I feel like it’s been too long since I’ve written here, but maybe that proves that I am being productive? Either way, I’ve been busy pumping away on a new site that is nearing completion and I’m really excited about. It’s a golf tournament that travels the country and gives proceeds to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children (pretty awesome). They play on some of the most beautiful courses in the nation and offer a great competition for those up to the challenge.

This was a unique project for me in that the turn around for it was very fast. This meant that I had to go with my instincts on what the client wanted and what the purpose of the site was to be. With a tight timeline and a long list of things to accomplish, I didn’t get the opportunity to second guess or think twice, I had to keep pushing forward to meet my deadline, and rely on what I knew. The deadline and large overlay of goals I needed to achieve actually inspired me to work harder and make continuous progress on the website. It also triggered my problem solving skills, forcing me to come up with ideas quickly and implement them.

The main purpose was to promote the excellence this Tournament conveys, and encourage people to register and compete. The site will also act as a hub where people can go back to check results from past tournaments to see winners and photo galleries outlining the highlights of each tournament.

The Lawyer Charity Challenge was a great challenge for me; it tested my understanding of what the client wanted and going with my gut. There are some things you can quantify and measure, and some things you can’t. Instinct and feeling will always have a slight edge over measurements and equations.

We are still doing minor tweaks on the site, but it’s past the 90th percentile in it’s completion, click the preview below to check it out:

This site has been a work in progress for quite a bit now. With a number of layout changes, color schemes, tweaks and adjustments, it has been a tough but rewarding experience. One of the greatest challenges I found while creating the site is the minimalistic theme and process. It’s not the way I’ve normally created or designed in the past, yet after looking at many different portfolio sites and examples, the ones I seemed to keep coming back to were simple and elegant, putting an emphasis on the work and content of the site. I quickly became obsessed with this idea and wanted to master it. What I’ve noticed is with a minimal design, every layout and color choice becomes incredibly important, maybe even more so than with a more complex layout. Every item, and color must have a meaning, and an impact. The smallest tweaks and adjustments can change the entire demeanor of the site, how users experience it, and if it is likable and accepted.

I drew inspiration from two differnt types of designs, those of geometric, shape based designs, and those that werew a bit more graphic, with a painted look, depth of layers, and a organic feel.

The overall feel I wanted to convey was a very airy, open, endless design. It would make you feel comfortable and want to explore and scroll through the site. In the beginning of what I would choose as my final layout, I wanted to find a balance between white, greys, blues, and reds. Not a , patriotic theme (not that there’s something wrong with that), but more an elegance, with rich reds and subdued blues. Upon  feedback I found that many people found the blue headers “Web and “Graphic” too contrasting with the site logo, which is prominent and bold. It was also pointed out that the elegant typface for these headers was too different from the bold slate look in the logo. Back to the drawing board I went, I first messed around with the idea of red for the headers, I used about 10 different hex codes but it just seemed like too much red on the page, which was taking alot of attention away from the featured thumbnails, which was the exact opposite of what I had set out to do. I then began trying different greys, and found one that seemed to fit nicely. Next was fonts for these headers. Originally I had used Fertigo, which I really like. However it really didn’t fit the bold, boxish look that was going on. I first opted for a much simpler font, Calluna. I kind of liked it, and I kind of didn’t. In the end I felt like it didn’t command enough attention, it became lost in the sans serif mess of things. I then went for Adelle, after considering the slab serif type that was used in the logo. I instantly loved it, and after a bit of fidgeting  called it good (for now).

I also took a picture mid process one day with my cell phone, it’s probably not the greatest quality ever but I couldn’t let it go to waste I found it a bit funny.

Well the project has been wrapped up for a while and it’s about time I share my results. Upon Diving into Joomla! I was not very impressed with the general workflow for the back end administrator. Being someone accustomed to working with WordPress, building themes, and blogging, the Joomla! CMS seemed like it just had a case of detail-itis. I can see in some circumstances where this could be effective, but for the particular project I had taken on it caused more confusion than anything.

As I built the custom theme for Joomla, there were some fun things I had to struggle with in order to achieve something that would be very simple in WordPress. Case in point, Joomla’s Blocks. This in itself just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. These blocks basically give you the ability to point your different pieces of content or navigation to different ‘blocks’ on the joomla layout. The problem is, figuring out what block goes where and when it’s calling what, and when I don’t want or need that particular block what to do to fix that. Sound confusing? It was.

I’m accustomed to the methodology of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid), and I’m also accustomed to WordPress, whose administrator area boasts a clean elegant design that can cater to anyone, whether they are just starting out, or building full blown websites.

From this first experience, I’m still much more in favor of WordPress. In the end I found Joomla lacking in many areas, one more of which I’ll mention was their community.

In open source development this is pretty much the staple that will keep people happy and continue to develop a great product. I couldn’t find nearly the documentation or community development I have with WordPress.

Thanks for reading, hopefully it wasn’t too much of a rant, just my personal findings.

I’ve always liked and stood by WordPress as the tried and true CMS framework to work by, probably because that’s what I was taught. However, I’ve just had a project roll through that will require me to use the Joomla Framework. As this is a great opportunity to expand my comfort level and learn more about the great open source community on the net, I also wanted to take the time to analyze the different CMS Frameworks available to developers, designers, and people who just want to make a site.

Some of the articles that I thought were particularly useful were:

http://www.goodwebpractices.com/other/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal.html

http://www.playingwithwire.com/2009/03/open-source-and-usability-joomla-vs-wordpress/

http://spyrestudios.com/free-content-management-systems/

http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-culture/choose-the-best-free-cms

When the project is completed I will make a second post on how it was and some personal comparisons and even preferences.

Chow!