Portfolio
I have worked on a variety of projects, either as the sole developer and designer, or in partnership with independent graphic designers and agencies. The projects range from small, static personal pages, to fully content-managed business websites.
Below are some of the highlights of the last three years. Some links may be broken, due to websites closing down, which is the client's choice, not mine.
Wordpress & Gallery Integration http://carolynelane.com
I made this website as a follow-up to Carolyne's Arts Award website, which she could use as a more personal website, whereas the other is read by her teachers and others.
It was a challenging project: I used the WPG2 plugin in order to integrate Wordpress (used for the blog) and Menalto's Gallery (used for the photos). I designed the whole website, creating all the stylesheets and graphics by hand. I also tidied up and tweaked all of the code in the theme directories. I am particularly proud of this website, I think it is my favourite of this whole portfolio.
Wordpress Theme & Development http://artsaward.carolynelane.com
This is a simple Wordpress website for my friend Carolyne, which lets her log her progress in her Arts Award program, with a simple and easy-to-use content management system. Carolyne is a wonderful photographer, and I recommend taking a look at the photos she has uploaded to the site. I managed the build, design and search engine optimisation on this project.
CMS Development - Drupal 5 http://letstalkdietandnutrition.co.uk
I worked on the back-end development of the content management system (CMS), Drupal, and also the front-end engineering in XHTML & CSS on this website for dietitian and nutritionist. I was the developer, working with graphic designer Alex Lapot, who created the designs and branding.
Drupal 5 CMS Website Development and Design
This website was built for a journalist who wanted to create an online magazine for his village. I used the Drupal CMS to allow his to completely customise the site's content, adding articles, links, photos, and editing the site's information pages. I also designed the site, taking a minimalist broadsheet newspaper-esque style. Other features include social bookmarking, comment sections on each article, and custom accounts that can be added for contributors.
For legal reasons, I cannot supply a link to this website.
Standards-compliant XHTML & CSS coding http://snuggleupathome.co.uk
Snuggle Up At Home are a small business selling home furnishings. This is a small static site, for which I managed the designs and the development. Carefully planning the look with hand-drawn sketches and onscreen models, I created a neatly coded and clean-looking website, using only XHTML Strict and CSS, along with a touch of AJAX to make the product store more user-friendly.
Bespoke CMS with PHP & MySQL http://tiarasandgarters.co.uk
Tiaras & Garters were stuck with a static product store that they couldn't update. They contacted me and, keeping the design of the previous developer, I hand-coded a custom ecommerce CMS, integrated with Roman Cart to enable them to update their product catalogues from an admin section. I also tidied up the previous designer's uncommented code, which was a fair challenge.
In fact, this was by far the most challenging project I have ever worked on. The internal CMS was entirely hand-coded by myself in PHP & SQL; you can see a screenshot of it in the second image to the right.
Design and build for singer / songwriter http://sarahlucydole.co.uk
This was my first ever website, so go easy on it. I designed the pages, editing the sound clips together, built the gallery in JavaScript, and hand-coded the site in XHTML Strict and CSS.
One-page gallery using Lightbox
I was asked to be the photographer at my nan's 70th birthday, and thought I would design a simple page to share the photos with family and friends. The gallery is built using Lokesh Dhakar's Lightbox script, and the I made use of bright colours, making a lively and bright look - you're never too old for colour!
Update: site now closed.
Cookwood Forum http://www.cookwood.com
I read Liz Castro's books when I first started designing for the web, and I really wouldn't be where I am without them, so I figured I owe her a lot!
Therefore, I am a regular contributor to her web design forum, helping people with any problems they have with their sites, whether they are making a site for their own entertainment, or need help with designing someone else's. I am listed as Joe Bligh, #9 on the leaderboard. The username is 'reader' and password is 'html6ed' - that's not secret; it's just there to stop spam!
