The Faith Journey
The Faith Journey is a unique church in the Brighton, Michigan area. The first design of this website is to the left. It was a nested-tables design, utilizing Cascade Style Sheets. A calendar was integrated into the design so the client could easily update events. This is an original design.
As the church grew, so did the need for a more advanced website. The client chose a pre-made template and I adapted it for the client. In addition to the calendar, this design (right) included a blog, and a download section for the weekly sermons on MP3. The menu was made from an image map.
Testimonial:
"Kim has been a great help to us in getting our website up and running in a very short time. She is always very responsive to us and very quick in getting the job done. She designed the look of our site and we have gotten many compliments on it. I would recommend having Kim help you if you need a quality site done quickly!"
Labels: blog, calendar, CSS, downloads, former client, image map
7/11/2008
Wendy's Angels
Wendy is an independent dealer for The Angel Company, which carries a complete line of stamping and scrapbooking supplies. She offers home party workshops and book parties.
Wendy's website has four integrated blogs and an integrated flickr gallery to show off some of the creations that she and her customers have made. Wendy also has a Yahoo groups sign-up form, which she uses to collect email address and keep her clients informed about new products and specials.
Testimonial:
"I just have to tell you I am doing the happy dance. I was just contacted by a lady who saw my website, YEP you read that right, website (that YOU made), and asked for information about TAC and might be interested in signing up with TAC. WAHOO!!!!!! Look at all your hard work working for little old me. I thought you might like to hear about this. I will have to let you know what becomes of it."
Labels: blog, current client, email list, flickr, gallery
7/11/2008
Creagious Kids
Creagious Kids was a daycare and preschool in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Family owned and operated, Creagious was able to care for children 6-weeks-old through 12-years (for after school care).
This site relied heavily on Cascading Style Sheets for the look and feel of the site (notice the dashed line around the content). The site featured a flash menu, and a rotating mini-photo gallery at the top of each page, which changed pictures each time the page loaded or changed.
The client was able to easily update the site by writing entries in the blog and events in the calendar. Both applications seamlessly integrated into the design of the site.
Labels: blog, calendar, CSS, flash, former client, gallery
7/11/2008
Jenni's Western Drawings
Jenni is extremely talented with graphite pencil drawings. Her niche market is the rodeo fan.
This site was complete with a Paypal shopping cart, rotating mini-photo gallery on the home page, full-size photo gallery by category, and a featured drawing of the month. Jenni kept a blog on her site, writing each month about the featured drawing--her inspiration, the story behind the drawing, any special techniques used, and a special discounted price.
The second site design is shown above. The photo to your left shows a screenshot before the site was redesigned. Both are original designs by Dramatic Design.
Testimonial:
"Kim is wonderful to work with! She really makes you feel special like you are her first rated client. Thanks a lot Kim, keep up the good work!"
Doing a redesign can freshen up the look of a site and encourage new traffic to your site. If you haven't done a redesign in a while, it might be time to give it some thought.
Labels: blog, former client, gallery, original design, paypal, shopping cart
7/11/2008
Sandy's Journal
Sandy's Journal was created as a retirement present for her when she retired and was about to become a grandmother for the first time. The idea was for her to journal about her travels and new grandson. By blogging in her journal, she could keep in touch with the extensive international network of coworkers that she had established over the years. She would also have a keepsake record of her grandson's visits and milestones.
The site included an extensive guestbook, which Sandy's many coworkers and friends signed to wish her well. Each page also had a mini-photo gallery of rotating pictures that changed each time the page refreshed.
Labels: blog, former client, gallery, guestbook
7/11/2008
NBT Wear
NBT Wear was a custom order embroidery and design wear site, built with a complete shopping cart system.
Paypal was used for the third-party credit card processing system. The unique thing about this site was that each customer company could set up their section of the site with the products they wanted to offer and the site owner allowed shoppers to choose from those products, customizing with various sizes and colors. It was a rather complex shopping cart.
The site utilized custom graphics from
Mitcher T Custom Painting & Design, who was one of the customer companies represented on the site. Other companies included the
Hastings School District and
Thornapple Valley Church.
This site was developed by modifying an existing template layout, using a table-style layout.
Labels: former client, paypal, shopping cart, template
7/11/2008
Lone Feather
Lone Feather's owner, Evelyn, is a Native American crafter who makes Dreamcatchers and Medicine Wheels, which are legendary to the Senaca tribe that she belongs to.
This site incorporates a printable order form and a simple catalog, as the client did not want to have an online shopping cart.
Lone Feather is an original Dramatic Design creation.
Labels: former client, order form, original design
7/10/2008
Kids First Learning Place
Kids First Learning Place was my very first paying design job after opening Dramatic Design. KFLP is a Daycare Center and Preschool right here in the small town of Middleville.
When I started this site, Kelly was operating out of her home, but had plans to open a large center once it was built. The website was a nice way for her to display pictures of the ongoing building process. This site incorporated monthly menu calendars, as well as the planned activity calendar.
The site was very profitable for Kelly. At one point, she told me that a family with four kids enrolled and their tuition alone would pay for her website for
three years!
The screenshot above is actually a redesign for Kids First. It's good to freshen things up from time to time.
Labels: calendar, former client, redesign
7/10/2008
Sharon Walker Ministries
Sharon Walker Ministries is a former client's site. Sharon requested that I modify this template that she purchased online. It featured a flash header graphic that played a brief sound upon the opening of each page.
Sharon had me build several photo galleries into this site. I also integrated a calendar and a blog so that they worked seamlessly and appeared to be a part of the site, instead of third-party applications. We had a Verse-of-the-Day wiget next to her blog and sample chapters of her book that were downloadable.
Testimonial:
"Dramatic Design is an answer to my prayer. I wanted someone who understood "dramatic" in its highest form. Kim understood that in dealing with my personal level of dramatic excellence. She allows you to have a voice, and your own hint of creativity. Kim is patient, understanding, well equipped to handle difficult questions, and quite capable of creating a style just for the customer. I have enjoyed working with her, and look forward to other great dramatic designs she will create for us in the future! Excellent Job Kim, Thanks for everything."
Labels: blog, calendar, flash, former client, gallery, testimonial, wiget
7/10/2008
Prairieville Old Fashioned Farm Days
The Prairieville Old Fashioned Farm Days site was a unique one to create, as there is nothing else like what it represents. While the site focused on the Old Fashioned Farm Days, there were actually several events and concerts each season--and camping all summer long!
This site features hand-drawn artwork by Vicki Clough. She is an amazing artist and was able to capture the feel of this rustic environment perfectly.
Focusing on simplicity, the site features a simple drop-down menu for easy navigation. Also incorporated into this site was a calendar that could be easily updated by the site owner.
Labels: artwork, calendar, former client, simple
7/10/2008
P.R. Builders
Located in Hastings, Michigan, Paul and his team of builders are in the constuction and remodeling business.
The P.R. Builders website was built with a large, non-scrolling, non-repeating background, with the foreground being a semi-transparent base for the content of the site. The content scrolled, while the background (the house) remained still.
The photo gallery shown in this screenshot shows thumbnails of P.R. Builders' work. What you can't see in the screenshot is the dynamic slideshow that opens when you click on any of the thumbnails. It was a very nice effect.
This site also had a News blog, so the company could easily update viewers on projects, as well as advertise properties that were available to rent or purchase.
Testimonial:
I think that home page looks great! I think it goes along with a nice clean look. Not to fancy or anything but pretty simple and straight forward. Keep up the good work.
Labels: blog, former client, gallery, slideshow, testimonial
7/10/2008
All The Good Stuff
All The Good Stuff is a former client from the nearby Gun Lake area. Unfortunately, the store had to close, which brought the end of the website along with it.
I particularly liked the vibrant coloring of this site. It was very rich looking--much like the amazing fudge that was sold in the store! The full shopping cart enabled visitors to choose their product selections and checkout using a credit card through the third-party credit card processing site,
Paypal. Paypal has always been a safe and inexpensive option for small businesses and I recommend it highly.
Sharon comments, "Wow! Thanks Kim. I went to a site called [removed] because I thought they had the ultimate basket site - not anymore! You are doing a great job for me. I really love the corporate image and all that purple and gold is really impressive."
Sharon, the owner, also maintained a blog on this site. Since her in-store customers were fairly seasonal, she was able to keep them updated during the winter months about the new products in her store, as well as continuing to sell them fudge and other goodies through her online store.
We also utilized a sub-contracted photographer (Kris Foote) to shoot pictures of Sharon's wonderful products. The results of this collaboration turned out nicely.
Testimonial:
I would like to highly recommend Kim Smith with Dramatic Design for the construction of your wonderful web site. Kim took me under her wing after a long year of trying to get my web site up and running. Everything that could go wrong went wrong with the original web designer I used. I had Kim's business card in my file and decided to give her a call. We met. She understood exactly what I was looking for. When I told her I wanted a corporate appeal to the website, that is exactly what I got. Kim never gets frustrated with my indecision (that I know of anyway). I probably drive her crazy but she is understanding and compassionate and as long as I pay for these changes at her very reasonable rate, we get along fine. She knows how to take your ideas and put them in a simple format that makes the site very easy to use. Please feel confident in using Kim's services. She is highly skilled and I have appreciated her helping me through this process.
Thanks Kim, Sharon for All the Good Stuff.
Labels: blog, former client, paypal, shopping cart, testimonial
7/10/2008
Portfolio Expanded
I have decided to feature some of my client sites in my blog. So, in the coming posts, I will highlight sites and explain some features on each site. Please feel free to leave your comments!
Labels: client, feature, websites
7/10/2008
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