My main hobbies these days centre around music, and so it’s great to be building up an extensive portfolio of websites relating to music and singing. My latest site is for Hallam Choral Society, a choir in need of new members and with an exciting programme of concerts in store for this year and next. It’s my second site for a local choir, the first being for Westside Singers, responsible for my first venture into singing in public! I also have a site to promote Martin Lightowler’s series of ad hoc choral days where singers […]

I’ve managed the Ballacamaish website for a number of years, though it was an existing website built on a theme that was becoming increasingly hard to manage, and aspects of the site were not displaying properly. We agreed a new design for their website was in order, along with faster and more ethical hosting. The first draft of the new site prompted the following from the client: “Really love the new layout & simplicity… Thanks so much”

This is a website within a website that I recently overhauled to improve the functionality and ease of booking for people wanting to book their stay at the campsite. At the same time we improved the look of the page with new imagery to reflect recent changes to the site, and making use also of photography carried out for manxshopfronts.com.

I was doing a little reminiscing as I pass the 20 years mark 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, two choirs and ad hoc choral days, support for care workers, a language teacher, language retreats, a campervan converter and rental agency, B&Bs (lots), a farmer […]

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 […]