This site was a lot of fun to do. Not only is the design bright and engaging, but I was able to flex my PHP muscles a bit in the development of integration with the ShopSite e-commerce system.
http://discountneedlework.com
Web site design and custom content management system integration for The Gathering in Lexington, KY.
http://gatheringlex.org
A while ago, there was a game going around on Facebook about making random album covers. The steps, volumnious as they were, went something like this:- Spend time going to wikipedia to find a random quote. Copy it down somewhere for later use. Don't lose it, BTW.
- Spend more time going to some stupid random quote generator. Copy down something like 4 or 5 of the last words of the last quote. Yeah, counting and remembering. Not good.
- Now go to YET ANOTHER web site to get a random image. Save this somewhere that you can find it later.
- Assuming you haven't become entirely bored doing all of these steps, now you have to combine all of these elements in Photoshop. Hopefully you have this, because otherwise you'll have to use Paint or realize you wasted a lot of time on nothing. Oh yeah, and this is all assuming that you haven't lost any of the elements that you had to retrieve and save from earlier.
Too many steps! Sure, you get a lot of customization. But at what price?
I've whipped up a quick little tool that does all of these steps for you. All you have to do is grab the file that the tool spits out and upload it to Facebook.
Here are a few of my favorites:
So have fun, play around with the tool, and enjoy the results. If you come across something you think is really great, post it to your Flickr account, friend me, and let me know about it!
http://css-imagine.com/albumgenerator/
Rencently, a co-worker and I have been having fun designing random, crazy art for our desktop backgrounds--hey, code-monkeys like to look at pretty things, too!
Although it's been a lot of fun, I've also been learning a lot of things. One of my biggest lessons is how to better leverage the unique capabilities of Illustrator AND Photoshop to come up with some pretty cool effects. Generally, I'll use Illustrator to get basic shapes down, and use Photoshop's killer effects library to make some pretty fun textures, depths, etc.
Anyway, enough about that. Here's some of the stuff I've made recently:
Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24962601@N03/
I've been a huge fan of web design galleries for a long time. For just about the same amount of time, I've wanted to build my own--partly because I thought it would be a lot of fun to imagine, partly because I wanted to stretch my development skills.
So I made CSS {imagine}. One of the many things about which I am extremely proud is that CSS {imagine} is nearly automatic. And in light of all that it does, I think it's pretty impressive. For example, when a submitted design is approved, several different things happen. First, a screenshot rendering service is hit with a webservice and automatically generates a thumbnail for the site. Next, Twitter, ScrnShots and del.icio.us are all sent messages and thumbnails, indicating that a new site has been added to the site.
But the best part about all of this is that it is hooked up to an "easy" button. When someone submits a design, I get an email that shows all the details and a preview of the screenshot. If I think it belongs in the gallery, I click ONE BUTTON and everything I outlined above happens without any further action needed.
As you can tell, I am very excited about and proud of this project, and I think it showcases accurately the level to which my development has progressed over the last year and a half.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, ColdFusion 8, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, ScrnShots.com API, del.icio.us API, Thumbalizr.com API, Twitter.com API
http://css-imagine.com
Plungergirl.com is a blog design I recently created. I have to say, I had a lot of fun on this project. I had a lot of creative license on this project, and I think it shows.
In designing this blog, I tried to balance a raw, grungy feel with minimalism. So while the design has a lot going on, it is also extremely simple and pared down, which helps to maintain the concept without complicating it overly with design elements which exist merely for the sake of filling up space.
This is also my very first blog integration with WordPress. This was a good learning experience for me, because I have a couple other projects coming up that will be WordPress implementations as well—I have certainly learned a lot! While getting past WordPress’s quirky architecture takes a bit of getting used to, once you have it down it is quite easy to use and—for the most part—really powerful.
Technologies: Photoshop CS2, Dreamweaver 8, WordPress
http://plungergirl.com
The Kansas District of The Wesleyan Church (KDWC) approached me because their website needed a facelift. What was especially fun about this prospect was that the client was very interested in getting a very fresh, fun and modern design, something radically different than the former, more conservative design.
This project was unique in that KDWC was already using a CMS to manage their online content, and needed a series of templates that could be plugged into this system. As part of my service on this project, I spearheaded the integration of the site templates with the CMS.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, Spry Framework, Netministry CMS
http://kdwc.org
My brother--a crack video-production guy--and I often swap work with each other. Deviantmonk.com is a result of such a collaboration (he did the designing, I did the slicing, HTML-ing and programming).
Deviantmonk.com was born because my brother was dissatisfied with the extensibility of blog engines like Blogger to handle his portfolio the way he wanted. I built him something that does.
For example, not only does deviantmonk.com allow him to categorize portfolio material, more importantly each category of post allows for specific functionality that allows him to fine tune exactly what is displayed for the piece of portfolio material. Additionally, there a little bonuses--like a script which connects his portfolio to Flickr--which makes this a far more robust solution that he would otherwise have.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, ColdFusion MX7, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, Technorati API
http://deviantmonk.com
Several months ago, two entrepreneurial ladies approached me with a dream and exciting business vision. I took their vision and created an online magazine that would utilize professional design and the level of functionality that accomodates thousands of interested visitors. The end product: maryandstella.com, a full-scale and completely interactive online web magazine for women.
Besides the standard blog and forum features (which were designed and programmed from scratch), maryandstella.com features a fully-functional Content Management System which allows its administrators to quickly and easily manage databases, upload and format feature articles, administer the forums, etc.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, Spry Framework, ColdFusion MX7
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"Room7 is a community of individuals who believe that change needed in our world and together, are trying to figure out the best way possible to be that change."
room7.org is a fully dynamic website with a custom Content Management System (CMS) that allows administrators to add, modify and delete content. Administrators can also use the functionality of the CMS to upload .mp3 files that are available to stream through an embedded Flash mp3 player. Soon, room7.org will be complemented by a customized forum where users can post messages and chat with other website users.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, Photoship CS2, Illustrator CS2, Flash 8, ColdFusion MX7
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This is a custom blog that I designed and built for myself partly because I wanted to learn how to build and blog, and partly because I became frustrated with the limited capabilities of services like Blogger and WordPress.
I built the blog engine with ColdFusion MX7, and it includes a custom CMS that allows me to pretty simply manage posts, comments and registered users.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, ColdFusion MX7, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, moo.fx Framework
http://existdissolve.com
Phillip Newton, a computer support specialist, approached me about desiging a resume site for his job search.
The fundamental approach was simple: Keep it simple and clean with nothing whatsoever to get in the way of the whole purpose of the site: the resume.
By far, phillipnewton.com is one of my simplest designs, but it is also one of my favorites. Content is king, after all, and I think sites like this reveal that aesthetics--important as they are--need not be the primary vehicles of effective communication.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, Spry Framework
http://phillipnewton.com
The Stonewall Wesleyan Church project was fairly involved: the site features a fully interactive blog, Google Maps integration for directions, a catalog of weekly teaching messages (also published as podcasts), and event calendar.
Additionally, it contains specific functionality for specific leadership groups within the church (such as a management tool for the worship leader to create schedules and set lists, a document center for board members etc.The design for this site came at a time when I had made a personal committment to not use blue in any designs (it's very easy to burn out on colors!). One of the visionaries for the site handed me a wonderful picture of a coffee cup and, well, the design seemed to naturally flow from that.
Technologies: Dreamweaver 8, ColdFusion MX7, Spry Framework, Illustrator CS2, Photoshop CS2
http://stonewallwesleyan.com