chance, try some of these albums out, they’re great!