X-Fire Design V4.0

As you may know the site has been down for a couple of weeks, this is due to a complete redesign of the site, and a new design on the way we operate.

X-Fire Design was created 4 years ago when I (Jack) first got into web design after some time working at a design agency, I had the domain from a little project I had been trying (and failing) to get off the ground so thought I might as well put it to good use, so X-Fire Design was born.

In the first few weeks I designed about 3 websites, for myself, my band and a local company. I had little experience to start off with and learnt on the job, meaning all my mistakes (there were a lot) helped me learn something new. After 3 months I had designed 6 websites, all of which are now discontinued, and I was very proud of myself, but felt I needed a new website myself, as I quickly found it boring and repetative.

V2.0 was a total redesign, and it was very green (I clearly liked the colour at the time!). At this time I also joined together with one of my friends, who wanted to help out with some of the graphic design side of things. He had been working on some interesting 3D work and I thought I could make good use of him on the team. The new website also required a new hosting package, which led me to a hosting company in American (webhostingboy.com if I recall). Their prices where very cheap, so I rented half a server off them to host the sites I had created, and some I had in the pipe line. I then realised why they were so cheap, the server was forever down, problems with disk management and also with their customer support, which appeared to be non existent, so I was very relieved when the company was taken over by someone new (I cannot actually remember the name of the company, all I know was they weren’t much better to be honest!).

After my contract had run out, I began searching for a new host, and in the end decided to get a server of my own, currently hosted in Chicago and running around 50 sites at the moment. I also fancied a change of website (I had designed around 15 more sites at this point and wanted to add to my portfolio and clear out the old sites). V3.0 was a great success, I loved the layout, the text, the images and the ease of use, as did most of my clients. I added in a client area, with varied success, and started a blog, which eventually ended up not being updated as much as I would have liked. This is when I landed some of my bigger clients, and with the help of a few more friends created some very well received sites. Other commitments meant that I wasn’t always around when the clients needed me, and being a stickler for perfection meant that I felt I was letting people down.

V4.0 will change all that, I want to make X-Fire Design more than it is today, I want to make it grow and fill the needs of our clients, and I know this can be done. I have recently met with some larger design companies, had meetings with web experts and specialists in web marketing, and feel fully equipped to bringing X-Fire Design to where I want it to be.

The new site is still under wraps, being designed with the new ideas in mind, a new client area built from scratch, a clean interface and fully web standards compliant, the new website guarantees to deliver. At the moment the site is scheduled for a May 1st launch, but we will keep this updated.

[EDIT]The site will be launched May 4th 09:00pm!

As a last note (I know this is a long post) I just want to say thank you to our customers and clients who have helped X-Fire Design become what it is and what it is to be in the very near future.

Happy Easter to All!!

J