This is a look at the custom blog for Plum Tree Studios, a photographer from Houston Texas. Once again matching an existing portfolio site, I was pretty contained for design options. I used some screen captures of her existing site to manufacture a background that resembled the one on the site. The color scheme was set as mostly black, with the few colors from the logo as highlights for text, links, borders around images, etc. A Look At the Site Click for larger Image A Look At the New Blog Click for larger Image Details: Social Media Links Details: Custom 404 Page As I explained in the post about another site, the 404 error page is one of the most overlooked aspects of any site. A site should be able to handle when something goes wrong. If you have ever reached a site that said something like 'The Page you are looking for can not be found,"

Posted In: Blog, Custom Blogs, Web Design.
Tags: clients, custom, custom blog, custom web design, photo, photography blog, web clients, WordPress

Here is a quick look at a blog I did for Andrena Photography. Based in Los Angeles Andrena is an amazing photographer, best known for her Indian Weddings. As proof, you will notice amongst the list of referrals on her blog, a listing for Elephant Rentals. With an existing website and a strong brand and logo already in place, I simply had to adjust colors and fonts to match the existing site. For the background image, I had to create a new image using the background of the current site, filling in the middle portion where the website sits. There were also some custom programming tweaks to make the menu work the way we wanted, fix the layouts of the category pages, etc. Then I added the standard set of WordPress plugins to help with optimizing the site's performance. For better visibility in the search engines, I added the All in One

Posted In: Blog, Custom Blogs, Web Design.
Tags: clients, custom blog, custom web design, photography blog, web clients, web design, wedding photography blog

One of the most complex and intricate custom blogs I have put together so far was for Jules Bianchi Photography. Like most of my photographers in need of a custom blog, Jules had an existing and well established brand identity with a portfolio site already in place. Her blog however had been on Blogger, where customization and options are limited. A while back, I had also done a custom splash page for the main site, with links to all of her sites and the blog. A look at the Splash Page Click for larger image A look at the portfolio site Click for larger image A look at the Blog Click for larger image Details: Post Titles There were lots of little details that added to the finished blog, a combination of design elements and custom programming to add some life to the site. With a long list of posts in a blog-style layout, there is an opportunity to add

Posted In: Blog, Custom Blogs, Web Design.
Tags: clients, custom, custom web design, photography blog, web clients, web design, wedd, wedding photography blog, WordPress

Most of the websites I have worked on over the last couple years have been built using WordPress, one of the best Content Management Systems available. It is extremely flexible and powerful, with great tools for Search Engine Optimization already built in. For a new user, however, it can be a little overwhelming once they log in for the first time. The WordPress backend is a little bit heavy and offers so many tools that it can be confusing for those new to the system. At first I was spending a lot of time on the phone talking clients through the same basic issues over and over. How do I add a new post? How do I create a new category? While these were new issues for them, I had to repeat myself over and over. So I put together a document that provides basic instructions for using WordPress and I have

Posted In: Articles, Blog, Downloads, Resources, WordPress, WordPress Tutorials.
Tags: custom web design, how to, Resources, web design resources, web design tips, WordPress