I built my first webpage in 1995 or 96 (ack!), back when HTML was done by hand, and Netscape was the rage. Since then, I’ve constructed webpages for both individuals and organizations, in styles ranging from austere to zany. While I can create HTML/CSS pages from scratch, I almost exclusively code for content management systems these days. Using a CMS makes future upgrades hassle-free, and the ease-of-use for the client makes the choice a no-brainer.
Many organizations and almost all individuals will be best served by WordPress. It’s user-friendly, easy to maintain, and manages most written, visual, and sound content with aplomb. The install and theme development for a WordPress theme are less intensive, meaning that a WordPress site is almost always less expensive for the client.
There are some, however, who actually need the horsepower under the hood that Drupal provides. Social Networking platforms and member management, diverse content publishing, and structured content needs are all good reasons to use Drupal over WordPress. For those who need (or just want) Drupal, I can provide those solutions, too, albeit at a slightly higher cost.
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Any site that I build and/or install will include a tutorial on its use, and written instructions for reference. Additional help is always available.
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Here is a representative sample of websites that I have worked on:
Students Rebuild
As an Master’s-level intern with this initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation, I was privileged to work on the Drupal landing page for Students Rebuild. Further work I am currently undertaking as an independent contractor includes the updating of all blog, photo, and video page taxonomies, and new menu displays for URLs below the homepage.
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Evil Slave, LLC
Evil Slave is a local film production company, that needed a branded web presence. Starting with a graphic image (the goofy-looking demon character), I developed a site that reflects the quirky, edgy, and not-quite-scary nature of this fun-loving organization. This site is in WordPress, and features galleries, javascript interactive menus, and lots of “Evil-speak.”
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Julie H. Case
Julie is a local travel, wine/food, and alumni author. She needed to update her site, and wanted a design that would be a visual representation of her written work. Julie also wanted to keep the design as clean as possible, and let her writing take center stage. I created her home page as a gallery of the covers of magazines that her work has been featured in (the gallery can optionally be sortable by tags). This site also has a blog, custom menus, and an RSS feed of her Seattle Met “Wine Wednesday” articles.
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Dilettante Douchebag
Once I completed the [link url=“http://evil-slave.com”]Evil Slave website[/link], I was asked by one of the Evil Slave principals to build his film review blog branding. The “author” of this blog is a pretentious, hipster caricature, so I created a strong–busy, even–background image that was then overlaid with transparent-to-opaque active menu and content areas. As with Evil Slave, most content is one or two clicks away.