WordPress Strikes Again (Part 3 of 3)
Gwendolyn Zepeda
Gwendolyn Zepeda is a Latina author who has published 3 novels and 2 award-winning bilingual picture books. She provided the photo for the home page, which is overlaid with rotating quotes from reviews of her work. She wanted clean and simple. With her previous site, the blog was at a separate location with a different design, so we brought it all together into one site to make it all more cohesive and easier for her to manage.
Glenna Tabor
Glenna Tabor is the former teacher, no education consultant, who developed the Tabor Rotation—an instructional framework for learning mathematics. Glenna wanted something open and bright, but staying away from the cliché crayon clipart or institutional style that is typical for this field. Qootes from clients are featured throughout the site, along with bright professional photography.
High Friction Surfacing
High Friction Surfacing is a Cedar Hill, Texas based company that does exactly what you might think—high friction surfacing! Their highway surfacing technique makes highways safer and more skid resistant. Their customers are government agencies, so they wanted the site to be professional, but still able to stand out from the crowd of boring gray and blue web sites that tend to be the norm.
Tina Sparkles
Tina Sparkles is an Austin-based, fashion-obsessed, creator extraordinaire who teaches classes and workshops in sewing, fashion illustration, and re-purposing. She is also the author of Little Green Dresses, which guides the reader through 50 designs, focusing on refashioning old items into something brand spanking new. Tina provided me with pages of her drawings, doodles, and ideas, which all came together to create a site that was ALL Tina!
WordPress Strikes Again (Part 2 of 3)
Picking up where I left off in Part 1:
Lo and Behold Antiques
http://loandbeholdantiques.com/
Lo and Behold owner Mike Mller scours the country for all objects odd, mysterious, fun, and unusual. Since his inventory changes often, he needed it be be easy for him to update his slideshows. He wanted this site to be driven by photos, and I think that was definitely accomplished.
Susannah Stinson
Susannah Stinson is an Austin, Texas attorney specializing in family law. She needed a site that was very professional, but still felt friendly and approachable, since her clients are not corporations but primarily people going through emotionally-charged times.
Rock Raizer
Rock Raizer is a great little non-profit which provides music scholarships to underprivileged kids in Austin. Like any great rock star, it needed to be bold and professional – but a little rough around the edges. It includes a Paypal button for quick donations, plus an events calendar that they can update automatically through Google calendar. Skip ahead to October to see an event on the calendar.
Placid Athlete
Suzanne Bertin is a USA Triathlon Certified Coach who helps clients find balance in their lives, both physically and mentally, through her training programs. With a logo designed by Rachel Titsworth, she wanted the site to be more calming than the majority of personal trainer web sites, which tend to be jarring and in-your-face. This site includes a Subscribers-only section, in which you can pay a quarterly fee to get access to articles, workouts, drills, training plans, tools, and a list of resources. In her store, you can pay for services and purchase eBooks.
Tomorrow, Part 3 of WordPress Strikes Again!
WordPress Strikes Again (Part 1 of 3)
A month or so ago, I proposed to a potential client that we build her site in WordPress, and she bluntly replied, “Absolutely not! I do NOT want a blog. I just want to be able to edit my own content.” To which I repeated “Then let’s build it [...] Continue Reading…
Writing Web Content 101
Make your web site work for you with great, concise content – get the traffic you need, keep people on your site longer, and lead them directly to the action you want them to take – whether it is buying your product, attending your event, reading your writing, or [...] Continue Reading…
Backup Backup Backup!
I have become a little obsessed lately with backing up my stuff. If something were to happen to my computer (in a house with 2 kids and 2 pets and 2 ill-coordinated adults, it is always a possibility) I need to be double and triple sure that I can [...] Continue Reading…
Portfolio Update and New Sites
I had some free time this morning and finally updated my portfolio with some of the sites I have had the privilege to build over the past few months. Today I wanted to feature 5 of my newest WordPress sites:
Austin Craft Mafia
The ladies at Austin Craft Mafia wanted a [...] Continue Reading…
The Meeting Question
I figure while I am using this blog to answer frequently asked questions in detail, I should try to thoroughly tackle the one that seems to be a small stumbling block for some people. It gets asked less and less and causes confusion less and less as every year [...] Continue Reading…
Barter and Pro Bono
Maybe because of the rough economy, maybe just the luck of the draw, I have been getting tons of requests lately to do sites for barter or pro bono. Which means I have been spending a lot of time feeling really guilty, because 99.9% of the time, my answer [...] Continue Reading…
Four Ways to Waste Four Seconds
Important Fact: Most web surfers will give a web page only 4 seconds before they decide whether to stay and explore your site or leave.
Some web designers will give their clients whatever they want with no question. Sounds ideal? Not necessarily. If what you want will actually drive people [...] Continue Reading…
How I Spent My Summer: Part 3
I have been sharing with you my busy summer packed with projects. Just 4 more to go! All of the following sites include a content management system to allow the owners to update their own content.
Lauren Tree Jewelry
Lauren Tree Jewelry features the jewelry designs of artist Kensley Lauren Greuter. [...] Continue Reading…