All posts tagged Smoothie of the Month

July’s Smoothie of the month winner is Nina, known as sylvatica on the Squeeze Forums, with her beautiful site Sylvatica Solutions. With the great big orange in the header, it’s no wonder this juicy site is this months’ winner. A great mix of black and very colorful imagery, let’s see how this site came about.

What specifications or direction did the client give you for this project?

On this project, I guess I’m the client since this is a website for my own web business. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that my husband was the client. Even though I have been doing web design and development for a number of years, I never got around to doing a website for myself. I hadn’t done any marketing at all. My husband retired from his job (in sales and marketing) and after a month of doing nothing he decided that he was going to take over all the sales and marketing for my web business. This sounded great because I never have time to think about my own marketing. Well, the first thing he did was give me a deadline to have a website created for Sylvatica Solutions or else he couldn’t do anything to help me with sales and marketing. I figured I’d better create one, if for no other reason than to keep him busy.

Where did you find your inspiration for this design?

I already had the logo. I knew that I wanted something very simple and clean. So I just used an image that reminded me of the logo (the orange slice).

How long did you work on this project from start to finish?

Less than a week.

What types of languages, technologies were involved in the development of this site?

XHTML, CSS, a little javascript, and a little PHP.

Did you find any aspects of this project to be challenging?

The most challenging part was just taking the time to begin to work on my own site. I always put client work first, which is why my site never got done before. I know it’s crazy.

What part of this project is your favorite?

Just having it done finally.

On a personal note, how long have you been designing and developing websites?

I’ve been working in software development for over 20 years and specifically web design and development for about 7 years.

July’s Smoothie of the month winner is Jimi, better know as Justify on the Squeeze Forums. His site Home and Glory is just a pleasure to see. The cardboard used in the header, the Polaroids for the menu and the lined paper sheet for the content is a great mix of every-day objects used in harmony to provide a beautiful home and garden boutique shop online.

Let’s get on with the interview and see how all this came about shall we?

What specifications or direction did the client give you for this project?

The client approached me looking for an e-commerce site that she could sell her products on, which are sourced from around Europe, to the UK audience. I was briefed on style to be ‘Vintage and Original’. Always a problem when your using a e-commerce pack.

Where did you find your inspiration for this design?

The inspiration came from seeing a lot of the items that were being sold by the client. A lot of items are based on old practical things. Such as old print blocks to spell out ‘LOVE’. I remember an art project where I used packaging material and watercolours to create a horizon scene with a twist. I think this was one of the biggest influences. I implemented the same kind of thing onto the first design, never working with black but creating a background which would be overlooked by a user but adding contrast to the main design. The lined paper was an idea that I loved on www.webdesignerwall.com. I thought I would take it a bit further, and instead of vector art, I would use an actual scan.

How long did you work on this project from start to finish?

A long time!

Getting used to magento was the problem. As I used the first version, some things didn’t work. You would disable a module, but actually have to go through code pulling out the pieces that you didn’t want showing.

Design wise, I got the site done in a small amount of time. Usual problem with cutting the site in photoshop to get the navigation to line up, but got there in the end.

What types of languages, technologies were involved in the development of this site?

Magento is highly object orientated PHP with SOAP extension. It’s a great piece of kit, but speed wise it takes it’s toll. They are constantly releasing patches to fix some issues. This site was started on a stable release of magento but is kept up to date via there patching system (When it works….). I would recommend Magento over any competitor! But be prepared for hate mail from your server guys.

Did you find any aspects of this project to be challenging?

Magento

What part of this project is your favorite?

Designing it. For somebody who wishes to go into development, I really hated trudging through the code of the shop.

How did this client find you?

I currently work full time at a print shop. I designed her logo and stationery etc and she mentioned about wanting a site.

On a personal note, how long have your been designing and developing websites?

Over the last couple of years I have picked up Web Design again. Photoshop played a huge part of my youth. Was a perfect chat up line on msn to the popular girls at school.

The winner for April was Karinne for her site Web Nonsense! Congratulations Karinne! Here is a little insight as to what went into the making of this blog.

What specifications or direction did the client give you for this project?

Since I was the client on this one, I really had “carte blanche”. I wanted to venture out of the flat one or 2 color that I usually base my design on and find a really colorful palette. I also wanted to experiment more with brushes and make the site pop out more with it all.

Where did you find your inspiration for this design?

As usual, I’m always looking through the endless showcase sites; checking out what’s the trend, what’s been done and what works. I really wanted this design to be something I’m proud of and that can stand beside some of the best out there.

How long did you work on this project from start to finish?

I didn’t set any deadlines since it was a personal site, however, I do have a clients’ site I want to convert to a WordPress system so I used my blog as a testing site for this. I think the original design was set last November. It’s not “completely” finished but I would say 95%.

What types of languages, technologies were involved in the development of this site?

It obviously use (X)HTML and CSS as well as PHP since it’s developed as a WordPress theme. Photoshop had a huge part in this because of the brushes that were used.

Did you find any aspects of this project to be challenging?

Learning how to integrate my mock-up into WordPress. I had never done this so it was a totally new learning curve for me. And I have to say … it’s VERY easy.

What part of this project is your favorite?

Designing it was very fun because I had to think outside my little box and go wild. I didn’t have any restrictions.

On a personal note, how long have your been designing and developing websites?

I’ve been designing sites for 9-10 years now. Started with an HTML course in College and I got hooked. I was always working on my HTML project even in other classes. I’ve always been heavily involved in soccer so I asked the regional association if they wanted a website as a way to distribute news and other information to clubs/parents/players/etc… more easily. That was my first site and they are still my client now! Since then, I’ve stumbled upon blogs from Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Cederholm and the rest is history.