Andrew Kelly contacted me for a kind of business blog project that he was working on. After I showed him some of my previous works and we agreed on the price, I began designing a WordPress theme for him. He had previously chosen to use as a theme the semilogic theme framework. Well, his decision made me suffer until I suggested him that I developed the theme for him from scratch. He agreed and on this we went on. This project took a little bit long as I was working on other projects simultaneously. However working with Andrew was a great experience.
Design
When Andrew contacted me, he showed me a couple of sites that he wanted his blog to look like. He wanted something fresh and have a web 2.0 feel. Some guys might argue that web 2.0 means nothing, however there are a lot of designers and blog writers that have listed out the features of web 2.0 – but this is not the point of this post. Let’s focus on the design process. I used an heavy blue color throughout the blog with some fresh web 2.0 effects. I did all this with Inkscape, my favorite vector graphic design application. I cannot say I am a great designer, but I can reach high quality in design if clients describe me clearly what they want.
Coding
As I said earlier, the early coding process was very painful. After we decided to have the theme developed from scratch, it was a very nice experience as coding is the part I like most. I had to work with XTHML, CSS, PHP with WordPress flavor.
The theme is coded in tableless XHTML/CSS. At first it was pure and valid, but after my client, Andrew implemented Awaber subscription code into it, it turned to have some validation errors. It is not a situation I like to be in, as I claim I code only valid talbleless XHTML/CSS websites and WordPress themes, but I cannot interfere with my clients choices.
Layout
The theme has a two column layout. It has a left main column where the blog content is placed and a right wide sidebar. On front page it has a big welcoming video before the fold under which four other posts queried according to categories are shown. It is a nice simple layout informative layout.
Widgets
The theme has a fully customizable, widget-ready sidebar. Widgetizing WordPress themes is a pleasurable experience for me and I could not leave it unwidgetized even though widget are little employed by my client, Andrew.
Testimonial
After a lot of frustration working with many Web Designers it has been a real refreshing change to work with someone like Baki, his constant follow up and willingness to over deliver on all levels has made a huge difference to our productivity and our web business bottom line. Nothing is ever too much trouble for Baki which makes him a real pleasure to work with. I just wish all our team could be as reliable and project focused as Baki! Andrew Kelly of ClickSmartMarketing.com
Conclusion
This is all I could write down about my experience with Andrew Kelly. I would love to hear your thoughts about this theme. Also, please consider subscribing to my RSS Feeds to have the possibility to read and view more great articles and projects. In case you need a WordPress theme, you can drop me a line using my contact page. If you are not sure, please have a look at my portfolio to see more works of mine. Thanks for reading!