I’ve had a busy Easter “holiday” with the photography of all visible shops and businesses in the village of Port St Mary in the Isle of Man. This was a repeated of the work done ten years ago and represents the completion of the “ten years on” projects for the four towns and villages that were included in the original project.

I’m now turning to expanding the project into other places, beginning with the small shopping area in the centre of old Ballasalla. And I’m in discussions with other Manx towns about including them too, either this year or […]

2022 turned more of my attention again to photographic projects, and I expanded the “ten years on” project to include both Laxey and Port Erin. It’s very rewarding work and of very contrasting kinds of work. This ranges from a full-on week of fieldwork meeting hundreds of people and persuading them to take part, followed by weeks more of office based photo processing and incorporating into the website. This is all preceded by work to gain funding for the project spanning many months, and succeeded by work to publicise the results. Then a sigh of relief before starting all over again. […]

It’s always a joy to do work with Knockaloe Beg Farm. A fresh new design for their website that I’ve managed for about ten years with an aim to show off all the delights of the farm, made easier with some wonderful aerial photography. This was their second re-design from myself, around 6 years on from the last. My appreciative clients said: “Thanks to Chris Littler for his great work – we […]

I’ve done a number of websites for both businesses and local authorities in Laxey, Isle of Man, but this was the first for a charity in the village. This often presents challenges when there is a committee of people with strong views of how the site should look, and we achieved a good result that was immediately effective in helping the local community book their space in the facility and for the public to keep in touch with events at the centre.

Last week I spent five wonderful days in Peel, Isle of Man, photographing all the shops, businesses, organisations and their workers. The criteria for inclusion was simply that there was a “shop front” that is visible to the public, and that it lay within the town of Peel. I did this ten years ago too, so now we have a ten years on comparison and can see which businesses have closed or left, which are new, and who has simply moved along the street or around the corner (a surprising number!). I’ve yet to count the businesses I captured, but in […]

I’m very excited to be starting work on a project that has been a long time in the initiation stage. I have secured funding from Culture Vannin and other sponsors to repeat the work I did in Peel ten years ago to photograph and interview all businesses in the town that have a visible presence on the high street. It’s such valuable work to document social and economic trends in image format and will be of great interest to future generations. The outputs will be displayed on the new website manxshopfronts.com, and submitted to Manx National Heritage for […]

I was doing a little reminiscing as I hurtle towards 20 years as a website designer, thinking of some of the lovely projects I’ve been involved in, and I wondered how many different types of people and groups I have designed websites for.

It’s possible some have slipped my memory, but so far I have helped:

Holiday cottages (lots) and their professional body, local authorities (several), a roofing company, a garden office builder, a music teacher, a language teacher, a campervan converter and rental agency, B&Bs (lots), a farmer and a long distance walking farmer, a truck driver, a dentist, a quilt maker, […]

The new year has brought a flurry of activity to complete four projects that were initiated some time ago, ranging from 6 months, to 7 years! We have a new website for The Camper Company, a new business for an old client in the Isle of Man which will be hiring and converting campervans for people to enjoy the Manx countryside to the fullest. A new holiday cottage website for Wyndell Cruck Cottage on the northern tip of Peak District near Stocksbridge. And completing soon will be a site revamp for Visit Port Erin, and […]

Congratulations to Andrew Foxon and Go-Mann Adventures for winning the award of Isle of Man’s Leading Tour Operator 2020, from “World Travel Awards”.