Lasher Works

Here at Lasher Works, my web design style can be summed up in 3 words: Dynamic Web Design. Dynamic web design gives your audience the ability to interact with the website. The main components in a dynamic web design are usually comprised of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript and jQuery.

Through the various pages and websites here, I want to demonstrate creative ways to dynamically enhance an otherwise static website. Some Pages I have the CSS in the head of the document for easier study and some pages may need the browser to view the source code. Also, I will share my experiences.

Most if not all of the links to JavaScript, jQuery and CSS snippets that is used here somewhere will be within the documents themselves. If you’re just interested in learning more about the various bits and pieces I used rather than combing through my code to find the links and or copy my code then look for them on the link page. If you can’t find it there then let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Like most Web Designers, this is where I’ll be displaying my portfolio of work, putting ideas, code snippets, links to interesting sites and anything else relating to web design. If you like what I do and you would like me to do something for you, then feel free to get in touch with me. I currently live in Welland and I would be able to help anyone in Welland, Niagara Falls, Port Colborne, Fort Erie, anywhere in the Niagara Region and beyond for that matter.

Mike Lasher is my name. Ask me again and I’ll tell you the same. I created my first website in 1995 ; using a GUI type program called HotMetal Pro. This program allowed the creation of documents that could be read by an internet browser application. It wasn’t necessary to know anything about HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript or any type of coding language to create a website. I built a couple of websites using this program.

It’s now almost a full score later at the time I tried to build a website for a family member that was starting up a new business. He had an account with Go Daddy Web Hosting that came with a WYSIWYG app to make your own “Professional looking website in minutes!” without the need of anyknowledge of HTML. So thinking since I did this before almost 20 years ago that it would be a piece of cake. My life may not have taken the direction that it has if that app had worked properly. After working hours on a page and having it disappear to the nether world never to return again especially just after saving my work I thought to myself and said “self, you need to learn to build code based websites properly.”

Knowledge breeds freedom and power. To this end I decided to take courses from Niagara College, my local college, to obtain a Web Design certificate online so that I would be able to use code to achieve the websites I envision. Unfortunately their support on the most part was terrible and I would never waist my time and money subjecting myself to such a painful and stressful experience like that again! Instead I used books and the internet to teach myself what Niagara College failed to do. I would have been much better off spending my money on a subscription at www.lynda.com. Without coding knowledge, an alternative is using website builders that a lot of the times can come with purchasing a web domain. My ISP, www.hostpapa.com offers such tools to the non-coder. As good as some of those apps may be in generating code for web pages and it’s formatting; they cannot do what can be done by a professional. Do yourself and your business a favour and get a professional to create your website.

Everything, I believe, happens for a reason and so it seems that I have come full circle. Back to something that I have always enjoyed. I find creating websites to be very therapeutic. To me, I get the same pleasure when creating a website as someone that paints. Starting with a vision, a vague concept in my mind and a void canvas. I begin with a few notes to myself and then comes, to me, the dry part of adding the content. The fun part is the colours, the typography, the images, JavaScript to bring the website to life and layouts to tie everything together. It’s all like a huge puzzle. And in the end, with the completed work; comes the satisfaction of enjoying the flow of the entire page. Very feng shui baby, yeah!