Joseph Sak

New WP, New Theme

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 | Design, Marionette, Projects, Web Development, Websites, Wordpress | No Comments

I upgraded to Wordpress 2.1.3 last night and since I inadvertently lost my theme files, I decided to get a new one. I like this one better.

Oh yea, and Marionette is still strong. I came across an open source framework to build my project on, it’s got all the advanced stuff handled and now it’s just a matter of customizing it to my own, and changing up its function a little bit. More details when the project is in beta stages.

New Project “Marionette” in the works

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 | CSS, Code, Design, Life, Marionette, Photoshop, Programming, Projects, Web Development, Websites, Wordpress, XHTML | No Comments

OK, so I know I haven’t worked on the veritas project in a long time, but I promise you it is because my client has been busy working a second job and we just haven’t been in touch on the matter lately. It’s no big deal, I’m not charging money for the project and there is no strict deadline. I will be posting about that soon, though. I just got on him to purchase a domain and hosting solution so I can begin scripting the site. I will use wordpress and convert it into a CMS just like I did for Shirock Photography.

So, I am working on a new project, teaching myself cakePHP, and for now, it is codenamed “Marionette”. I’m very, very excited about this project and I hope to produce something in the coming weeks. Stay posted.

A Web Design Process: Part I

Sunday, February 18th, 2007 | Apple, Code, Design, Macbook Pro, Photoshop, Programming, Web Development, Websites, Wordpress | No Comments

I’m not particularly gifted in web design but I thought I’d like to blog about my process from blank PSD using Photoshop CS3 beta on my Macbook Pro to full on HTML / CSS. So I’ll get right to the meat of my newest project: Veritas Community.

Veritas Community is an emerging church being started in Flint and Owosso by Tom and Rachel Wyatt with the help of the Salvation Army. It’s going to be a faith-based community hell-bent on sharing lives, faith, hope, love, music, art, and the occasional Lebowski references. Tom sent me a list of websites he likes, including Mosaic, which will be the base for my inspiration on the project.

The scope of the project will include a blog, a newsletter sign up, some informational pages (about us, contact us, etc), and an event list for music shows. The gathering place will double as a venue for indie rock bands. My vision is to develop this site using XHTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, maybe some flash, and host it on Wordpress 2.

So without further ado, here is the preview.

This is Veritas home page, version 1.

Most of my focus was on logo development. I knew right off the bat I wanted a font like Gill Sans. I also knew I wanted to incorporate some sort of leafy symbol, to represent growth. You can see I have taken the greys and blue from mosaic and played with it for my layout and header. I hope they won’t mind. This is obviously not close to being finished but it’s a start and hopefully we’ll see something more as we progress.

Part II of my Design Process is now available

Shirock Photography is live!

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 | Code, Design, Programming, Websites, Wordpress | 1 Comment

After a couple months of planning, designing, coding, hosting, and blah blah blah, Sarah’s photography portfolio site is now live: http://www.shirockphotography.com I redesigned her site last January, and hosted it on WordPress this past month. I followed a few steps to make WordPress a CMS, and so far it’s been working well. Except instead of fgallery, we’re using Lazyest Gallery.

She is happy with it because now she can log in and easily make edits to her content. I also set up a method for her to easily change the pictures on her front page.

I created a contact page with a form so people can easily contact her for quotes. I utilized the front page to point visitors to important sections of her gallery.

For Phase 2, we’re hoping to make it possible for her clients to log in and view their pictures online. This might be doable with the help of Flickr.

Wordpress Code in Posts Headaches

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 | Code, Programming, Wordpress | No Comments

Want to get your code to display AS-IS in Wordpress?

1. Disable the Rich Text Editor through your Profile Settings
2. Add the Code Markup Plugin to your site
3. Use Simple Code Encoder to convert your HTML easily
4. Post