Two New Sites

Installed and designed two new sites:  Anam Cara Yoga Studio and Wright Turn Only.

For Anam Cara, all of the photos used on the site were client-supplied, as well as most of the text, which had to be edited a little.  Also, for the first time I specifically optimized a version for iPhone.  Otherwise, this one is simpler than Scott’s, and I made life a little easier for myself by using the WordPress platform from the beginning, and customizing from there, instead of making the whole thing “by hand.” It should also make further expansion much easier if the client decides to add bells, whistles, and other extras.Still have to solve some glitches on Internet Explorer 8, so, if you’re using an obsolete browser at work or something, you may get some weird results on the “When We Do It” page.

Wright Turn Only is in some ways a very standard “portfolio” site.  What makes it a little bit different is that it’s a site for a man, Ray Wright, who lost his sight to a degenerative disease some years ago, but has discovered, since having gone completely blind, a love of wood-turning.  How he works is described on the “Turning in the Dark” page.  So my guiding objective was to express something like “feel of the wood, in inner light, emerging from darkness.”

Even more than Anam Cara, WTO was built from a Word Press theme then heavily customized – mainly simplified on the level of coded layout, before addition of my own photography of Ray’s pieces.  I wish I could say that the very nicely done image “image gallery slider” was my own creation, but I can’t:  It was created by one designs as part of their free “Minimatica” theme, and I haven’t modified their basic approach to it.

Almost all of the software tools I use – for photo-editing, coding, and the rest – are Open Source.  Most of what a client is paying for on a job like this is experience and facility using the amazing stuff that other people have developed and put out there for free.  That and renting my computer and camera I guess.