Back in April I was commissioned by the owner of a card making blog to design a possible website template for her. The commissioner provided guidelines for color and image use, but aside from those requirements I had creative freedom to design the website.
The first thing I did was design a personalized logo for the client and website. I created this logo first by sketching out a rough draft on graph paper, then transferred the sketch to InDesign where I made adjustments. I then started to work on the website itself using Brackets as my text editor. The three major pages the client wanted done first were the Home page, the Genres page where the clients card designs would be further split up into categories, and the Retailers page with links to the clients most used shopping sites.
I started by laying out the basic structure of the website, adding in elements and content as I progressed. My client specifically asked for an image of Chicago to be in the header, so I incorporated a black and white noncommercial photo of the famous Cloud Gate sculpture overlaid with the logo. I then proceeded to work on the navigation bar with links to all the pages including: a Recent page that would showcase the client’s most recent card creations, an About page, and a Favorites page that would display a list the the clients favorite tools and card-crafting products. I then incorporated an image gallery in the main section of the website to display select photos of my client’s work and a short bio about the history of the blog and creation of the website. The last part I worked on was the footer, which includes the Copyright, Trademark, and social media icons.
Website Code within Brackets
Melody Hage 