My name is Phil Stringfellow, and I'm a web and UI designer from Liverpool, UK. I've been designing websites on and off for about 14 years now, professionally for 8 of them. Ever since I first used a computer and explored the wonders of the internet, I've always been intrigued about how webpages were designed and built and took it upon myself to learn HTML, the really old-fashioned way, using tabled layouts and inline styling. Fast forward 14 years, and I'm now building mobile-friendly and responsive websites with HTML5, CSS3, integrating PHP and jQuery, and building and developing sites with open-source platforms like WordPress.
Having an artistic streak, my passion doesn't just stop at building websites. I also use Photoshop pretty much every day for designing, having first used Photoshop 7 and moving on from there with each release. Now I use a variety of different tools including Sketch and Fireworks to design apps and websites, create wireframes for UX research in Balsamiq and InVision, and Illustrator and InDesign to design anything from adverts to annual reports and booklets. I also design on paper a lot in my spare time, with pencils and sketchbooks always on hand to design anything from emblems and insignias to tattoos and character pieces.
Zelda Timeline is a look at the timeline of the Legend of Zelda series, featuring a interactive look at the timeline, information from the official book Hyrule Historia and more. Zelda Timeline will be a dynamic site showing in-depth information and high-resolution imagery to explain the timeline released by Nintendo. Designed and developed by myself in WordPress, each page condenses the information into a readable but highly informative article, from the game development, to critical reception, to an explanation of the story and the timeline consequences. The site includes media, wallpaper and freebies, with frequent giveaways and offers.
Contrllr was a gaming community site that I was designing and developing, before I pulled the plug on the project due to time constraints and lack of development experience. Contrllr was essentially a new gaming community, allowing users to list, review and organise their game collection for others to comment, share and add to. The idea was to be able to link your gaming profile – Steam, Xbox and PlayStation – and import games and achievements to your profile, and flesh out your identity on the site with custom backgrounds, avatars and social and gaming links.
Metroid Timeline is a look at another of Nintendo's properties, this time focusing around the adventures of Samus, the bounty hunter. With The Legend of Zelda the timeline is extremely complicated and a lot of room for discussion and debate, but Metroid's timeline is far more simpler and gives me chance to collate and present the information in a much simpler way. Along with the same attention to detail present in Zelda Timeline with game descriptions, stories, lore and media, I'm also going to be presenting the world of Metroid through some clever CSS and imagery which will allow people to explore the world in a fantastically interactive way.
Tasked by a good friend, Dean Perry, to re-design his personal brand and website, I took on the task with a lot of creative freedom to decide where I should take his new look, and ended up a great-looking logo and logotype, and a modern, clean website for him. Starting off exploring ideas based around the "V" for Voupe and also ideas related to Dean's main skills - Ruby on Rails and web development - the above ideas were produced, but none were the right kind of look for him. Finally settling on a distinctive mark, the next step was to explore different typefaces that complemented the mark and could be used on its own also. The eventual final logo was actually not far from his previous one, instead just refined and improved to further the identity.
Approached by a friend to design the interface for his new venture, eventually he asked me to design the logo and mark for InvoiceFuse, a new platform for easy invoicing. Designing several ideas off the bat, I focused on the 'fuse' section of the name, attempting to design something instantly recognisable. I settled on a two tone "bolt" icon, and then set about typefaces that complimented the icon. After some feedback, I realised the bolt icon - as iconic as it was to the 'fuse' section of the brand - didn't describe the entire brand, so I set about a new icon, which could instantly be recognisable as an invoice tool. The second attempt of the icon ended up being the final version, after many rounds of Illustrator and sketches, and coming up with a playful, but serious, icon and logotype.