Website for Vernisher Wooh featuring Ikebana Flower Arranging
Website Design
I have been designing and developing websites since 1994 for educational and other purposes for both public institutions and private clients. I remain current implementing new technologies and procedures as they evolve.
There are three main routes to building a website:
1. Use one of the complete online hosting and website design packages.
The first solution is the easiest to set up for the novice, but the inexpensive entry version is quite limited in scope and may include company advertising and branding - you will appear as part of their organisation. Fees may increase annually and you will have to pay for additional functions and space and possibly to remove advertising. You will own your text and images but not the website, which belongs to the company and if it fails you lose the website. It's rather like renting a home rather than owning one; the furniture belongs to you, but not the property, over which you have no control.
I build websites using one of the following two solutions where the client owns the site and has the option to move the site to another host/country or change the web developer.
2. A bespoke website tailored to the needs of the owner.
This is a good and inexpensive choice utilising industry standard frameworks for promotional purposes or to provide information in the form of videos, images and text. An eCommerce website for transactional purposes such as bookings, purchases, enrollment or multi-user blogging requires a more complex type of website implemented using a content management system with a database.
3. A Content Management System
Two of the top content management systems (CMS) which I use to build and develop websites are Joomla, www.joomla.org and Drupal, www.drupal.org. I have explored Wordpress, but find Joomla and Drupal to be more robust, feature-rich and of higher quality.
Website for the Brisbane Institute of Art
Clients
Recent clients include:
Ikebana Vernisher - Developed using industry-standard frameworks and completed in 2019.
The first image above is of a simple bespoke website. The client has no need currently to process customer transactions and thus a more complex content management system is not required.
Brisbane Institute of Art - Developed using Joomla and completed in 2018.
The second image is of The Brisbane Institute of Art's website. I developed this website to provide a comprehensive eCommerce solution to facilitate gallery bookings, course enrollments and other purchases securely managed by their bank. A second requirement was for staff to be able to update the site themselves with new course information and images each semester and for artists to upload images for entry into exhibitions.
Drupal Content Management System
This website www.ceramicdesign.org has been built using Drupal, a content management system (CMS), which runs some high profile sites including the United Nations, Harvard University, the BBC, and The Economist. Drupal consists of a flexible set of modules to build a site for a particular purpose. Once the site has been developed, in this case to provide a gallery, the management of the site to add and remove galleries, images and text is quite straightforward requiring little training. An eCommerce module may be installed to provide customer transactions over the web. A site like this may be customised and branded for your needs and uploaded to your web host. A few hours training at your own pace will put you in the driver's seat.
Features of the site
The home page slide show is a showcase of the work in the different sections of the site - click an image to vsit an area of interest. The gallery pages have three sizes of image. Upload the full-size image and the thumbnail and medium sized images are made automatically for you. The gallery pages could have hundreds of images, but only a few are shown at a time so as not to overwhelm the visitor, who can easily navigate through a large collection to find and focus on those of interest.
Commissioning a website
I would be happy to discuss your requirements and the scope of what would be feasible within your budget. My contact details are below.