Clickcase is one of many sites that have gone live in the last year that I have not had time to blog or add to my portfolio, but it’s one of my two favourites so I thought I’d portfolio it up. Plus, they are selling awesome accessories for iPads and iPhones right here in Ireland, and you may want to bundle some under your yule tree!

I’ll be honest and say that this project was hard going. The client brief was pretty liquid, and we started from scratch in terms of name, logo and design. That can end in one of two ways: creative bliss or Shakespearean tragedy. Luckily, after 15 years of doing this, I have a pretty high batting average and get it right first go more than 98% of the time. But the first design we did for the site just didn’t come together in a way you could really hang a brand on, so Katherine and I threw it out and started over. And by “threw it out” I mean threw out the whole thing – logo, design and build. The whole thing.

Happily, it’s a bit like childbirth in that it can feel like it will never end when you’re going through it, but then it’s all over, you’re mightily pleased with the results, and it all seems worth it. Both Katherine and I and the client love the site, which features all the usual ecommerce suspects plus agile product tagging, snazzy product images, inline product question forms and lots of really nice features all over. WordPress is silently integrated to provide more robust content management for non-product pages than our cart offers out of the box. There’s also a swanky Facebook page to go with.

In an interesting sidenote, after choosing and registering the clickcase.ie domain, we were able to score the already-owned clickcase.com domain for an unprecedented $60. I have picked up aftermarket domains for clients from $250 – $750 (I won’t spend more) but getting your .com for $60 has to be the bargain of the century.

Finally, after 30 years of rejecting Apple products, I have been seduced by the kitchen potential of the Speck Handyshell and would dearly like one for Christmas. And an iPad to go with it…

(PS: Yes, yes they do have Dodo Cases. You Apple people are so pervy.)

I had no idea what a handbag hanger was when Mark Renwick called me about doing a site for his range of handbag hangers and charms, but as soon as a package of chic, sparkly, girly goodness arrived at my door, all became clear. Slightly more complicated than understanding what would go on the site was naming it; we went through what felt like 97 brands (and I even appealed to Twitter for help!) before landing on BAGglitz.com.

Anyway, it launched last week in it’s all its swanky glory, and is a very nice shopping spot when you’re looking for gifts for your girlfriends. They offer completely free shipping anywhere in the world, which makes it a great one to stick in your bookmarks for those last minute gifts sent straight to the recipient.

This site features ecommece with Realex integration and complete product, order and inventory management. Design, branding and logo by me; life-saving support provided by Katherine Nolan.

If you take a basic skill like learning to knit, traditionally you were taught across generations by your close family circle. The world doesn’t so much work that way any more, and there are tons of things I want to know how to do you may be able to teach me, from container gardening to makeup application to driving. I like the ability to list and market lessons to make money, but mostly I like the idea of learning from my neighbours and meeting new people this way.

Site is a mashup of off-the-shelf directory software plus WordPress and BuddyPress. Soft launched a few weeks ago, it was long-listed for the Irish Web Awards in Best New Web App and was already covered in the Irish Times!

Shiny new ecommerce to go with glittering, opulent jewellery for luxury retailer VSL Jewelry. The site has a custom front end and an off the shelf ecommerce back end, with WordPress and Campaign Monitor bolted on to provide tertiary services with no custom development overhead.

This was something of a “lux” project for me as I had a free hand with design, was given a CD crammed full of spectacular professionally shot images, got to name products and write absolute tonnes of lush copy, and basically delivered an end to end online brand. Victoria Shorten is a great client to work with – and I am not just saying that so she’ll give me a NY STACK bracelet set.

Late night PHP and CSS bailouts from Katherine Nolan and John Handelaar. Coffee actually delivered to my house by Ciara Crossan. Launch contest inspired by my own covetous desire.

Michael Kane of CuriousWines.ie had a spec for his website that looked like a €25,000 custom back end job. Working with ecommerce goddess Katherine Nolan, we were able to pull 95% of his wishlist out of the bag with a heavily hacked off the shelf ecommerce system for a tiny fraction of that cost. We also added some very cool features like product tagging and reviews along the way to create a nicely dynamic site.

They’re launching with a very cool giveaway contest for Christmas, and a special 24 hour discount code on Twitter, too!

I don’t know about you, but the minute I hear the words “used car sales” I brace myself for a deeply unpleasant experience. So we worked hard to put together a site that would set BetterCars.ie apart from its unfortunate cousins in the used car market. Interestingly, although you cannot purchase vehicles online, this site is built on an ecommerce platform – we’ve simply ripped the financial transaction part out and taken full advantage of the cataloguing system. (The site also features a blog, though it’s currently a bit unloved.)

It took two months, but I’m delighted to see Deb Hadley’s Spicendipity launch today. The site features a full catalogue and shopping cart system, products linked to a recipe index, and a blog. (Come to think of it, I think this is my first ecommerce site in Ireland.) For this start-up, I designed the site, logo and branding, and in a rare foray into the world of print – which I hate – I also did the business cards:

Seriously, I hate print, so every time something comes off the press with the correct spelling and even vaguely centred, I’m inordinantly happy. Plus, vertical cards are just cool, man.

A transitional re-design for Irish interactive voice messaging provider VoiceSage.com. This is an early iteration of a planned migration to a content management system (CMS) and still uses tables so they can carry on with their internal updating system. My favourite parts: the typography and the How VoiceSage Works slideshow.

A simple blog redesign and re-launch at a new domain for Irish telecoms superstar Pat Phelan at PatPhelan.net. (I’m allowed to call him a superstar because not only is he one, he’s one of my favourite clients. Ever.) This site features a customised WordPress template and header. Clean, simple, and nicely grided with a prioritised sidebar.