About Tyssen Design

Tyssen Design (ABN: 30 612 990 232) was started in August 2005 by John Faulds (me). I am a freelance web & print designer based in The Gap, Brisbane, an advocate of web standards-driven and accessible design, a member of the Web Standards Group, and a member of the ExpressionEngine Pro Network.

I’ve been involved with websites since 1998 but I’ve been pushing shapes, text and pictures around on computer screens with a mouse since the beginning of the ’90s.

I started my working life as a journalist and subeditor working for regional newspapers in Western Australia but found I wasn’t very good at asking questions and so I gradually became more involved in the design side of things doing A3 layouts on an Apple Classic with a massive 9” screen.

Fast forward a few years and I was working for national newspapers in the U.K. when I had the opportunity to join the team put together to create a sports website for The Daily Express in time for the 1998 World Cup.

Some long hours were worked but we got there and then had to endure much hair-pulling and furniture kicking when Beckham kicked Simeone and England went out in a penalty shootout.

The next few years saw me work for a variety of sporting websites, including the UEFA website for the 2000 European Football Championships in the Netherlands.

Coming from newspapers I started off in editorial positions but again began gravitating towards design and development. Since then I’ve (moved back to Australia and) worked as designer, developer, editor, project manager, copywriter, search engine optimiser, webmaster and general layout troubleshooter.

So if you have a layout that needs troubleshooting or want a site designed or given a spruce up, feel free to get in contact.

About the name

‘Tyssen’ is the name of a little street in Dalston, London that I used to live near for a few years while I was in the U.K.

About the site

This site is built to the current web standards with CSS/xHTML and without the use of tables (except for tabular data).

I have an active interest not only in good-looking, functional web design, but also in web design that is accessible and usable to as many users as possible, including those with disabilities. As such, I have incorporated a number of accessibility-enhancing features including a high-contrast style as an alternative to the site’s default. Information about this and the other features is available on the Accessibility page.

This site is designed to work equally well in all modern browsers. If this site looks like this in your browser, then you are using a browser that doesn’t support the CSS that this site is built upon and I would recommend upgrading to one of the following:

Credit for the first and third icons in the third row of links on the site’s home page goes to VistaICO.com.

Energy usage

w3green logoThis website’s hosting server power usage is carbon offset using certified abatement credits from greenhouse friendly activities (Abatement certificate details). To find out more about how you can do the same for your website, please visit Energy Today.

Awards and recognition

Since its redesign in April 2006, the Tyssen Design site has won:

  • Webmaster Award badgeA Webmaster Award (ID 3921) for January 2007. The Webmaster Awards recognise unique and useful content, exceptional design and layout, and clear and simple navigation.
  • Accessites Quality Universal Design awardAn Accessites.org ‘Quality Universal Design’ award with a score of 24.43. Accessites criteria grade a site on its accessibility, adherence to web standards, good looks and attention to detail. This is the second time Tyssen Design has been awarded by Accessites as the previous design received a ‘Notable Universal Design’ award with a score of 19.53.
  • Australian Web Designers Network gold medalThe Australian Web Designers Network (AWDN) Gold Website Award for April 2006. The awards are judged by an official panel of the Network’s members with each site being judged on its graphics, artwork, layout, navigability, functionality and originality.

The site has also been included on:

Design archive

Tyssen Design v1This design is version 2 of the Tyssen Design website. The previous version can be viewed by clicking on the wooden man.