ashley-vaughan.com

Ashley Vaughan, a fellow graduate from my University, approached me with a few ideas for coming up with a website that was more extensive than her blog hosted through Wordpress.com. Namely, she wanted an site that showcased her work—as a writer, photographer and curator, the website would have to acheive a lot of goals. The final concept focused on minimalistic aesthetics while maintaining separate presentations for writings, photography, blogs, and curatorial work.

Process

Thanks to Graph Paper Press and their extremely customizable WordPress themes, I got to work on modifying a theme. Each section would have to have a distinctly different presentation. Ultimately, clicking on "Photography" takes you to a gallery view not unlike the design of dsprankle.com. Curatorial is similar, but with room for text. Blog presents a timestamped list of entries, whereas writing focuses on typographically conscious presentation.

Bells & Whistles

With such a minimal design for the site, everything had to function properly for someone with little web work experience. The theme itself was widget-ready, and everything is customizable through the backend of WordPress. The gallery function was overhauled, so without changing Ashley's workflow, the presentation of her photography could shine. This theme had potentially the smallest impact on standard WordPress workflow that I have designed to date, without costing any design.