The new site has been completely redesigned from the ground up to run on WordPress. My old site was static xhtml, and while it ran well and did what it was supposed to, I found updating content tedious and time consuming. The new system greatly streamlines my workflow and allows me to edit copy and update my work with the click of a few buttons.

I based the whole backbone on the Hybrid theme framework. This reduced development time by providing a solid skeleton and browser tested CSS rules.

New CSS3 effects are used throughout the site to round all my buttons and text input fields. This degrades gracefully for people who still use backward browsers like Internet Explorer. CSS3 will be cropping up a lot and new effects are being added that will make styling sites much easier.

CSS3 rounded corners in a modern browser, and in Microsoft's IE.

Headline font substitution was handled by the WP-Cufon plugin. Cufon is a new way of rendering custom fonts in a web page without using Flash or clunky image replacement techniques.

The homepage features a Jquery image slideshow with links to my work sections. Thanks to the developer of vSlider plugin for this great little plugin.

My work galleries are still powered by SmoothGallery, although now the backend allows me to set up new galleries, sort the order, add captions and auto thumbnail my images. NextGen SmoothGallery is the plugin which makes this all possible. Other plugins allow me to link my twitter feeds and feeds from right here into the footer section.

It was a steep learning curve, bending WordPress to my will. Some of the mods required patience to work out, but I got there in the end. What this experience showed me is how far WordPress can be moulded into virtually any type of site, while still keeping it’s ease of use. I’ll definitely be taking what I’ve learned and applying it to my client’s design work.

If you experience any problems with colourform, please leave a comment or contact me via the site. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

ProLab is a WordPress template for photographers, or visual artists. I based it on the Hybrid theme framework. It features Flash and Javascript image galleries (you get to choose which type you want) all created and edited via your WP dashboard.

The ease of use was important for non-techy types. Creating and editing galleries is as easy as creating a gallery, uploading your photo’s and copy pasting in a shortcode. You can tag your photo’s add captions, resize images and embed slideshows in the sidebars if you wish.

After researching other photography themes, I came to the conclusion that the photo’s should be the star, not the site graphics. I’ve kept things minimal and clean so the photography really stands out. I will be using this theme to re-design an existing clients site and hopefully other photographers will be interested in using it to show off their work and generate new business.

View the Demo

Roger’s recent books are a series of historical crime novels set in St Petersburg and featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Dostoevsky’s great novel Crime and Punishment. He wanted to evoke something of the dark, harsh times in which the novels are set. He also wanted to be able to write his blog and have it as part of the site. It was really nice to have an open brief from a fellow creative, so I set about designing a custom WordPress site that would showcase his writing and allow him to blog.

Rogernmorris is the outcome of my labour. The custom WorkBase child theme I had designed a few months ago served as the backbone. I was able to create a site that fitted in with the themes in Roger’s books, while being easily updated and maintained by Roger himself. I walked him through the admin side, and in no time he was up and running.

I’d like to thank Roger for being such an easy going client and wish him the best of luck in his writing. You can find out more about his books on the website and buy them from Amazon.

Thanks also Rog for biggin me up to your publisher Faber. One of their new writers, Alex Preston, contacted me shortly after Roger’s site went live to ask me if I could do a similar job for him. His new book, “This Bleeding City” will be published by Faber early next year. I also designed his website and blog which you can visit here.

During my research I found some truly awesome writers sites, although these tended to be ‘big money’ authors who have already sold millions of books. I did struggled to find decent, well designed sites for lessor known writers though. It is a shame that people so talented with words and language seem to have to settle for sub standard visual design for their online presence, which has become such an important part of bringing their work to a larger audience.

Six Revisions states that the trend has recently been revived by designer Tim Van Damme. It has spawned some lovely studies in UI design, most of them using smooth, eyecatching jQuery effects. It got me thinking to an old project I had on the backburner for a long time. My first website was setup way back in 2003, I’ve been using it as a bit of a testing ground, and I never really got a proper homepage up I was happy with. This was the exact thing I needed to put up there.

Since colourform is my main site now, things have moved on, but people do still end up at my old domain. This way I can direct them to my latest projects, social networks and have another point of contact besides colourform. The simple, minimal design would therefore serve as a hub to my web presence.

I did my research, learned a bit about jQuery, and came up with a nice simple metallic theme. I’m pleased with how it turned out and had fun designing the icons and skin. The contact icons are actually from my NetBats font which is available as a free download from this site. Here’s the finished design:

Visit antoneycalvert.com to see it in action.

I myself had no idea what a ‘child theme’ was until I found an interesting article over at op111. I wanted to create a WordPress theme that appealed to creatives, individuals and small businesses (or even large ones), that was simple and easy on the eye. Instead of reinventing the wheel I figured I’d find an existing theme I liked and customise it.

Graph Paper Press had the exact theme I was after. It’s called Workaholic. So I signed up and downloaded the theme and got down to creating my own version. The result is a child theme – so called because it’s based on a parent theme (Workaholic in this case), which I’ve called WorkBase.

As you can see it’s really clean and well laid out and even has Twitter integration. I changed the colour scheme, graphics and some core functionality of the original theme to make it, well, much better in my opinion. By far the best change I made was integrating SmoothGallery into the theme. This replaces the rather clunky image gallery that was included. SmoothGallery is a Flash-like image slideshow viewer. Using a plugin to integrate it into the theme meant I now had a fully user editable slideshow. I also improved some of the graphic elements and gave the whole theme a classy sheen.

To find out more about WorkBase, how to get the files, installation instructions and how I can design and install a custom version of the theme for your website, simply click the button below:

UPDATE: WorkBase is now available for purchase for a measly £15.00. Click the button above to check it out.

I’ve been busy creating fonts over at the superb FontStruct. I’ve designed 6 custom faces not available anywhere else. Some of these fonts were for personal and commercial projects where I needed a font to fit a certain design. Instead of trawling the net and not finding the exact font I needed, I decided to create my own.

Fontstruct allows designers to create custom typefaces using a web based interface. The app is powered by Flash and is well designed and totally stable.

It was a lot of fun and a real challenge to design these faces. Typography is a science and getting the right balance of forms for each face taught me a lot about constructing typefaces. This is a great learning tool as well as a boon for people wanting to make some cool type.

You can preview the entire set over at my FontStruct Page. There’s also a handy User Input feature that lets you see the font as you type.

Download the entire set of 6 typefaces, to use as you wish,  by clicking the link below:

Pixelounge Free Font Pack

I created this mix to enter a competition. If you like what you hear, or are just a nice person, you can vote for me over at PaceMaker.

I didn’t want to send in another generic summer house mix. I wanted something fresher, funkier and a bit more old school. Lots of old classics as well as modern versions and re-edits of disco, funk and boogie. I hope it flows nicely and keeps the vibe uplifting.

This was all mixed using my new X-Session Pro USB Mixer and the free Torq LE software it comes bundled with. I added a few subtle sound effects in GarageBand afterwards to give it a summer tan.

Hope this keeps the rain away – or if not, at least puts a little grin on your face.

Download audio file (double_mojito.mp3)

Double Mojito Mix >

1. All Alone – The Lipsyncs
2. Crusader – Knightlife
3. Anyway – Duck Sauce (A-Trak & Armand Van Helden)
4. Day Off – Xinobi
5. Problemes D’amour – Alexander Robotnik
6. Come Down – Tiger & Woods
7. Love Come Down – Evelyn Champagne King
8. Nights (Feel Like Gettin’ Down) – Billy Ocean
9. Changes (Larry Levan Mix) – Imagination
10. Venus (Fromage Disco Edit) – Bananarama
11. Dubbing in Sunshine –  Rockers Revenge
12. Love Itch – Rochelle Fleming
13. Wheels – Dj Yoda
14. Optimistic – Sounds Of Blackness
15. Summertime (Sample) – Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

Trawling through many photographers sites reveals interesting results sometimes. I was blown away by the subject matter of Jan Kempenaers.

His surreal photographs of barren landscapes dominated by huge other-worldly sculptures and alien buildings is mesmerising. Sometimes you feel like you’ve been transported to an alternate future that never was, or the lost relics of a super-civilsation from the distant past. Whatever these constructions served as I will never know, I’m not even sure if they really exist at all – or have they been masterfully retouched into the landscape by the photographer?

After fiddling around with DJay for Mac, which I reviewed here a few months back, I decided that I needed a control surface. Using the trackpad and keys on my macbook was cool but I found myself wishing I had a physical mixer.

The USB powered X-Session Pro is a small, light unit that plugs into your laptop for instant plug n play goodness. Unfortunately, DJay doesn’t support this mixer at the moment, but it comes bundled with Torq Light Edition for free! The software is really good and works flawlessly with the mixer to give you total control as if you were using regular turntables or a CDJ. It will even beat match – although it still messes up sometimes, so your best off using your ears.

It feels great to have knobs and sliders again! It’s also reasonably priced at under £70. Check out Amazon for the best deals.

Awesome video by Tin Spider. Printer noises become a Drum n Bass track. Great animation married to samples. The way a good music video should be. Reminds me of the old HP LaserJet we had in the office which kept breaking down for no apparent reason.