Lots of Activity

I sure have been busy lately!

A bunch of website projects that have been in the works for a while have come to fruition all at once. It's been great fun deploying all these sites. Every time I get one up on a publicly-accessible server, I get to send an email to my client that says, "It's Alive!" Of course, the best part is that I learn something new with every project. That's why I like this work.

Here's a run-down of the new sites:

Hemingway's Cat

This site is for the band, Hemingway's Cat, which I also happen to be a member of. The most difficult challenge in creating this site was finding time between doing work for my paying clients to get it done.

Aesthetically, I was more daring with this site, using vibrant colors on a black background, design elements that I created for other promotional materials using Photoshop, and a customized Drupal theme that I made using the Zen Starterkit.

Neat features of this site include:

• Widgets that leverage the band's social networking activities on facebook and reverbnation.com
• Streaming of music so curious listeners can hear what we actually sound like rather than just read descriptions
• A calendar that maps the geographical points of our shows
• A blog where the other members of the band and myself can reflect on our shows and what we're working on
• A way for fans to comment on the blog, but with CAPTCHA challenge to prevent garbage from Spambots appearing on our site
• Search Engine Optimization and integration with Google Analytics

Mawenawasigh Healing Arts

This site is for a healing arts practitioner in Salt Point, NY (Dutchess County). Aesthetic considerations were of the primary importance to this client so this site features unique design elements such as the logo and the left sidebar graphic, that began with digital photography at her location and continued with the creation of the elements using Photoshop. This site features content that is easily updated by the owner with a rich text editor, image handler and calendar system.

 

 

 

The Melanie Group

This site is for a professional educator in the real estate business. It features content that is easy for the owner to update, including a rich text editor and a calendar and events scheduler that is customized to handle her specific classes and webinars.