This week I have been developing my very first website. My previous site had been designed by my talented friend and it looked stunning. The trouble was, whenever I wanted to make a change to the design or update the content, I had to find a willing designer to give me a hand. I wanted greater control and a site I could manage by myself, to be able to add and amend work, whenever I needed to.
I discovered WordPress.org, a publishing platform that’s completely customisable.
Creating my site was brought mixed emotions: confusion, excitement, frustration and a lot of despair. But I finally got the hang of it, chose a theme called “fjords01″ created by Peter Andre Jensen and played around with the different widgets to create the structure of the website. This is how it looks:
I learned about the useful WordPress plug-ins and activated the following:
Category Visibility-iPeat by iPeat (Hides “uncategorised” from the category menu. I wrote an introductory post called “Recent Work” to introduce the work on the site but, because it couldn’t be filed under a client, the category automatically defaulted to “uncategorised”. I did not want uncategorised to appear in the client menu and this plug-in allowed me to hide it.)
Custom Query String Reloaded by Moshu (Changes the number of posts displayed when viewing different pages. I wanted the home page to contain just very recent work so I set it to display only 5 posts. However, when someone selects a client, I want them to be able to view a lot of work, with minimal mouseclicking, so I set category pages to display 30 posts.)
Wp-Sticky (Displays a post on the home page, regardless of the date it was published. I set the introductory post, Recent Work, as an announcement so it is displayed as the first post when you visit the site.)
StatPress by Daniele Lippi (Displays real time site stats.)
It has been a lot of trial and error but I’m pleased with what I’ve achieved. There is still more to do – a personalised 404 error page and a new header image for starters – but I can continue to develop it over the coming few weeks.
We have recently been creating a campaign for UNICEF called Ideas to Give, to promote the charity’s Inspired Gift range. Inspired Gifts enable you to choose how UNICEF spends your donation, from buying baby blankets to building water pumps for communities.
We created a microsite to encourage people to share money-saving ideas and then use their savings to buy an Inspired Gift.
Site
Please click on the image below to visit the Ideas to Give website.
Ads
We created these ads to crudely demonstrate the parallel between our own comfortable lives and the lives of those children that UNICEF are trying to help.
Email
Please click on the image below to view the Ideas to Give email.
I remember my first pair of roller-skates, white boots with four bright pink wheels. My friend Laura had given them to me, as she had outgrown them. Mum said I wasn’t allowed near the road without a grown-up and, if you had seen my attempts to skate, you would understand why.
At 16, when pink became seriously uncool, I bought myself a stylish pair of black and green inline skates. I still wasn’t allowed near the road but I was allowed to hold on to my sister’s wheelchair, whilst mum and dad pushed it along Weston-super-Mare’s seafront.
I’m now 25 and have just bought myself a cheap and cheerful pair of skates from Argos. I’m no better at skating today than I was when Laura and I used my late Golden Retriever, Rockie, to drag us across my patio back in 1993. I’m still like Bambi on wheels.
But undeterred, I’ve attempted a few solo circuits around the basketball courts across the road. And by ‘a few solo circuits’ I mean launching myself in a straight line, from one metal railing towards another, and clinging on desperately as I collide into the fencing.
One day I will be able to skate. And maybe one day I’ll be allowed near the roads.
To promote the Cyberslotz online gaming site, and in particular their new Soap Star Top Trumps game, we created a site filled with soap news, games and polls.
Thanks to Spamalot’s Spinalot campaign, I managed to bag two Friday night tickets for £2. Yes. £2. Just £1 each. Dubious as to its validity, I tentatively arrived at the Box Office prepared to feel either very foolish, or very tight.
I felt tight… but the tickets were REAL!
As a big fan of the Python, I was not particularly keen to see the Holy Grail horrendously defamated by over-enthusiastic West End performers. And for this reason I would never have bought full price tickets to see this show. For just £1, I could be persuaded.
Well, here I sit, eating my words, telling anyone unconvinced by a stage production of a Monty Python classic, to give it a chance. It’s not half bad. Sure, it’s to the brim with cheap jokes, poor puns, musical cliches and general slap-stick nonsense, but it’s Monty Python – what did you expect?
It was a good, fun (very cheap) night, filled with laughter, ice-cream and beer and I’d definitely recommend it. Bravo Eric.
easyCar now operates in over 60 countries worldwide. We created an ad campaign to encourage people to explore the places they are travelling to by hiring a car from easyCar.
