Three New Sites Launch on Kickass Custom Wordpress Themes
Three new sites have launched on Kickass Custom Wordpress Themes. All were done for one of my favorite clients, PC Mike Wendland.
MacMikeNews.com is a three column fluid full width layout with static side columns, and with pullquotes for added flexibility. Mike wants to not only provide Mac info on this site but also offer ways of purchasing the products he spotlights, so he wanted a lot of flexibility with ad space. Pullquotes are a perfect way to achieve this, since they set right into the block of text. Mike wanted Mac blues for this one, with a feeling of the shiny side. This layout holds up well to text and window resizing.
Mike is a bit more technically capable than the average client and does his own editing/adding of ads and such. To make that easy for him I commented the sidebars where stuff could safely be added, and made a few “permanent” areas dedicated to ads set off in their own php files, so he doesn’t have to dig through reams of code to find where to add his.
TechNewsJournal.com is a harder edged tech site, so I chose a high tech image for the header backdrop in electric yellow, coupled it with deep charcoal gray and white. This one is a two column layout with a long pullquote insert on the left for a google ad. I also included two ad boxes on top, set off in the code in their own php files. Navigation is across the top and in the sidebar. This is a fluid width layout with the side column a fixed width. Since Mike didn’t know how many links he needed across the top I designed that horizontal navigation bar for maximum flexibility, and to allow for graceful user text resizing.
TechTipsToday.com is a three column flex width with fixed width side columns for the google and other ads Mike wanted to display. A pullquote was also included for additional adspace. Mike didn’t give me a lot of direction on this one other that to keep it clean and simple, which I did, using only simple gradients and a single graphic element in addition to the logo. The design is a bit fun, and slightly softer, with an offwhite used, instead of a harsher white, to complement the teal and blue tones. Mike also requested that we forego a lot of the blog code since he wanted this to more closely resemble a static site. Post date and time were stripped out.
As you can see, though these sites have a similar subject matter, there are a lot of different ways to approach tech visually.
Do you have a project in mind? Need a quote? Let’s talk.
