I was a Maths teacher to ‘O’ Level in the 1990’s and when schools started to introduce computers, maths teachers were tasked with also teaching Computer Studies. I taught myself on the job, and learned BASIC programming and also started using Usenet.
In 1999 I was working in a very stressful job, and developed the idea of setting up a Domain Name and Webhosting Company called ‘The Name’. I used Netscape Composer, which also meant I had to learn HTML, to build my first website (above, image recovered from the ;’Wayback Machine’).
I also designed my first logo, using a character from a font I found online.
The company went on to be very successful for a while, employing ten staff and registering tens of thousands of domain names and hosting thousands of websites.
However, in the early 2000s there was a crash, and the company went into administration, to be bought out by one of the technical consultants who still runs it today, and he has kept a logo inspired by my first one.
I have designed many websites since, including sites I still host for Halton Mill, Halton Lune Hydro and Climate Emergency UK.
I founded ‘Climate Emergency UK‘ in 2019, after I had proposed a successful motion for Lancaster City Council to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’. The idea was to support and encourage every other local authority in the UK to do the same. Web building tools have improved greatly since I built my first website 20 years before.
This time I used ‘Divi Builder’ and I also designed a logo, though I made the mistake of incorporating a ‘red cross’ which I was later told was a protected symbol, so I instructed a grahic designer to create a new one.