Category: Dernier Cri Web Solutions

This is just a short piece on the agency name: ‘DERNIER CRI’. It is in fact a French term that has become accepted in the English language and can be found in any dictionary worth its salt. The Chambers dictionary definition is as follows:

“the last word (literally cry); the latest fashion”
So it is in fact very similar to the phrase avant garde. With regards to the pronunciation of the phrase most people know the more familar French word derriere in everyday English usage and Cri rhymes with Tee so if you think Derriere Tee and use that to pronounce DERNIER CRI you will be along the right lines.

I’m Alan and lead web developer at Dernier Cri Web Solutions. After studying for ‘A’ Levels in Geology, Chemistry and Maths with Statistics at Barrow 6th Form college I graduated in 1992 from Manchester University with a BSc Geochemistry degree. I then retrained as a computer programmer in traditional languages such as COBOL and ‘C’ before being employed as a programmer in the local shipbuilding yard which was called VSEL then and is now BAE Systems.

In the early part of the new millennium I decided to take a slightly different direction to become a web designer/developer and studied through The Open University for an IT Degree specializing in this area. And relocated from Barrow-in-Furness to North Manchester to further this career goal now residing in Radcliffe near Bury.

After some years contracting and experience of office life am keen to make a go of it in a more quieter working environment running my own web agency.

My skillset is now wide and varied including: front end design with HTML/CSS, Javascript, AJAX and JQuery, back end development with PHP/MYSQL, graphic software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. I keep abreast of developing and new trends in web development and am constantly on the look out on how to improve things and appearances of my sites.

My other main passion in life is music and have been playing the guitar for many years.