Tell us about yourself…
My name is Gavin Strange and I am a web & graphic designer, born & raised in the Midlands but now residing in beautiful Bristol! JamFactory is my artist name of sorts and the name I use to output my creative stuff under - it's also the name of my online portfolio.
During the daytime im a designer at Aardman Animations, in the night time I churn out graphical jam deep in the heart of the JamFactory.
Tell us about the JamFactory website…
It's basically my online output for everything I do. Flickr tends to get the first dibs on the upload of new work but the JamFactory website is the central 'hub' for everything I do and if you google me it's what you'll find.
It was the first website I ever had. Years ago when I first dabbled in the web I used it to just use what I'd learnt at my first web design job. So it was my playground first before becoming my portfolio!
Why did you choose RapidWeaver?
Because I've been lucky enough to work with your good selves on many a graphical project, and after being privy enough to working so close to the software, it was the obvious choice for me to use, it's just so simple yet powerful!
What is RapidWeaver's best feature?
I think it's general ease of use as a whole - the Mac is built on drag 'n' drop, so to have that same ethos as a part of web building is awesome, it just makes the whole process so much more enjoyable.
Jam Factory Workspace: Where Gav churns out graphical jam.
Are you using any third-party Add-ons?
Im lucky enough to have some custom bits and bobs, because Ben built my theme exclusively for me - so it has lightbox integration and a few more tricks! Aside from that, it's all straight-outta-the-box stuff.
Have you customised your site with third-party solutions?
I've got lightbox integrated into my galleries, which makes image display just SO much easier!
Which part of your website are you most proud of?
I think it's the part that hardly anyone notices... when you click a thumbnail and lightbox activates, my darker background is actually an animated gif, im really proud of that lil' bit!
Useful Links
RapidWeaver 4.2 is available for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
RapidWeaver 3.6 is available for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger