Hi there, nice to meet you.

Im Alastair, a web designer living in sunny Glasgow, in bonnie Scotland. I drink tea and code in my sleep.

Back then I didn't know you could make a career out of making web sites. Since then I've moved on to become a freelance web designer and sometimes developer armed with sharp XHMTL, CSS and an even sharper pencil. If your interested in working with me, just give me a shout.

After studying Innovative Product Design at Dundee University, I began to turn to the web. I'd been interested in web design for some time but never had the time to sit down and learn how to do it properly. After a lot of hard work and some awful websites, I began to take on clients and some real work. During my freelance career I have worked with a variety of clients, ranging from new start companies to award winning design agencies.

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I am also a passionate supporter of web standards and accessibility online. For me it's important that the web works and looks right no mater what your platform or abilities. This also has some lovely knock on effects, like getting the biggest audience for your website, helping to get to the top of your Google results and when done properly can produce some truly beautiful websites.

My other growing love is typography. It's been fueled with the help of some brilliant professionals and typography enthusiasts. I've tried to keep it clean and clear on this site and let the typefaces speak for themselves. The wonderful Helvetica is used for the headers with sub headings and main copy set in Georgia throughout the site. Navigation is set in Museo Sans by the fantastic exljbris font foundry.

For the past year or so, I have been involved in an open source project called Dear Green Place (part of the greenmap.org project). DGP is aimed at mapping out sustainable living in Glasgow. Working on this project has given me the opportunity to work with a fantastic and very talented team of web professionals and also getting stuck in on a real community project.

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This site is my online home, and although its very simple, it of course represents how I view web design. It's all crafted carefully with XHTML and CSS, but its how its crafted thats important. Firstly, its all done on a mac. Now don't get angry, its not that I hate Microsoft, but when you work almost exclusively on a computer, you need an operating system thats not going to drive you mad at every opportunity.

Before all this though, you can't forget a good pencil and paper. There isn't a good website on the internet today that didn't start as a small doodle in someone's sketchbook. Then it's out with the big guns, namely Photoshop and the usually underestimated Illustrator. Once every tiny detail has been finalized, it's all crafted on a brilliant little app by the name of TextMate, which makes coding easier than tying velcro shoelaces.