Another WordPress + eCommerce mashup! This time, the very creative and talented Abigail Barnes gets a hand with her printable partyware business, Paper & Cake:

The original Paper & Cake site was being run by ProStores. Abby wanted to ditch that and put everything under one umbrella. She also wanted a new look, which was handled by the equally lovely and talented Christine McClain over at Christine McClain Design and Branding Studio.

In the new site, the latest WordPress e-commerce plugin was used. Again, the improvements made to the 3.8.x version made things a little easier to manipulate.

All of Abby’s products are downloadable PDFs, with instant fulfillment once a customer purchases through PayPal. A section was also added in the backend so that Abby can feature a “See This Party in Real Life” button on some of her products and link to a blog post where she writes about how her products have been used for real parties.

We used the Gold Cart version to get more display options and more options in general. Everything turned out nice and clean (a tribute to Chris’ design):

We also transferred all of Abby’s old blog posts from Blogger to the new WordPress build:

We’ve added some ads to the sidebar in the blog, and there’s some nice tab action going on with the categories, tags and archives. Also, on some blog posts, Abby can add a “Buy This” link to link back to a specific product she is blogging about.

Now, Abby can manage everything Paper & Cake from one place, from adding and updating her products, to changing her page content to blogging.

Overall, this was a fun build and it turned out great. Thanks again to Chris and Abby for all your hard work!

I love working with people who have a vision and a business they’re starting from scratch. They have such great energy, and it can help reinvigorate you too.

That’s the story of Mimi, a fabulous young lady here in Sacramento who wanted to open an online high-end vintage clothing store. Mimi and her mom run Vintage YSJ, a nice little vintage clothing store in downtown Sacramento. Mimi wanted to open her own online store, BTM Vintage, and this was the result:

(You can view the shop at http://btmvintage.com.)

My friend India Curry did the design, which is super clean and really well-done. I handled all the WordPress coding and the e-commerce component, which was done using the WordPress e-commerce plugin.

I think I’ve mentioned previously the love-hate relationship I have with the WordPress e-commerce plugin. For this project, I wound up using a pretty new version (the 3.8 series). The folks over at GetShopped had revamped the whole thing, and I was pleasantly surprised. Suddenly, the plugin was much easier to use. They got smart and made the products custom post types, which made it easier to call stuff on non-ecommerce pages (see the New Arrivals as an example).

Some things are still a little weird, and there are certain things that I wish would be built in (like better product sorting on the admin end), but overall, it was an improvement. So, I think I’ve moved closer to the love end of the scale when it comes to WordPress e-commerce.

I definitely learned a lot about manipulating the e-commerce component, and it was a ton of fun to work on. And all of us were proud of the end result. And Mimi was amazing throughout the process, always staying upbeat. Her enthusiasm kept me going and was a great motivator.

So please, do check BTM Vintage out and like ‘em on Facebook even! Thanks, Mimi and India!

(This is another one of those projects that was actually done a while back too!)

This build is for Magnes Sisters, a high-end bag company based in New York. I worked with the lovely Tricia Okin of Papercut on this project. Tricia pulled me in to handle the e-commerce aspect of the site and to do some blog styling.

The entire site was built in WordPress, with the e-commerce portion being handled by the WP E-commerce plugin. That plugin and I have a love-hate relationship, but we made it work.

The final result (you can also visit http://www.magnessisters.com to see it):

Fun stuff!

The hardest part, really, was trying to manipulate all those shopping cart templates. There was a lot of wading into PHP code and trying to figure out what was where in that plugin. But the final product turned out pretty awesome, and it’s probably one of the best-looking carts I’ve worked thanks to Tricia’s clean and stellar design.

(OK, so I’ve been a little behind on the posting. My bad.)

Another WordPress build went in the books, and this one has actually been up for a little while: It’s a site for Matt D’Amour, a health and wellness coach. His site is called My Inside Out Wellness.

Credit for the design goes to Velvette de Laney at Dewdrop Studios.

This site is built entirely in WordPress, and also includes an e-commerce component so that Matt can sell different packages and sessions, as well as some products. He can also charge for event tickets.

While the site itself didn’t need anything overly complicated (except maybe the e-commerce part), it was a serious exercise in WordPress templating. I think there are at least eight different templates involved. And then there are the different sidebars that show up (or don’t show up, depending on the page).

It was a lot of fun, though. It sounds nerdy, but I love figuring out page templates. And it was fun working with a great designer.

At some point, every designer decides they need to get their work up on the internets. And we turn out to be our worst clients. We stall, we procrastinate, we have notebooks full of ideas that never see the light of day. And our portfolio site — if you were lucky enough to have one in the first place — just sits there and sits there and sits there gathering dust and you’re completely unhappy about it but never quite do something about it.

Welcome to my world.

I had an old portfolio site. In fact, the only reason that site ever got done was because it was a final project for a class. (See the need for a hard deadline?) But my portfolio sat there for four years. It very rarely got updated because it was kind of a pain in the butt.

It sat there and sat there and sat there. In four years, I picked up some mad ninja skills and that portfolio never reflected that. Finally, fast forward to June 2010 and my trip to the Creative Freelancer Conference and HOW Conference. I had been going solo for almost a year and wanted to push to make new connections at these conferences. But not with the indignity of a super-outdated portfolio! So I finally got it done. And learned a lot in the process about portfolios….

First off, the finished work, which you can see at http://jenndelafuente.com:

This sketch of my portfolio site had been sitting in a notebook for — I kid you not — almost a year. It was so great to finally see it come alive.

In redesigning my portfolio, I knew there were several things I wanted it to accomplish:

1. It had to be easy to update. (Duh!)

2. I wanted it to show off the skills that I try to sell to clients. (Duh again.)

3. I wanted people to be able to connect with me easily via a myriad of options.

4. I wanted it to have some personal style and verve. I wanted my spirit to be on display.

When setting out to do your portfolio, knowing what you want it to accomplish is half the battle! Designing without a purpose is completely useless.

I think I managed to cover all those points in the design. The portfolio is in WordPress, which makes updating a snap. I’ve also started billing myself as a “WordPress ninja” — it’s on my business card, really! — so having a portfolio using the platform I’m trying to sell my clients on is a plus. I think it’s a pretty solid demonstration of the “outside-the-blog” nature of WordPress.

People have lots of options to connect, whether via the contact form, or Twitter or Flickr or this lovely blog. I like the running commentary on the sidebar — it also helps to keep fresh content painlessly on the the site.

And lastly, I think there is some personality. I don’t write stiffly (never have). Plus, the red background is an original pattern that I made a while ago (it’s also on my business cards), so there’s an extra added personal touch.

Next came selecting what work would go in the portfolio. One of the best tips I read somewhere is to display the work you want more of. That really helped narrow it down (especially when it came to choosing what websites to display).

And voila! My new portfolio. So glad to finally get it up there.

New projects are always a good thing!

This time, I went back to my print roots — it’s nice to step away from the web coding sometimes — to create a business card for good friend Jeannie Wong, the lady behind JAMM Information Group.

Jeannie started up a new business focusing on helping small businesses and nonprofits in the Sacramento area get a leg up on social media. Most of these folks don’t have the time or the budgets to have someone help them with their marketing, so that’s where Jeannie comes in. She brings almost 25 years of writing and editing experience as a former journalist and features editor. She’s also social media-savvy and helps spread the word about her clients through those channels, putting out timely, smart and focused information out to the public (as opposed to just white noise and mindless chatter).

JAMM Information Group needed some business cards, so here’s the finished product:

Front of the card:

Back of the card:

Jeannie had a very simple aesthetic in mind and a very simple color scheme. In fact, she came to me with a roughed-out design and knew she wanted to use “We’ll JAMM for you.” as her tagline.

One of the things I thought would be nice to add to the design were some icons (where the writing, editing, social media parts come in). Icons have become a part of our visual culture, and since social media is big on icons (just look at how many Facebook Fs and Twitter Ts you see floating around), so I thought it would be nice to have that same kind of feel and idea on the business card.

I also used the speech bubble on the back of the card because I also feel that social media is all about creating buzz and jumpstarting a conversation about (insert topic here). That’s what JAMM Information Group is trying to do for its clients, but with this card, JAMM is also trying to promote itself and create its own buzz. So the speech bubble felt like an appropriate icon. Plus, it helps reinforce the name of the company in the tagline, and well, a company that will jam for you has got to be good, right?

The rounded corners on both the back and front of the card tied everything together and reflect the rounded corners of the speech bubble. They’re also nice separators. In hindsight, I probably should have made both of them connect in the same place from the front to the back, but maybe I’ll do that the next time Jeannie has to re-order cards.

This was the final project to close out Spring 2010 at Sacramento City College. It was the most involved one, and probably the most fun. And I managed to kill two classes with one stone when it came to this final project.

One of the classes was a studio class. We were put into teams, and our task was to produce an ad campaign for the Rotary Club of Sacramento. It consisted of a print ad and a 30-second commercial. The commercial was going to be aired on local television and everything (ad space had been bought). Two different groups worked on two different ads. Ours was the one with lower production costs, meaning we had to shoot everything in one location and probably in a studio (we have a photography studio on campus).

I worked mainly on the 30-second commercial. There were three photographers, the incredibly talented Ron Nabity, Andrew Nixon and Kevin Fiscus. I project-managed. We were also assisted by Ann Edwards, who helped out with a lot of production, and Marika Andrews, another photographer who mainly helped with scouting models.

Our group had to do everything from scratch. We came up with the concept for our ad (it’s about showcasing a more diverse, younger face for Rotary). I wrote the script (and got lots of help editing and re-arranging it). We storyboarded the whole thing, figured out how we wanted the ad to look, found models, the whole nine yards. The faculty had hookups with a local recording studio, and both groups got to sit in and listen as voiceovers for both ads were created.

It was an incredible process. I’d been involved in some aspects of production before — I’m a former theater stagehand, and I do know my way around a recording studio — but I’d never worked on a commercial from start to finish. Our photo shoot was an 8-hour marathon involving four different models (though only three got used in the final commercial). It was the fastest eight hours ever. It was neat to work with a team of photographers and learn about their lighting and setups and watch them work with models. It was fun helping direct a shoot and fix stray hairs and straighten out collars.

Lastly, it was neat to see the concept that we thought of come alive in this commercial. It was shot entirely in a studio, all still photography.

The only thing we didn’t do was cut the final commercial. That was left to one of the teachers and his son, who are Final Cut gurus. However, I cut a version of the commercial for my After Effects final. (I told you I killed two classes with one stone.)

Working on this commercial was one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had so far as a designer, and I truly appreciate all the work that goes on behind the scenes. And I feel fortunate that I got to work with such a fun and talented bunch of people.

Here is the commercial cut in After Effects. It’s not the real commercial that will be seen in the Sacramento region, but do enjoy anyway.

One of my great wants in life has always been to take a photography class. I love photography, love taking snapshots. But I wanted to up my game and finally learn how to shoot you know, manually. Learn about shutter speed and aperture and everything. So I finally got off my behind and took an intermediate photography class.

Boy, did I learn a lot. And it was fun.

The final portfolio for this class consisted of 12 different shots, each fulfilling a specific assignment. Enjoy.

(Click on a photo to see it larger.)

Front / Side / Back lighting (same subject)

Selective Focus

Human Interest

Painting With Light (this is a single exposure, three different light sources in this case)

Motion (intentional, not accidental)

Close Up (as close as you could get if you didn’t own a macro lens!)

Cityscape

Environmental Portrait

Night Shot (this is my personal favorite in this portfolio)

Flash Three Ways (top: Fill Flash, middle: Freezing Motion With Flash, bottom: Isolating Subject With Flash)

Student Choice #1 (yes, that’s a real leaf, I swear)

Student Choice #2

A few days back, I mentioned the marathon that was school and the raft of final projects that were due. Here’s the first in the series of projects. I was really pleased with how everything turned out.

This first project was for a studio class. (It’s basically a student-run creative agency that does real-world work for clients here in Sacramento.) Each graphic design student was paired with a photography student and given the task of choosing an existing ad campaign and designing an ad that would have fit logically into said campaign. If it was a print ad, the newly created ad had to look on-brand and advance the theme presented in the previously existing ads. (For instance, one pair of students did their version of the Diesel “Be Stupid” ads.)

I took a slightly different tack and chose the Bud Light “Too Light, Too Heavy” ad campaign, which is entirely a TV ad campaign. There were no print ads for reference, so the challenge was to come up with a situation that could be interpreted quickly in one or two shots. This was the result (call it “The Haircut”):

Now that was a fun shoot. How often do you get to tote around garden shears and act like you’re going to cut a chunk of hair out?

Everyone asked me if we actually cut the guy’s hair. We didn’t. That’s all hairstyling, baby. (Many thanks to my friend Lisa Williams for serving as not only the hairstylist, but the model holding both the scissors and the shears. And another friend of mine, Corey Hill, graciously let us ‘fro his very fluffy real-life hair.)

Several ideas were batted around for the ad, including a version at a doctor’s office where the Too Heavy would have been a doctor swinging a mallet to check a guy’s reflexes. But in the end, the haircut idea was the easiest to execute. My photographer, Janelle Robinson, and I thought about shooting this at an actual salon, but as it turned out, we didn’t really need to because both photos were so close up.

This project definitely helped me flex some art direction muscle, not to mention the post-production Photoshop skills I haven’t used in a while. It was also just neat to see this start from the concept in my mind to the actual print product.

As a side note, this piece won a silver award at the Sacramento City College Graphic Communications Student Showcase. Woot!

Today wrapped up a very hectic, sometimes mind-numbing, sometimes sleepless, sometimes frustrating five months in which I decided to take three different classes at Sacramento City College. I hadn’t taken that many classes in a while, but there were so many things I wanted to do and learn that I almost couldn’t help myself when the Spring 2010 schedule came out.

Finally, school is over and I have some of my time back. But it was a terrific time. I’ll be posting some of the final projects from various classes.

Learning new things is so essential and vital to our profession. It’s also nice to look at things from a different perspective. You sometimes feel creatively energized that way. For instance, I took a photography class and worked with photographers on a commercial shoot for a different class. Being behind the camera was not only a great experience, but it also taught me how to interact with photographers, learn more of their lingo and learn how to direct a shoot. Being an actual photographer taught me more about aesthetics and composition and having an eye for things. It’s all stuff that’s applicable to what we do as designers.

Besides, it was all just plain fun. Who knew school could be so much fun?