I received some sad news recently. One of my earliest websites would need to be taken down and the URL forwarded to another site.

Back when I was just getting started in web design, several of my friends were involved with the St. Louis chapter of Architecture for Humanity. They wanted to have a website setup much like some of the other city chapters had at the time. I knew just enough about putting together websites to be dangerous, so I humbly offered my low-cost services (read: free) and they accepted. With much fanfare, rejoicing and ignorance I began developing what would soon become one of the most mediocre, unused and underutilized websites in the history of the web (although, not necessarily mediocre by the standards of architecture non-profit websites).

Fast-forward a few years, and due to some changes at the international organization, the St. Louis AFH needed to make some changes to the site. Basically, we needed to turn the web page into a static landing page that would link out to AFH’s websites where they had setup subdomains for each chapter. So I began the design process with the idea of using a architectural floor plan to divide up the various links. I was pretty excited about this concept, because it would be fun to play with fonts and colors to add spice to the dry black and white layout.

Landing Page Proposal

Unfortunately, this was about as far as I got. It turned out that we actually were no longer allowed to have a website outside of the subdomain offered by AFH on their webspace. It makes a lot of sense for them to be able to control branding, and to capture content from random people who are running around saying they are with Architecture for Humanity. So I was disappointed but I definitely understood where they were coming from.

Anyway, at least I can add it as a design concept in my portfolio.

I had a little HTML refresher today courtesy of a “support” gchat.

Internal page linking is one of the simplest ways to help keep your content organized when you have a lot of content on one page. If you need to put together a simple FAQ page and you want your website visitors to see all the questions at the top of the page before any answer content is displayed, there isn’t any simpler way to do it than what I explain in this chat conversation. Although, sometimes it’s hard to remember exactly how the anchor interacts with the link. So simple, yet so easy to forget.

For the record, I changed pertinent details of the chat to respect the anonymity of my client. I changed her name, and made her younger.

I was thinking about how every website I do is so different. Why should all my business cards be the same? Might as well at least attempt to prove to potential clients that I’m creative before they even see my portfolio. I knew I didn’t want to just fire off a .pdf to the printers and end up with 500 homogeneous business cards, so I decided to recycle some miscellaneous boxes and paper.

I’m pleased to announce that the first official batch of Rent Mr. Bredon Web Studio business cards just hit the street. In fact, I’ve already given them all away. I’m sure you are disappointed that you didn’t get one, so please enjoy the photo.

This set of cards was made primarily by reusing a facial tissue box.

Next up, a logo redesign. And more business cards.

Fun.

I just submitted a proposal to a potential client who needs some assistance getting her WordPress site up and running. The site is using a free theme that is dead-on-arrival. The initial website development was done about a year ago when WordPress 2.7 was the latest release, but the site has never gone live, and the WordPress world has moved far enough along that taking a tour through this site now is something like finding a time capsule while digging in your backyard.

While the theme does look pretty awesome, I can only guess that it was selected in part because it was free. The developer who created it asks for a $10 donation to help support his efforts, but as far as I can tell he hasn’t done a thing to keep it up since the summer of 2010. I guess nobody is donating. According to his statistics, 78,000+ people have downloaded his theme. Yikes. A quick review of the comments on the developer’s blog reveals that only a few of those thousands are having success with it, and he hasn’t responded to their comments in over a year.

There are some really great free WordPress themes out there. There are honestly amazing, beautiful and creative themes that often make me wonder how I get by calling myself a web designer.

And these themes, the wonderful themes I just mentioned, are also most often created by developers who do not support them. In the blazing fast world of web development, a beautiful free WordPress theme is almost always a flash in the pan. They are exciting for about 3 or 4 months until the next WordPress release goes out, and then they break or they don’t incorporate a new feature. By and large, the developers who create them do it when they have some free time, or they do it because they want to create something that is visually stunning, essentially adding an item to their graphic design portfolio rather than creating a sustainable piece of PHP code.

Keep in mind that selecting a WordPress theme should be handled differently depending on whether or not you are a web developer and designer. For example, if you are a writer who is selecting a theme for the site that you are personally putting together because you really can’t afford the services of a web designer, then please go ahead and find the nicest looking one you can. But if you are a web designer with any hint of skill, you should select a theme based on other things, like how easy it is to change the style, optimize content for search engines, and add customer functions. You can always make it look however you like by utilizing your hard-earned CSS, Javascript and PHP skills.

Here are some opinions:

1. If you are using WordPress as a backend for your business or portfolio website – that is, the site that is your on-line business card, the one that helps put money in your wallet – DO NOT use a free theme. You have to spend money to make money, and $30 to $100 for a premium theme is a small price to pay for the quality and support you get.
2. If you are a web developer who does not specialize in developing themes for WordPress, don’t waste your time creating one. You can’t support it. Don’t try to fool yourself. Save your valuable time and pay for a theme from a reputable WordPress theme developer. Because time is money, it is still a money-saving move.
3. I’ve come to realize that a good WordPress theme isn’t necessarily beautiful with it’s default design and settings. If you are a web designer/developer who needs to select a theme for a client’s site, I would strongly advise you to avoid selecting a theme because it “looks really nice.” Choose the theme based on the back-end, value-added stuff and the developer behind it. Then do what you do best and make it look really nice by using CSS and custom functions.

Check out a few developers who make really great themes, both visually and functionally:

• DIY Themes – http://diythemes.com
• Elegant Themes – http://www.elegantthemes.com
• Woo Themes – http://www.woothemes.com
• Graph Paper Press – http://www.graphpaperpress.com