While we are mostly known for our websites, it appears to be a little known fact that we also design for print?

I graduated from university quite a few years ago, before the internet was widely used, and if someone tried to talk to me about HTML I found myself staring back with a blank expression on my face. This was hardly surprising as in my first year we didn't even use computers, it was metal type and composing sticks for us. Ask me about ligatures, em spacing and kerning and I will happily bore you for hours about the importance of good quality typography.

That's where my design career started, and it is still a massive part of my life. Yep, I'm that guy who sits in a restaurant and will study the menu, not just for what I want for starters, but also looking over the design. I constantly find myself picking up brochures and magazines. The content could be anything, but it's the layouts and the grids I am interested in. It has become an irresistible impulse.

Since becoming part of Getme I have continued to design for print – anything from a leaflet for a local brewery to full product brochures. I love the challenge of having a blank page and considering all the ways I can get the message over as simply and creatively as I can.

Although, clearly, print design is in my blood, at Getme I also now venture into the world of web design. I feel the two are becoming more aligned, with the introduction of CSS3. Just look at the two column layout of our blogs. I would always do this in print as a matter of course, and now I can design like this for the web too – happy days!

I continue to work on both disciplines, always putting a strong emphasis on those techniques and rules I have learnt over the years producing design for print.

In 2001 Microsoft brought us Internet Explorer 6. Little did we know just how much hurt this little application was going to cause us – if we had there's a fair chance we'd have formed a circus troop instead. This year, 2012, sees the end of an era for us as we officially stop supporting for IE6. So why have we stopped?

IE6 had a nasty habit of making itself indispensable, not on merit, but through long standing ties with other applications. Many people got stuck because they relied on older Windows operating systems that only supported up to version 6, or used applications that in turn relied on it. So many got stuck in fact that in 2008, despite the launch of IE7 & 8 (beta 2) an estimated 39% of internet users world-wide still used IE6.

Today I'm happy to report that things are very different, in the UK less than three percent of internet users are browsing with IE6. The official Microsoft figure is actually lower still at 1.4%.

The browser market remains split, with IE8 & 9, Chrome, Firefox and Safari sharing the vast majority of internet users. But despite this split, and especially since Microsoft's renewed commitment to IE with their release of IE9 in 2011, the browser vendors seem committed to compliance, each striving to ensure that their browser supports the web standards put in place by the W3C.

With the passing of IE6 and the commitment by vendors to comply with web standards, we're no longer limited to the features of a decade old browser, nor do we have to spend hours applying dreaded 'ie6 hacks' to our beautiful HTML and CSS. This time will now be far better spent, not on browser compliancy, but on improving the experience for users.

The demise of IE7 – unlike IE6, IE7 never gained the popularity of its elder sibling, however in the UK at least it retains a decreasing but substantial 10% market share. In 12 months time, or perhaps less, it looks set that this too will fall below 5%.

Where did the stats come from – the percentages used within this article are based on data gleaned from our UK client base, except for the official Microsoft figure which is taken from http://www.ie6countdown.com/.

We thought we'd start the year on a high by launching our new website! It had been 5 years since the launch of our previous site, so it was about time for a change.

Like all of our new websites, we developed this one using our most recent platform - DeployCMS.

We decided to move away from having many pages of static content which can quickly become dated, and instead focus the website around our blog system, ensuring that there is always something fresh to read when you visit. The latest blog articles will show on the homepage, and those related to any specific aspect of our work can be found under 'What we do'.

We will be keeping the website updated with discussion about interesting industry developments within web and print, as well as company news and developments, so we welcome you to return anytime to catch up.

We'd love to hear what you think of the new look? Feel free to get in touch.

Wishing all our clients a Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!