As you might be able to tell, I’m in the middle of updating the look and some of the functions of this site as well as adding for posts, like this one. I’ve been in somewhat of a vacuum creatively and been picking up some good books to break me out of that. I’ll post a bit about them later.
For now about the site. I shopped around for a good WordPress theme to use and then modify. I went with a minimalist theme called THEMATIC. It was not exactly what I thought it would be, but good enough and it really has a strong base and best of all the documentation for it is good. There are many that have used it before me. You install Thematic, then create a Child Theme from it. pretty straight forward CSS manipulation. Im turning it slowly into what I want. I’m pretty much in the middle of it with placeholders holding whats to come. Its been a bit adhoc designing though. I didnt start with a Design Document or PSD mock up. Im just going from stream of consciousness and on-hand availability of graphics.
I’m also working of the same thing for the Official Moon Mission Filfy site. I found a pretty nice theme called Comic Press, which WILL use an existing design, what is up on the current site is being used as the base. I’m hopeful it will go smoothly implementing the design. its a bit different and built for a Weekly Web Comic. So that should be up and implemented soon.
While I’m working this I realized this would be a great project for Web Design class. You are more or less working on CSS and you get exposure to HTML, Javascript and PHP. The best part is that at the end of it you have your own functioning website and a way to interact with it. This would also provide a base for Senior Capstone and give students the opportunity to be building onto their portfolio as they progress, instead of all at once. This would rely on instructors encouraging learners to continue to use the site once its created., maybe a few extra credit points for using it to display works in progress or to hold presentations and what not. These sorts of skill are becoming increasingly important for designers of all walks of life.