An assertion of our site, and a vow to make it much better

Hi folks

This is just a small warning that this site will be acting a little funny in the days to come, but it’s just because I’ve resolved to completely refurbish it and bring it to completion. I’ve been too busy with another web project and ended up neglecting this site. Well, that ends now. The positive about this is that I learned a lot from that other project. Lessons learned made me see many potential improvements for this site. That my webdesigning sister, and business-minded colleague both gave plentiful constructive criticism was also contributing factors.

That former site will be missed.

Some of the critique:

“Professionalism: Will people pay for this kind of work?” There is certainly a fine line to walk when it comes to a warm, loose and approachable company profile and a profile that reeks of halfdone work. I simply wanted a site that acted like our company’s mantra: “funky thinking for you.” Looking at the design now I fear it ended up in the uncanny valley. In sum I think I should’ve either pushed for something really sleek and professional or fresh and original.

“White on brown?” My sister, a schooled designer, pointed out that the white-on-brown approach could detract from my portfolio pieces. I don’t like it when she’s right… And I think she is right about this. I’ll see what I end up doing, maybe after all my trials I’ll end up concluded that this is in fact the best palette for this site. (Though there’s an inner voice telling me there’s something better out there surely)

*My own thoughts* This site does indeed look halfbaked to me, and it’s caused by me trying to juggle too many things at once. What I see when I weigh all the tasks with each other is that getting this site up to speed is quintessential to moving forward at this point. To get good work you need a good site to showcase what you’ve got. Adding to that there’s the whole bit about branding, establishing street cred. This site hasn’t been doing well in that department either, seeing that it isn’t a sprawling hub of discussions yet.

Let’s bust out those webdesignin’ tools

That’s about how much whining I wanted to do before talking about how to change this site.

I’ve rounded up a nice tutorial on how to make original wordpress themes fast using the :child feature which is built into the Wordpress framework. This :child feature enables developers to make use of “parent” themes, effectively inheriting all the tried and tested php coding and extending it. It’s just like a Wordpress theme gives birth to a baby, but we’ve altered the DNA somewhat.

• Build Your Own WordPress Themes the Easy Way

I added that inspiring tutorial so when this site ends up looking welldesigned you’ll know which tutorial contributed.  There will be a follow-up post after I’ve done all or most of the changes I see that this site needs.

“This is captain signing out stardate Jan.08.2010“