Wordpress 2.5

03-30-2008

Well, WordPress 2.5 is out, and I must say, this is a very, very nice upgrade.

I just upgraded this blog to use 2.5 before unleashing it on my unsuspecting clients, and from my very brief look through the dashboard and admin interface, my immediate impression is that this could well and truly take WordPress into the full-blown-CMS realm once and for all. A few designers (like me) have already been doing it for some time, obviously, but the UI of the admin panel has improved, there is an integrated image gallery, and the promise of a better WYSIWYG editor (Can we post youtube yet without hacks??)…well… what a great development this is.

As I move into the premium theme development market, I am hoping to create templates that will fully harness the power of Wordpress as a CMS, and cater for specific industries.

First up is a photography blog that utilises the built in media gallery. I am excited about this :)

A really cool blogging utility.

03-05-2008

Whilst on the hunt for an alternative to the shiteous built-in WordPress WYSIWYG Editor, I found this little gem. I am posting from it now, in fact! It’s available for Mac OSX and Windows, which is great, because I am running Leopard on my main machine, and XP on my laptop… so I don’t need to worry about being on a certain computer to use it.

The beauty of this app is that it allows you to queue posts, draft posts and edit everything offline.

I am terrible lately at updating my blog, mostly because the mental effort (shyeah, I know…) required to open my browser, be online, save drafts, etc, becomes too cumbersome. Yeah, my life is so hard.

Anyway, check it out!

Project: NK Photography – Wordpress as a CMS

03-04-2008

This project has been an absolute pleasure from start to finish.

I had a good feeling about Tasj from the very first time we met, and it resulted in a project that I am really, really proud of, and I hope brings Tasj more wonderful clients that appreciate her beautiful photography!

As an aside, there really is nothing that makes me happier, than having clients that just… trust me… to do what I think is right for them and their business. It is a tremendous honour, and not something I take lightly. Trust in your designer not only helps the project move a whole lot quicker and MUCH more smoothly, but it also means that your designer will walk to the ends of the earth for you :) Which is why its so important to find a designer that GETS you.

I learned a lot about my own creative process with this project, and realised that half of the battle is visualising the right solution. The actual designing and coding is just one part of it, but a lot of the time spent on a project is going into a sort of contemplation period, where I think about the client, look at their work, get a sense of what they’re about, and producing a site that not only differentiates them on the web, but also makes them feel genuinely invested and excited about the result. I think this is a part that many people take for granted, or somehow think that a design should be knocked together in Photoshop in 4 hours max… its much, much more than that — and I am getting much more confident in knowing that my vision, 9 times out of 10, pans out :)

Anyway, Tasj has been the catalyst for this realisation, that I am actually really good at what I do, and I LOVE pushing myself to do better each time. And that’s pretty awesome, coming from the laziest person on the planet! ;)

This site is powered 100% by Wordpress (the geeks will appreciate it), with Tasj having fully updateable galleries, integration between her site content and her blog, and some nifty little tricks thrown in for good measure (refresh the home page a few times and you’ll see that the background image changes every time :) )

Anyway, its been an absolute pleasure working with Tasj, and we wish her well, and look forward to her glowing testimonial ;)

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Check out the page HERE.