08/2/06
Project Description:
I was planning to propose to my (then) girlfriend on December 24, 2005 and found myself going through quite a bit of steps to make it all come together. To somewhat journal it all, I created a website where I kept track of everything that I was going through such as buying the ring, making a photo book, asking for her parents’ blessing, etc. It quickly became “part of” the proposal.
Some people may wonder why I have a “personal site” in my portfolio. Well, let me count the ways:
- This was my first site based on WordPress, so it contained tons of “experiments”
- The site is smoothly coded in XHTML & CSS
- It validates
- It’s driven by PHP & mySQL
- It’s search engine friendly
- It’s cross-platform and cross-browser compatible
- It contains AJAX
- It contains a Flickr API to show the latest 4 photos of Crystal and me
- It’s ranked in the top 1% of websites on the web according to Alexa
- I created customized CSS to give Crystal’s posts a different colored text than my own
- More CSS is combined with Flash to give the titles of our posts unique fonts
- Even more customized CSS and PHP shows our pictures beside our posts for easy reference
Project Details:
Crystal and Shane was created with the following:
- WordPress
- K2 Theme for WordPress
- EditPlus 2
- Adobe Photoshop
- Flash MP3 Player
- Canon Digital Rebel
- XHTML, CSS, PHP, mySQL
Site Address:
Launched:
08/2/06
Project Description:
My third project for the Fee / Hedrick Family Entertainment Group was to redesign the website for The Comedy Barn Theater. The old site was fairly simply, full of unnecessary spacer gifs, lacked alt & image tags, used images for plain text, and was just all-around an SEO turtle. It needed a bit more character, cleaned up, and tweaked for search engines.
I have to admit that this is the last site with tables that I have created. I have since moved to using solid XHTML and CSS based layouts. Even with tables, I managed to do away with the spacer gifs and cleaned the code up substantially. The first thing that I dis was add color to the design. The background is now blue and the top is a bright red barn roof with a Flash animation of the logo and the characters that pop up beside it. It creates an immediate “fun” emotion when opening the site.
Other changes are:
- The menu was cleaned up with sharper rollover images and text
- The paragraphs of text are no long images. This allows search engines to see the keywords
- Links to other shows & theaters were added to provide cross-linking strength
- 30 second commercial added in Flash format
- Online ticketing integrated (Online ticketing was not created by me. I had practically no control over the functionality and a lot of the user interface. I just linked to it and tried to make its pages look the same as the rest of the site.)
Click here to see the before and after screenshots.
Project Details:
The Comedy Barn was created with the following:
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
- Adobe Photoshop
- Flash 8
- EditPlus
- CSS, ASP, Access
Site Address:
Launched:
08/1/06
Project Description:
When I was hired by the Fee/Hedrick Family Entertainment Group, one of my first projects was to create a website for a new theater that was to house a musical based on the miracles of Christ. About the only thing that I had to work with was a logo that was created by the Creative Director and some photos of some other production that we had rights to use. Needless to say, I was somewhat lost at first as to how to present it online as they didn’t even have a theater or show at the time. Fortunately, everything seemed to fall into place as I created the header, dove, menu, main content template, footer, and background. It now has a video commercial embedded into the site that streams on broadband connections. The end result was a simple, yet attractive site that quickly snagged a Google Page Rank of 4 and is on the first page of Google results for “The Miracle.”
Some things on the site that I did not have a hand in is the cabin rental button on every page and the ticket ordering system.
Project Details:
The Miracle Theater was created with the following:
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
- Adobe Photoshop
- Flash 8
- EditPlus
- CSS, ASP, Access
Site Address:
Launched:
08/1/06
Project Description:
The Fee Hedrick Family Entertainment Group owns three large theaters that are homes to five shows in Pigeon Forge, TN. The shows are:
- The Comedy Barn Theater
- The Black Bear Jamboree Dinner Show
- The Miracle Theater
- The Blackwoods Breakfast Variety Show
- Triumphant Southern Gospel Show
A single, corporate website was needed in order to send out media releases, marketing material, and corporate information. The majority of the information needed to be publicly available so that various media outlets could access the editorial content as well as any photos or videos associated with stories.
There was also a need for a password-protected area where authorized users could download logos, photos, posters, etc for marketing purposes.
Project Details:
Elements I created
- Practically everything you see other than the actual articles and photos within the articles
- Logo and header image
- CSS menu
- Password-protected area with photos, logos, and editorials of each show
- Template design
- Based on WordPress content management system and K2 Theme
Fee Hedrick Family Entertainment Group was created with the following:
Site Address:
Launched:
Shane Eubanks
