E.Webscapes Blog Design Studio » EWebscapes Team

Relaxed, Redecorated and Relaunched!

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:21:28 +0000

Out with the old – in with the new! And we couldn’t be more excited! 2009 has been a really nice year for us over here at E.Webscapes – and towards the end of this article, you’ll find out how you can get 15% off our services from now through 12/31/09 to celebrate our relaunch!

For me, 2009 marks the end of a full decade of making things pretty on the web, for myself and my clients. This past year has been a very busy one, in terms of projects we’ve done and people we have worked with – considering the economical weather out there, I’m grateful! E.Webscapes continues to stay strong, so much so that I have had the delightful ability to extend opportunities to some pretty fab-tastic designers, and have added them to our team here at E.Webscapes. Have a gander over at the About Us and Our Blog Designers page and read through their profiles to get to know them a bit. Their talent is stunning and I”m really happy to have them on our team here at E.Webscapes.

Back in early October, we closed down our order form and stopped taking on any new projects. We were just overloaded with work and couldn’t possibly squeeze in one more project, at the time. I’ve since re-opened our request form – so definitely hit it up when you’re ready to place a new request for your new project! Many of you returning clients will also notice that we did away with the Client Desk system we had used for years, and are now using a much more powerful, productivity-inducing system that is not only easy to work with, but serves up our project management needs on a completely secured (SSL) connection. What that means, in non-geek speak, is that the connection between our servers and you is encrypted and completely secure – so when you share information with us – it is only with us, and no other potential sneaky web sniffer can get hold of any delicate information you give in your order form, or through any of the project ticket communications. Yay for the added layer of security!

People returning to this site may also notice a complete redesign, and re-branding of E.Webscapes! I’ve been hard at work on that for the past few months – - and still have a few tweaky things to mess with as I go, but it’s about 99.9% *there*. The branding hasn’t changed a lot – - the main color scheme is still the same (LOVE vibrant and exciting colors!). We lost the silhouetted people and opted for a fresh coat of paint, instead!

As well, I have re-written several areas of content – particularly our FAQ, Terms of Service, Our Services, Resources and Privacy Statement – for those interested in reading those sections here. I’m not sold on the new Portfolio page layout yet, though. If you have feedback on how it works – do let me know. It used to be when you clicked on a thumbnail in the portfolio – it opened a larger window where you could view a larger screenshot of the design itself. Now, when you click on the thumbnail – it takes you to the article where we’ve written details on the project, and does give you the ability to click to view a larger version of the screen shot. I’m torn on it – - and may change it if I find that it’s not user-friendly enough!

Aside from the re-design of this site, and finishing up several client projects – here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to over the past few months:

My family and I moved homes during the months of August – October. No small undertaking there! We’re still living in Wisconsin – but now in a very beautiful home in the country.. just in time for beautiful winter snow to drape itself across everything and make it all white and shiny. The move was a pretty large project for my family and I, since we only had less than two months to move all the stuff accumulated over 6 years! Sadly, I had to turn away several projects during that time because getting my family up and moved in in that short time frame was the biggest priority during those times! Thanks for everyone’s understanding and patience! It’s now December and things are *just starting* to get back to a sense of *normal* around here! yay for normal!
I finished writing the official BuddyPress For Dummies book for Wiley Publishing – you can click the link in the sidebar on the right to pre-order your own copy! If you don’t know what BuddyPress is — the real quick answer is that it allows you to add a social community layer to your WordPress powered web site – check out the official BuddyPress.Org web site to learn more! The book is due out the beginning of February 2010
I was a speaker at WordCamp NYC in November and spoke on the topic of BuddyPress – giving the audience an introduction into what it is and how they can use it on their own sites. I included examples of some very custom BuddyPress work I’ve done recently – such as: NourishNetwork.com, WeEarth.com, WeHeartThis.com and SportsGrants.Org. Fun stuff! If you’re interested, you can view the slides from my presentation on my SlideShare account.
I’ve signed the contract and have begun the writing of WordPress For Dummies, 3rd Edition, which I am very excited about! The 2nd Edition is out on the shelves now (why not buy one for your favorite blogger for Christmas, hmm?). The 3rd Edition plans will be current through and cover up to the 3.0 version of WordPress, which is not yet released, but is in the works. Considering 2.9 hasn’t been released yet – you can see my challenge here! haha

Now that we’re settled, my book project is done and we’ve cleared the plate to make room for new client projects – - with all these great new designers – we’re ready to hit the ground running with our clients to make the leap into 2010 – and make it as successful for us, AND our clients, as much as possible!

To that end – to celebrate our re-launch, re-design, re-decorating, whatever you’d like to call it – we’re offering a 15% discount off ALL services – no matter how big or small your request. A flat 15% to say thank you! Thank you for visiting us, thank you for your business and thank you for continuing to trust us as your source for custom blog and web site design over the past decade. (The 15% offer is good from today, 12/13/09 through 12/31/09)

Should you be interested in putting in your request – our Client Desk is now accepting them! For those who emailed during our short hiatus wanting to be notified when we re-opened – our fantastic assistant, Lindsey, has been hard at work making that happen! Should you have any questions at all – feel free to contact us directly with any questions you may have.

I will end this update by saying it’s great to be back in the saddle after a few months of playing serious catch up and revamping things around here! I am super excited and looking forward to 2010 – but, first – the holidays! Everyone here at E.Webscapes wishes you, and yours, a very happy (and safe!) holiday season and a happy new year!

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Post tags: Blog Design, Branding, BuddyPress For Dummies, E.Webscapes, Paint, Redesign, Wordpress for Dummies

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Sonics, Inc. Blog : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:48:26 +0000

We worked with Stephen at Sonics, Inc. in the design and development of a blog to match their corporate website. Sonics Blog is more than just a Sonics promotional tool, but really an industry site where people interested in the Semiconductor IP industry view us as a go to source to valid information.

With that in mind, We put together a clean corporate blog using WordPress. He carried the color scheme and logo through to the design with separate, blog specific horizontal tabbed menu navigation to display archives and as well as a quick contact form for readers to get in touch. As a rush project, We not only worked this project in a hurried time line, he completely “nailed it” for the client who was more than pleased with the results and speed in which his design was completed and launched.

Looks great! It has been a pleasure working with you. I am very pleased with the way it all turned out. Thanks for you tremendous help.

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Post tags: 2-column theme, coordinating blog design, corporate blog design, corporate website blog, Custom WordPress Blog Design, Professional Blog Design, tabbed menu

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Get Unstuffed : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:41:49 +0000

Alison chose E.Webscapes to bring her vision of a calm, meditative blog design to life. With a lotus in mind and a fondness for rich purples, E.Webscapes took her vision and whipped up a creative blog design that is sure to give any visitor a feeling of serenity at her website: Get Unstuffed

E.Webscapes tied a floating lotus into a flowing design of coordinating deep, rich purples. Custom graphics with rounded corners and soft gradating overlays add to the calming effect of this pretty WordPress design. She followed through by coordinating the lotus theme through bullets as well as the post meta, and brought in a touch of green to compliment the purples in the site.

I’d like to thank you for everything you’ve done for me: you’ve made what could have been a right pain in the arse into a delight, and you’ve given me a site that’s just gorgeous and more than I’d hoped for. Ten thousand thanks.

The end result – another satisfied E.Webscapes client, which is always a delight! Thank you, Alison!

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Post tags: calm, creative blog design, Custom Blog Design, Custom WordPress Blog Design, lotus, pond theme, purple, purple theme

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Patent Baristas : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:21:48 +0000

Stephen chose E.Webscapes for a fresh updated look for his pharma and biotech blog, Patent Baristas. He wanted to lighten things up with his ‘Coffee Cafe’ theme, and Vivien helped him achieve a great new look for his blog.

Using a script font throughout the theme, Vivien developed a light, airy and organic design integrating coffee beans and a fun custom barista illustration that Stephen had created, serving it up at the top of the sidebar. She featured his social media affiliations, customized his archives to show excerpts and provided improved pagination, and set him up with all the greatest SEO and statistics plugins that WordPress has available.

Thanks so much, Stephen – best wishes with your blogging endeavors from E.Webscapes!

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Post tags: 2-column blog design, biotech, cafe, coffee, coffee beans, coffee theme, Custom Blog Design, pharmaceuticals, WordPress Blog Design

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Forum Blue And Gold : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:00:15 +0000

Kurt is the owner of Forum Blue And Gold, where he writes about thoughts, reflections, and the odd rant on the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA (even the Clippers). It was really important that the site be easily read in mobile browsers, so we made that a top priority during the development of his design.

A nice, clean, modern look using the Laker’s colors throughout the design, Vivien designed a three column theme that would accommodate the ESPN toolbar above the site horizontal navigation, and also featured the site subscription area above the fold next to the search field. Kurt was pleased with the results and the feedback he’s received from his readers;

I also got a lot of emails from fellow bloggers and the people at ESPN saying they loved it. Thank you so much for all of this.

This was Kurt’s second visit to E.Webscapes for a custom design solution for his WordPress powered blog, as we also designed the very first iteration of his Laker’s fan blog back in 2004. Thanks, Kurt, for returning to E.Webscapes and giving us the privilege of updating your blog 5 years later!

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Post tags: 3-column wordpress theme, basketball blog, custom wordpress design, lakers blog, sports blog, WordPress Design

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My Realtor Jake : WordPress Site Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:00:38 +0000

Jake, of MyRealtorJake.com brought his “house” to E.Webscapes looking for a stand-out design for his real estate blog. He provided E.Webscapes with the graphics, and she developed a theme that turned a boring old template into a true house hunt!

The site navigation drapes down from the rooftop, while custom templates house the property search for homes in Massachusetts. More customizations in the real estate plugin allow Jake to upload recent listings he’d like to feature on his blog and throughout his site, and make them a focal point on the main page. Different sidebars are integrated into each page using Daiko’s text widgets, which allow for further site customization.

Jake was thrilled with his design and all of the customizations we provided for his real estate site and blog.

Wow. Amazing what can happen when you know what you’re doing! Thank you so much for your work and your input!

Thanks for choosing E.Webscapes, Jake!

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Post tags: custom site design, Custom WordPress Blog Design, massachusetts real estate, myrealtorjake, real estate blog, real estate listings, real estate plugin

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FieldTrip : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:05:13 +0000

The FieldTrip Project uses internet based multimedia to engage teens on education issues. They came to E.Webscapes with artwork in hand, and E.Webscapes used her artistic skills to transform it into a visually interesting and stimulating design that would garner the interest of a younger audience.

Implementing bold fonts throughout, E.Webscapes developed a clean site with a 100% post view width, complimented by four widget ready containers in the footer area to create an effective way to maximize the amount of information provided to the user in the width and height of one screen view.

Awesome – I like the modifications you made – Thanks again for all of your work.

Thanks for allowing E.Webscapes to fulfill your design needs, David!

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Post tags: Custom WordPress Blog Design, Education, education blog design, student blog, teen blog, WordPress site design

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Nonsense News : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:52:11 +0000

Nonsense News sought out E.Webscapes and was paired with We to bring their newspaper style rough sketch to reality. Now, they can present their silly news in seriously cool and sensible style.

A little rough around the edges and just a tiny bit crumpled, We developed their three column newspaper theme using WordPress, enhancing their faux-news mag by pulling in random quotes into the header, showing off random as well as most viewed articles in a widgetized sidebar. Excerpted posts on the main page lead to a single article page that features related articles; and implemented Adsense, as well.

Thanks so much, I absolutely love the design.

It was a pleasure We,
Thank you,
~Jesse

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Post tags: 3 Column Wordpress Design, custom wordpress design, media, newspaper theme, nonsense news, silly news, WordPress Design

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Myrtle Beach Reviews : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:47:33 +0000

When Clayton came to E.Webscapes for his design project, Myrtle Beach Reviews, E.Webscapes was all too excited to get started! Samantha Wise, the illustrator of “Sandie Beech”, created a fun and inspiring graphic illustration for Clayton’s design that E.Webscapes built on, creating a “notebook” look for the entrance into Sandie’s Review area.

Highlighting categories and subcategories in the top horizontal dropdown menu, travelers can choose exactly what they’re looking for when planning their Myrtle Beach vacation (or relocation!). E.Webscapes created three main areas of focus on the home page design – Featured Condos, Upcoming Events and, using the Post Ratings plugin, the top rated Reviews from the blog.

The blog itself carries a variation of Samantha’s illustration within a custom three column design. E.Webscapes developed a custom category template that incorporated a listing of sub-categories as well as the post ratings so users can quickly choose the highest rated areas to visit during their trip. The end result is a comprehensive review site that provides incredible reference for anyone interested in spending time in Myrtle Beach!

I want to thank you for doing such a great job on the design. I like it very much I have had many complements.

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your project, Clay!

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Post tags: condo review, Custom Illustration, Custom WordPress Blog Design, graphic design, Myrtle Beach, real estate, Samantha Wise, shopping reviews, South Carolina, vacation review

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ChuckleMonkey : WordPress Blog Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:35:53 +0000

Ken selected E.Webscapes for a new design for ChuckleMonkey – where he provides professional and amateur comedians, as well as club owners, booking agents, and V producers worldwide with the latest and greatest news in the Comedy industry. With loads of great content and information to pass on, it was important to him to have a well sorted menu for ease in navigation throughout his blog.

E.Webscapes “put the spotlight” on the ChuckleMonkey and designed a three column theme using shades of blue and pulled in yellow and purple through stitched tape and comment bubbles, a clapboard to display the date, as well as a cool handwritten font (using the TTFTitles plugin) to make the look as entertaining as the content.

Upon launch, Ken got straight to work in porting over content from his previous setup of html pages, and was pleased with the ease in which he could organize and display his content using WordPress!

The new site is absolutely beautiful – it’s exactly what I wanted it to be.

Thanks, Ken! It was our pleasure!

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Post tags: comedian site, comedians, Custom Blog Design, entertainment blog, Professional Blog Design, WordPress Design

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