PaperWeight - our first iPhone app!

We have been busy creating this nifty little app over the last month, and are currently working on more app ideas. PaperWeight very quickly and easily calculates the weight of any printed stock and takes into account other elements such as covers, inserts, ink, stitching and glueing procedures. We’re hoping that like-minded professionals in the design and print sectors find it useful. It saves on the old grey matter after all!

You can view our FREE app here on the Apple website. Or search for it in your iphone – it’s in the App Store under ‘Productivity’, or you can do a search for ‘PaperWeight’.

We hope that there will be many more apps to come from Root Creative – one of the first iphone app developers in Glasgow.

The LogoGala website

If you’re not familiar with it, LogoGala is a fantastic website showcasing great examples of logos from designers around the world. It’s run voluntarily by Deron Sizemore. Please show your support by visiting the site. Root Creative would like to thank Deron for giving ourselves the opportunity to be featured within his gallery.

A sign from above!

We hope that the new sign gives us some ‘illumination’ and fills us with even ‘brighter’ ideas! (please pardon the puns). The chaps from the signage company were extremely professional and wouldn’t even take us up on our offer of a cup of tea. That must be a first!

So, if you are ever in our area, please do pay us a visit and pay homage to the sign from above, even have a cup of tea if you wish.

Here’s to a great 2010 for everyone.

CEiS Website

Celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2009, CEiS help businesses and communities by assisting with funding, employment and training services. They recently boasted the title of Best Social Enterprise in the UK, awarded to them by Enterprising Solutions.

They now also offer an events management service that delivers high quality third sector events, including conferences, trade fairs, study visits and international learning programmes.

Root Creative were also asked to design their 25th Anniversary Annual Report. The report is available to download from the CEiS website.

We wish CEiS a happy anniversary and we hope they celebrate many more successful anniversaries in the coming years.

Watch out Phil 'The Power' Taylor!

The transfer of all utilities was (relatively) painless, the last coat of paint has been applied, the carpet has been laid and the new fridge is stocked with Christmas cheer. We now can’t wait to get back after the new year and enter 2010 with a new home and new ideas… and to replenish the fridge.

2010 also sees the formation of the in-house Root Creative darts team. So if you’re popping by the area, please pop in to throw some arrows. Our fantastic ‘Top Gear-esque’ leaderboard is awaiting your name and score.

May we take this opportunity to wish all of our customers a merry Christmas and a fantastic 2010.

All the best from the Root Creative team!

The first coat of paint goes on!

The change of scenery has also brought the interior designer in us all. We have been busy painting our main wall (?!), and we have still to source a suitably left-of-field kettle! “First things first”, as they say. Our new carpet has still to be laid and there’s the small case of the ACTUAL move, but other than that, we hope to be in before Christmas. We have other exciting ideas for the new place, but we’ll hold off on these just now… all in good time!

Naturally, we will keep everyone updated via our blog and with the publication of some ‘teaser’ pictures, hopefully it shall entice even more guests to pop in to say ‘hello’!

This bi-lingual site, in English and French, showcases Frank’s latest oil on canvas works which have attracted many admiring clients, including Eric Idle of Monty Python fame.

The site also utilises both javascript and flash technologies to allow the user to roam the gallery and press cuttings sections.

We hope that it serves Frank well. Who knows, one day we may well have a ‘Frank’ hanging in our office?!

To ensure SEO friendly URLs while using Zeus servers all that is needed is the following code:

RULE_0_START:
# get the document root
map path into SCRATCH:DOCROOT from /
# initialize our variables
set SCRATCH:ORIG_URL = %{URL}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = %{URL}

# see if theres any queries in our URL
match URL into $ with ^(.*)\?(.*)$
if matched then
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = $1
set SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING = $2
endif
RULE_0_END:

RULE_1_START:
# prepare to search for file, rewrite if its not found
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME = %{SCRATCH:DOCROOT}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME . %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}

# check to see if the file requested is an actual file or
# a directory with possibly an index.  don’t rewrite if so
look for file at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
look for dir at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
set URL = /index.php?q=%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}
goto QSA_RULE_START
endif
endif

# if we made it here then its a file or dir and no rewrite
goto END
RULE_1_END:

QSA_RULE_START:
# append the query string if there was one originally
# the same as [QSA,L] for apache
match SCRATCH:ORIG_URL into % with \?(.*)$
if matched then
set URL = %{URL}&%{SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING}
endif
goto END
QSA_RULE_END:

If your Joomla installation is in the root of your website:

Simply copy and paste the code into a text file,  and then save the file as “rewrite.script”.

Now upload the rewrite.script file to the root directory of your server and then log into your sites Joomla administrator area.  Navigate to the global configuration section and in the site tab, change all the SEO settings to yes, even the one that says use Apache mod_rewrite.

If your Joomla installation is in a sub-folder of your website:

Simply copy and paste the code into a text file,  “set URL = /index.php?q=%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}” to “set URL = /YOUR SUB-FOLDER/index.php?q=%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}” then save the file as “rewrite.script”.

Now upload the rewrite.script file to the same directory that your sub-folder is in on your server and then log into your sites Joomla administrator area.  Navigate to the global configuration section and in the site tab, change all the SEO settings to yes, even the one that says use Apache mod_rewrite.

That’s you done!  Test out your new SEO friendly URLs and revel in your improved search rankings!

Hmm, that looks familiar

It is commonly said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But is it? Well, if you have slaved over a website or graphic design over many hours/days/weeks and someone comes meandering along and helps them self to the fruits of your labour, would you be slightly perturbed?

Let’s rewind a couple of weeks to the arrival of an email in my inbox that suddenly caught my attention. Titled ‘website ripoff’, the sender (who prefers to remain anonymous) brought to my attention that our website design for our own company, Root Creative, had been copied (or stolen!) by a domain name reseller in Slovenia. No amount of prior warning could prepare me for what I was to see – a near pixel by pixel copy of our site, even to the point of using our ‘tree’ identity!! No effort had been even been made to make subliminal changes ie. to the colour scheme or the fonts.

Anyway, I don’t want to create an anti-climax, check it out for yourself…

Offending site!

I wasn’t too sure about the new nav bar that had been rattled up though. I think perhaps, that the sticky-fingered individual who ‘created’ it might think that it’s his ‘Get Out of Jail FREE’ card. I mean, it’s not REALLY an exact copy of our site, is it?!

So, how DO you stop someone nicking your designs? After all, there’s not that much that can be done if someone REALLY wants to copy your design. If they can’t get their hands on your code or images, they will simply re-create it.

Here’s a couple of helpful links that would assist you in protecting your images or code from being stolen, sorry, imaginatively recreated. But at least it’ll make it more difficult for others to claim as their own.

Watermark your portfolio images

It may look ugly at times, but at least it will stop someone from stealing your images and claiming as their own. Think iStockphoto images. See Tutorial

Copyscape

Copyscape is used by many websites to protect their content, it’s quite an effective way to be alerted whenever your website’s content is stolen. Copyscape website

Or, you could always send said person/company a polite email asking asking them to consider your intellectual copyright and that the site be altered to maintain karma amongst designers!

After mulling it over for a while, we at Root Creative, decided that our experience would be a great first blog post. Please feel free to post you own comments and if you have experienced something similar, we would love to know about it. At least we could gently remind you that imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery!!