Richard Westenra

Project Background

Black Swan Designs is run by Mel Blowes, a crafty entrepreneur, professional photographer and graphic designer living in Christchurch. She is involved in the Christchurch arts and crafts scene and has won various awards for her work, most recently winning the Supreme Award for the window display competition at the 2009 Ellerslie International Flower Show.

Black Swan Designs had a previously existing website (see image below), however Mel felt that the old site no longer accurately reflects the current state of her business, and was keen for a fresh look. She also had three separate web presences – her original website, her blogspot blog, and her online shops – and wanted them all put in one location. Being a graphic designer by trade, Mel was able to handle the design work. My role involved advising Mel about the web-specific aspects of design, turning the design into a working site, and also coming up with some funky javascript effects.

Site Description

The new Black Swan Designs website is a PHP brochure website featuring:
• Fully-integrated WordPress blog
• Image galleries featuring ‘Slimbox’ image viewer and slideshows
• Auto-updating array-based navigation system with a slick Mootools motion effect
• Bespoke Content Management System (CMS) with administrator access to edit site text and admin user accounts.
• Integrated Etsy online shop listings via XML/RSS feed
• Contact form

The new Black Swan Designs website includes many photo galleries featuring images of past and current products and services, as well as information about the business, her online shop listings, and contact information.

The new site also features prominent links to her two online craft stores at Felt and Etsy, plus a live display of her current Etsy listings which is integrated into the shop page with PHP thanks to Etsy’s RSS/XML feed. The new Black Swan Blog runs on WordPress, and we were able to import her old Blogspot posts using WordPress’s import function.

Testimonial

‘Richard was great to work with, preempting my requests on several occasions and constructing a functioning site that was 100% faithful to my original design. I enjoyed the informative emails with relevant links which made me feel a real part of the process, and look forward to working together again in the future.’ – Mel Blowes

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Project Background

Eva Cherry Designs is the brainchild of Rachel Bradstock, Christchurch-based fashion designer and linguist extraordinaire. Rachel uses the site to sell funky retro-style clothing, and specialises in pre-loved vintage, customised lingerie and one-off originals. The Eva Cherry Designs website also increasingly functions as Rachel’s portfolio for her work as a fashion designer.

The site design was a collaborative effort, with Rachel making initial mockups that I refined and turned into web-friendly designs. Once the final design was agreed upon, I turned it into a functioning site.

Site Description

Eva Cherry Designs is an outwardly simple PHP brochure site with sophisticated functionality. It features integrated auction listings via Trademe’s published RSS/XML feed. This allows the site to maintain an up-to-date list of Eva Cherry’s current Trademe auctions which is updated every page-refresh.

(Note: Rach can be a little slack with maintaining her Trademe account from time to time, so the odds are good that there are no listings currently visible at the time you read this. If this is the case click here to see an alternative version of the Eva Cherry products page featuring a different seller’s listings.)

The website also functions as Eva Cherry’s design portfolio. It includes three image galleries featuring the slimbox image viewer. The galleries are currently devoted to her work as a student – drawings, photos, assignments, vintage clothing, original creations and work for clients.

Note: The gallery area currently under construction, as Rachel is still in the process of gathering portfolio material.

Testimonial

‘It is physically and logically impossible to conceive of a web developer who surpasses Richard in any respect.’ – Rachel Bradstock

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