Abduzeedo has a piece (originally from the BBC website) about Banksy’s new work popping up in New Orleans and Alabama.

Via Springfield Punx.

I realise that the site may look slightly screwy in Microsofts troublesome browser - I’ll endevour to fix later on today.

Maybe you should also consider trying something different?

One of the biggest deciding points is functionality - will WordPress be able to do everything you need it to for your client’s site?
Does WordPress Scare Your Clients? — WPCandy.

As you may have noticed I’m a bit rubbish with updates. I’m currently in the middle of a couple of projects including my first paying web development project, which I’m quite excited about. I’ll post the finished work as soon as I can.

I’ve also properly started working on a lifetime ambition - my first Graphic Novel. This came about partly from the sage advice from those wise folk at Lifehacker in a recent post about goal setting:

Think about your #1 goal for a minute. What action does that goal ask of you? Is it asking you to scrape sludge out of cesspools? I would hope not. Instead, you picked something you want for yourself. As such, the goal asks you to take a consistent but easy action.

And mainly my great mate Dave Stafford (he really needs to sort out a blog that I can link to) did all the hard work and came up with a great idea that he’s kindly allowing me to doodle over. God knows how long it will take but hopefully we’ll enjoy the ride.

I also reckon I’ll start using the new Wordpress bookmarklet feature to post more Tumblr style ramblings.

More soon.

I think I buggered up something whilst upgrading Wordpress and trying to be a smarty-pants when playing around with the .htaccess file - suffice to say that I’ve sorted it now, and everything should be working smoothly.

Thanks for visiting!

This pretty much sums up how I felt after sketching and mocking-up dozens of prototypes for my new portfolio site but, alas, I was getting nowhere.

Eventually, I used some of the great resources out there on the interweb to focus my direction and develop the final design you see before you. Along the way I learned loads about CSS and using the wonderful Wordpress to do exactly what I envisioned. So, just for you, I thought I’d give an overview of how I eventually got there in the end.

The Problem

My old portfolio site was looking a little tired and fragile and I had long planned to revamp it.

One of the main problems (aside from a rather uninspiring look) with it was that it was, quite frankly, a bugger to update with new work. It was originally created in a rather rash fashion and I didn’t think long term about what I might need it to do. To add anything, like a portfolio update, I had to hand code the HTML file and I had to keep manually creating a normal sized image and a thumbnail one. I knew there must be an easier way.

Getting Help

I stumbled across this article on using the Wordpress blogging platform as a Content Management System. Via the links on the site I set up a local install of Wordpress and began playing around with the template files and started to understand how to get it to do what I wanted.

Articles like this one on Freelance Switch and this one from Jeffrey Veen’s blog helped me focus the direction I was going in. I was now thinking more about who my audience was and how best to show them the things they would be looking for.

I’d also recommend reading Creating the Perfect Portfolio on Digital Web Magazine which had great tips on structuring your portfolio for your audience and, in particular, the importance of explaining your portfolio pieces:

“Design operates in context, and the business and work of design even more so. Who was the client? What was the brief? What problem was it solving? How did your work solve their needs?”

Light at the end of the tunnel

Now that I had clarified my goals I went back to my roughs and focused on simplicity and content. I played around with a few different concepts for the overall look and settled on what I thought showed a bit of individuality.

The, quite frankly, amazing Smashing Magazine was a fruitful source of inspiration and insight as well.

So that’s pretty much it - this is how I eventually got the site where it is at the moment. I’m already compiling a list of visual tweaks and additional functionality I want to add over the coming months (when I can squeeze in the time!). I hope I’ve shared a few useful resources for anyone looking to redesign their site soon - why don’t you share your own redesign stories in the comments?

Make sure you don’t miss this and my other updates by subscribing to my RSS feed on the right.

After countless months spent revising and drafting designs I have finally finished a rather extensive redesign of my site.

The old site was very limited - being just a static page with some very brief information and a portfolio. It served my needs for a few years until I learned more about coding HTML and CSS and , more importantly, discovered the wonders of Wordpress.

This new site now features a blog where I’ll be posting regular updates on the latest goings on in my little world as well as walk-throughs on projects I have worked on.

I’ve also added more relevant pages and a much improved work section (I’ll be adding work over the next day or so).

You may have noticed it’s a bit prettier now as well.

Feel free to poke your nose around and add your comments and feedback. More soon!