To help spread the word, I created two 11×17 posters for the first two shows after Sean Bailey expressed interests in using my photographs of Vaderbomb and Black God to help promote. I will likely do more posters, but for now, here is the artwork for After Dark 1: Vaderbomb vs. Black God and After Dark 2: Hal Dolls and Rude Weirdo.

Vaderbomb vs. Black God

Baptist Milestone.com

I haven’t been in the habit of updating this blog… ever. But I wanted to mark the launch of the new Baptist East Milestone Wellness Center site.

I recently helped Jay Lane Media finish up this project, which had seen several iterations and developers. Due to a heap of varying circumstances, the previous developers were unable to complete the site to the needs of the client. So I stepped in to help wrap everything up and finally launch this site which had been in progress for over a year.

While a considerable amount of code was in place, including versions of the now-live class scheduler, there was still a lot of work to be done. Among which was:

• Speed optimizations
• Transition of many elements such as the homepage from static images to readable, accessible, editable text
• Outline of a upgrade path as well as definition of which CMS utilites would be left accessible to the end client and which would only be accessible to the admin
• Security upgrades
• Rebuild several forms to match updated functionality requirements
• Cross-browser testing
• Provide a client-updatable system for controlling their personal trainer listings and other staff
• Rewrite parts of the class scheduler to allow interface options such as a weekly listing of classes

Some features of the site:

• Event Scheduler – filterable via AJAX, added Weekly tab, updated design to match client’s needs
• Membership Form – input data, receive customized printable trial membership card
• Section-specific collapsed navigation – you don’t need to see all 500 subpages of other child or grandchild pages in the same category. Doesn’t sound like much, but WordPress can make this a little bit of a pain at times.
• Customized backend – thanks to manipulation of theme’s functions.php file
• Security and speed optimizations via minification and .htaccess manipulation

Tech used: Photoshop CS5, Espresso, CSS3, HTML5, Javascript/JQuery/AJAX, MySQL, WordPress, PHP

TL;DR: Redid a bunch of existing work and added increased functionality, working both from designer’s PDFs and my own design elements, for both content pages and dynamic forms and content areas.

http://blog.monochrome.co.uk/2009/02/if-architects-had-to-work-like-software-developers/

The CD was released during a show at Skull Alley on August 21st, with 50+ CDs to be given out at the door.

The Double Greatest

The Double Greatest

Team MDO screen shot

The Team MDO site was launched back in December, 2008. The site is an online information hub for the MDO Youth Sports organization based here in Louisville, KY. Each summer, they host a week long sports competition with deaf youth athletes from all over the United States.

Development of this site is ongoing, currently utilizing WordPress, a gallery plugin, several dynamic PDFs (assembled by me while at Louisville Web Group), and a number of videos converted and placed by myself utilizing FlowPlayer.

Heimerdinger Cutlery.com Screen Shot

In Mid 2008, Heimerdinger Cutlery got together with Louisville Web Group to not only bring about a change to their existing webstore, but to overhaul their entire business. Breaking everything out into several stages, the culmination of the project(s) has come to bear fruit for the world to see. HeimerdingerCutlery.com is now live, and racking up more and more sales every day!

Step 1

A new POS (point of sale) system – When LWebG came into the picture, Heimerdinger Cutlery was doing business much as they had done for the past 50 years of their over 150 year existence. Everything, regardless of an internet order, phone order, or a walk-in was written down onto a specially printed notepad and placed in-line in a box for processing. It was almost impossible to keep track of inventory, and factors such as ROI and sales trends were a pain to compute.

The old Heimerdinger webstore

The first thing we did was to gather information on what they had and what they needed. The POS system that was in place wasn’t even in development anymore, didn’t interface with their existing webstore, did hardly any reports, didn’t have any peripherals (cash drawer, scanner, card reader), and most of all did not interface with the Quickbooks Financial software that was running in the office. After doing a bit of research about what their needs were, we came down with a solution of purchasing Quickbooks POS Pro and suggested several peripheral packages from local-based POS supply companies. Heimerdinger ended up with a great deal on some of the software and hardware and were well on their way to a more contemporary workflow.

Step 2

Phone orders and preparing to sync everything together.

Step two of the process (besides training) was to get the framework for connecting the forthcoming new website with the new POS. At the same time, we needed to find a way for Heimerdinger’s employees to take phone orders at the same time that customers were checking out in the brick-and-mortar store. After some more research, we decided to suggest using Atandra’s T-Hub software. Certified as a Gold Intuit Developer, Atandra had numerous message board reviews that were positive. I installed the software on 4 of the in-store computers and commenced syncing the POS’s database with the T-Hub software. Within a short amount of time, Heimerdinger went from writing everything by hand to having the ability to make multiple real-time sales tied in with their inventory levels.

Step 3

Heimerdinger Cutlery sample product page

The Webstore. The biggest part of the project. The then-current/original webstore was built on a Cold Fusion foundation and hosted by Rick at Intent.net. This arrangement was working, but not necessarily the best setup at the time. The site had gone done for as much as a week in recent memory, and stability and ease of use was a definite desire. The root of the site was managed partially by Heimerdinger Cutlery (via Frontpage) and partially by Intent.net.

When we were in the process of making our plan during Step 1, we had narrowed down the webstore choices to OsCommerce and Magento. Ultimately, we chose OsCom to be the backbone of the new webstore. This is because Magento is pretty bulky (and at times very slow) unless you have a pure dedicated server environment. While we offered (at the time) various levels of shared hosting, we did not offer a dedicated server nor was that really in the budget. OsCom became the framework of choice.

Over several months of review and testing, the site went live on June 4th, 2009 – several days after the projected launch date. I wish I could say that it was due to the enormity of the project, but everything was pushed back due to a very, very unhelpful payment processor. After a late switch to Authorize.net, the store was ready for action.