Web Projects

Buckingham Properties Redesign

Recently I was hired to do a website redesign for Buckingham Properties Lake Tahoe.

I had built the original site in my early days of learning to use WordPress. The site was mostly static .PHP pages, only utilizing the blogging features of WordPress. This obviously needed to be fixed so the site could fully utilize all that WordPress has to offer. I also wanted to incorporate a Responsive Web Design into the layout, to eliminate the need to manage even more content for a mobile site.

Gun Lake Website Redesign

Recently I was given the task of design for the website for Gun Lake Casino, based out of Wayland, MI.

The original site was a static .PHP site. Originally, we had planned on transferring the Gun Lake site over to WordPress, but plans were changed and it was decided it would be best to bring the site into our existing CMS structure. This meant we needed to rethink how we were going to build the site structurally, and how we would go without using any WordPress plugins for added functionality.

Because of deadlines, I wasn’t able to spend as much time designing the site as I would’ve liked, but I still think it came out simple and clean. The site is fairly basic at the moment; it’s mostly a “content-sidebar” layout. The Homepage features a simple slideshow and some promotional banners. The same banners are re-used throughout the sub-pages, in the sidebar.

ASP .NET Sitecore Front-end Development
I worked closely with the .NET developer on staff to build all of the layouts, sublayouts and master files for the site. We brainstormed a way to build “faux-blog” functionality into the site, where certain Sitecore items would display similar to blog posts. We also worked together to find a way to re-use items across the site, to eliminate redundant content items and pages.

Future Enhancements
The site was built with future enhancements in mind, including a User login functionality and viewing membership benefits.

See the live site here:
http://www.gunlakecasino.com

Sports Connection

In the second quarter of 2012, I did a redesign of an ASP .NET sports betting website for Station Casinos, one of the larger casino companies in Las Vegas. The original site needed some design love, and the functionality needed to be simplified for a better user experience. This was my first opportunity to work with the .NET platform, so I was pretty excited to jump right in. It took me a while to get the hang of it but I eventually found my way through and was able to complete the redesign ahead of schedule.

Design
The design of the site is loosely based on the look and feel of the Station Casinos corporate and property websites, and the colors are based on the Sports Connection logo. Bright colors of orange and blue represent excitement and feel “sporty.” For the background of the text, I decided to use white with a gray texture similar to a sports jersey material. I wanted to use these colors so the main page elements would “pop” and less-prominant elements could use the bright colors as highlights when needed. I feel the results came out great.

Features
One of the feature requests of the site redesign was to have sport-specific large hero images for the page backgrounds. The stock images used are very focused and zoomed in on the action of each sport, giving the site an energetic and exciting feeling… like the user is actually there watching the sport in person. The background images are coded so they take up the full width of the browser window, tying in the “in your face” attitude of each sport.

My favorite feature of the site is the homepage slider. This jQuery-based slider provides at-a-glance info for site users and adds some movement to the page. The slider was customized to match the look and feel of the rest of the site, with blue and silver Slide indicators, side navigation arrows and a see-through background.

Last but not least, the site design also needed to incorporate a Sports News content feed from an outside source. Working with the Sports Content company (called “Sports Direct”), I was able to parse the XML feeds and display all necessary sports information on each relevant page.

 

You can visit the Sports Connection site at: https://www.sportsconnection.com

St. Anton Condos Website Redesign

I’ve launched a new WordPress website for St. Anton Condos, a lovely group of condominiums set at the base of a ski chairlift in Mammoth Lakes, CA. The original site needed a major facelift, with the addition of some new functionality and updated marketing messages.

Design

The design of the site was loosely based on the surrounding colors around the building. Brown and Tan shades represent the colors of the trees and the paint on the building itself. Green represents the colors of the pine needles and gives an overall “fresh” feel.

I designed the WordPress Theme with these visual aspects in mind, to carry over the comfortable “down home” cabin feeling of the area to the website.

Features

The main functional update to the site was incorporating photos of each Condo unit into a custom Photo Gallery, so visitors could see all of the units at a glance, and have the option to explore each unit further. The custom Photo Gallery I created offered a few nice solutions, including a clean, easy-to-read format and the ability to include basic details under each unit.

Another custom feature that was added to this WordPress site was a personalized Weather Widget. Not being content with simply adding in a widget that would display the current weather, I searched through several plugins before deciding on one that would allow me to modify the graphics and output of the weather feed.

Another feature that was needed for the site was an Events Calendar to display recent events for the property. This was accomplished by using the “Ajax Event Calendar” WordPress plugin. This plugin is great for displaying events and is a breeze to use and setup.

The Saucy Culinarian

I’ve launched a new website called The Saucy Culinarian, a food blog run by my girlfriend Devon. Originally, the site was created as a place to document some of the dishes that Devon made while attending Culinary School. The site has now become much more complex, including recipes, restaurant reviews, kitchen tips and more.

Design
The design of the site was inspired by the pattern on our kitchen drapes, and the 50s, which Devon is a fan of. The bright colored cherries really pop off of the black plaid in the background. The red wavy line emulates ric-rac and ties together the red from the cherries and adds more 50s flair. The bright green footer and highlights match with the green stems of the cherries and add a bit of brightness throughout. Lots of information is arranged neatly and organized in this creative custom-built WordPress theme.

Features
One of the feature requests of the site was to have the homepage display lots of posts from different categories. By using plugins already available in WordPress and modifying the functions.php file, I organized the widgets on the homepage to be a comprehensive overview of posts from multiple categories.

The site features a sidebar in the theme. The sidebar displays Kitchen Tips, Featured Recipes, “Did You Know” tidbits, and “Other Goodies” (random things worth featuring). The sidebar has a dynamic texture — as the content changes, the size of the sidebar container gets taller/shorter. The background image was designed to look like a real wooden cutting board, and seamlessly tiles as it fills the container. Behind the sidebar on the homepage, are some kitchen tools that appear to be covered by the cutting board sidebar.

A hidden gem of the site is the random food image that is shown to the side of the introduction text. Users can click this image and it will fade out, and another image will fade in… all of this was programmed using jQuery actions.

 

You can visit the Saucy Culinarian website at: http://thesaucyculinarian.com

Tahoe Beach and Ski Club

I’ve launched a website redesign for Tahoe Beach and Ski Club, a timeshare condominium company at Lake Tahoe, CA. The original site was in major need of a design overhaul, and the new site needed to integrate with their hotel booking software, RezStream. There were some design suggestions from the client that I followed and combined with a little creativity, which ended up giving the site some nice personality that makes it really stand out from the competition.

Design
The design of the site was created to portray a luxury feeling. Bright colors along the top fading downward to a deep blue reflect the different shades that are seen in the tranquil Lake Tahoe water. The main sections are framed with a golden texture. Utilizing breathtaking and dramatic photos, a slideshow displays these images to show how unique the Lake Tahoe area is. When you visit a subpage, the header image is randomly loaded from a folder of more than a dozen images. The booking engine widget is integrated into the site in such a way as to be unobtrusive, yet still stands out when included on every page.

Features
One of the feature requests of the site redesign was to have a slideshow to display hero images on the homepage. The hero images were provided by local photographers and each photo includes photographer credit. The slideshow is customized so the client can change these images at any time.

Another feature request was to have the site integrated with the RezStream booking engine software. After some discussion with the software Tech Support, I was able to complete a solution for users to search a simple form — included on every page — and get immediate results.

On all of the subpages on the site, the header image is randomly chosen from a folder that contains more than 10 header images. This was done to provide some variety to the pages and provide them from looking stale. The images were chosen to represent elements from the Lake Tahoe area, such as pinecones, sand from the beach, waves, and more.

And finally, the last unique feature request for this site was to have an area that is only accessible by users that know a password. Using plugins, this was easily customized for the client.

 

You can visit the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club website at: http://tahoebeachandski.com

Blog Theme: Jentry Ghysels

I’ve finished developing a custom WordPress Theme for my good designer friend, Jentry Ghysels. She designed the theme, and I was tasked with constructing it from her template.

Mammoth Lakes Flash Ads

I’ve just created some flash banner ads for Mammoth Lakes Department of Tourism.

There were two sets of ads — one for a Lodging Package deal, and another set for Generic Deals.

Ski Logik

AM Design has just launched a new website for custom ski manufacturer, Ski Logik.

Based in Colorado, Ski Logik earned success right out of the gate.

Deep Roots Media Redesign

Deep Roots Media needed a complete website redesign, and decided to go with AM Design. Working on a tight deadline, AM Design was able to deliver exactly what the client needed.

Lodging Appreciation Flyer

Heavenly’s Lodging Liaison needed a stylish flyer to promote an event they were holding for their business partners. They would be sending out this flyer in an email blast, so I had make the piece appropriately sized for email.

Buckingham Properties Lake Tahoe

Buckingham Properties was looking for a fresh redesign of their website. Using photography and the natural colors of the Tahoe area, AM Design was able to bring in the Tahoe “feel” to the website, to match the beautiful luxury vacation properties the company offers.

968 Park Hotel

968 Park Hotel needed some simple updates done to their website, so the in-house staff could post new promotional content whenever they needed. After having a meeting with the client, we agreed on two major updates that would help their hotel promotions get more views and clicks, while being easy and quick to update.

Tahoe Web Video

AM Design has partnered with Deep Roots Media to create TahoeWebVideo.com, a company that provides website video for small and medium-sized businesses.

Heavenly Terrain Parks Mini-Site

The terrain parks manager at Heavenly wanted to have an area of the website solely dedicated to the terrain parks and park safety. After a couple meetings, we had collectively agreed on what the expectations would be for a Terrain Parks mini-site.