Recently, more of my time is going toward web development. After much delay, Vintage 106 will finally see the light soon (hopefully!), and numerous other projects are in the works.

Speaking of which, I reported last month that I was working with Tyler Waddell to get his new art portfolio site online. He has a great selection now available to view, and he has even has prints that will be available soon if you’re interested in getting a nice reproduction. While trying to find the right theme for his WordPress site gallery, Tyler went through dozens of different ideas. He was trying to find a minimalist design that would not detract his artwork. So, the design itself is simple, and it really makes his artwork pop on the screen.

WordPress has become a centerpiece to me for me in my development work. It’s not the perfect system for every website need or anything like that, but it is a user-friendly, yet still powerful system that I can use in a variety of settings. The simple fact is that most people that need to be able to run the content of websites are not coders, and they shouldn’t have to be. Very rarely is someone truly gifted with all of the creative and / or business skills as well as the more analytical, time-crunching code skills. I’ve had much more success showing someone the administrative section of the WordPress interface rather than using a program like Adobe’s Contribute. As many online services have shown, it’s all about the end user’s experience.

So that’s it for May. I’ll be back next month – if not before then – with links to more online projects.

I’m very excited to announce that vintage106.com will be live this week! This has been a great experience in learning how to code in php and in working with the many, many WordPress plugins that are out there. For all of the plugin incompatibilities that make you want to bang your skull against the nearest hard object, there are also some really well done plugins that work right out of the box. If I wasn’t already a convert to the WordPress system, I definitely am now.

Lots more creative news to come later this month, so stay tuned!

Quick post today. I am in the middle of setting up a new website, and I’ve been having a blast. My friends are opening a new clothing store called Vintage 106, and I’m totally digging the hippie retro feel that we get to employ in all of their design work. Their store is a second-hand clothing store with a national supplier, so it looks like they are going to be able to get some very trendy items that reflect the fashion of the entire country instead of our immediate surroundings. As much as I love Goodwill shopping, local shops can be severely limited with what all is included.

I’ve already completed the Photoshop template and am now on to creating my first WordPress theme. It won’t have a ton of bells and whistles or anything, but I am getting the chance to uncover the WordPress structure and play around in PHP. What little programming experience I have had in the past has been in ASP.NET, so I’m enjoying the challenge of working in a different environment.

The site is not up yet, but the logo is now on the homepage over at vintage106.com. More info to come.