About Aranaeum & Myself
Web Design
I schooled myself in web design from 2001 onwards, running several community web sites. Creating these web sites I taught myself all the open web technologies and skills required to build the web - HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, graphic design and more - that I would later draw upon to create websites for Aranaeum Design. Ten years on, I still live and breath web.
I'm a proponent of semantic, open-web technologies, and all the websites I create reflect this; I work to established web standards ensuring websites are accessible cross-browser to ensure that all visitors can access and interact with the website. There are many emerging web technologies; where possible all technologies used are backward compatible, but where this is not possible in older browsers I ensure graceful degradation and utilise polyfils to ensure that the web is functional for all.
Aranaeum Design
Aranaeum Design was established in 2004 when I made my first foray into professional web design. A solo business, I specialise in web design for small and medium businesses, organisations and schools.
Aranæum — for those curious — is named for a stylised rendition of the Latin word araneum or spider's web. That's æ, or the letters a and e, pronounced the same as in the words encyclopaedia or athenaeum.
Myself
Aranaeum Design is the web design studio of Alan Riggs. Alan is a photographer, web designer and new-media geek from Plymouth, Devon.
He's passionate about all forms of design and innovation. He likes to explore and learn. He speaks Russian — sorta. He also drinks copious ammounts of coffee and is detemined to live in London.