Journal
Rock Worship Site Launch
21 December 2005 › 12 comments
I am happy to announce that the website RockWorship.com has gone live. It was online before, but just as a modified WordPress template. I was contacted recently by Matt Heerema, one of the guys that I met through Godbit.com. He was sporting a really sweet looking website mockup, done by himself and his talented print designer friend Travis Swan.
Being a very visually oriented person, I was impressed by the initial composition. So, I helped out with “breathing life” into the design by taking it from being a Fireworks PNG to a fully-fledged XHTML and CSS template.
I then handed it back over to Matt who converted it into a WordPress theme and integrated the PunBB forum system. He is something of a PHP whiz, and has the current forum topics pulling into the site’s front page. He also has the forum running from within the WordPress template. I have to say that I’m very impressed, because I didn’t know it was possible.
Overall, this was a very fun project to be involved in. It is a perfect example of synergy between designers and developers, operating in their areas of particular talent. Admittedly, Matt was not looking forward to doing the CSS implimentation, but I love CSS and was able to get it done in a single evening.
This expediated the process, and allowed him to focus his efforts on integrating the PHP side of things, an area in which I am lacking. By mixing that together with “wicked worn” header and footer goodness by Travis, you’ve got a sure-fire recipie for a pretty killer Christian rock and roll site.
It is amazing how quickly things can move when you just get a group of crazy web guys working on something for the sheer fun of it, and don’t have any clients dragging the project down. The total development time for the site, from initial design to site launch was only three days. That’s what I call agile web development, without a hint of Rails! Now I just need to learn the guitar.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 Jonathan Snook
I like the colour and that banner graphic really has impact. Nice work!
#2 Jesse J. Anderson
looks frickin sweet!
How open are you to collaborating in future projects?
I love doing design similiar to what was done here in Photoshop, but it’s always a headachefor the ultimate conversion to CSS which I grasp but, I just have never fully embraced. =)
#3 Nathan Smith
Jesse: I am pretty open to future collaboration. I have some ongoing sub-contract design work on my plate, but if you just need some mockup to CSS conversions, I would be up for that. Shoot me an email with the details.
#4 David
Looks pretty good man, it’s a nice clean design with an impacting central graphic. I like how this site keeps some of your trademark design elements but still manages to integrate new elements. Keep it up.
#5 Nathan Smith
David: Just to reiterate, I didn’t do any of these graphics. The mockup was already done by Matt and Travis. All I did was make an XHTML and CSS template that they could then use for WordPress. That’s it, which is why I was able to do it in one sitting. If I had done the full gammet of site design and development, I don’t think it would’ve been completed so rapidly.
#6 Jonathan Snook
It’s funny to hear David mention “your design elements” because when I first saw it, I instantly felt “godbit”. I imagine they got some inspiration from it. :)
#7 Nathan Smith
Jonathan: Yeah, you’re probably right. Another duo that has been hanging around the Godbit forum has a similar style, and they’ve been around before I designed it. Here’s their site: Intereactive.net. It reminds me of the hosting site 2Advanced.net, which I admit is where I drew some of the visual inspiration for Godbit, along with Mint and of course the infamous Snook.ca.
#8 Elliot Swan
Very nice, one of the better WordPress themes I’ve seen.
#9 Matt Heerema
Sure some of the inspiration for the design came from Godbit. But I think it was more of a subconscious “I really like diagonal lines and a tech-y feel” than “i’m going to make this look like Godbit…”
Nathan, I think a lot of what folks are seeing are your typography preferences, as you did do the typography :)
#10 Nathan Smith
Matt: I suppose, if you count Verdana and Trebuchet MS! I just tried to pick widely available fonts. I didn’t mean to imply that you ripped anything off. I think that a certain extent of inspiration is always inevitable. To try to deny that we are influenced by what we see around is would be a silly notion. So, I just try to give credit where it’s due. Again, you and Travis did a great job.
#11 Matt Heerema
Well, actually I was replying to Jonathon, agreeing that there was definitely some influence. :) I guess I’m secure enough in the design to not worry about people accusing me of ripping things off (even though I do from time to time). But you know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery :)
I guess what I was trying to say was that I just realized that sometimes our influences are conscious decisions, and sometimes they are subconscious preferences.
#12 David
Yeah, sorry for the confusion about my comment. I wasn’t trying to make it sound like anyone ripped off anyone else either. I was just meaning to point out that as a colab. effort you can see some of a person’s style come through while mixing with that of the other person’s. As I don’t know the other people involved with the design I could only comment on the parts that I had seen in Nathan’s other designs.
The central graphic doesn’t look like something Nathan would have generally done, not to say that his work is lesser or better, it just doesn’t seem to keep with his personal style. The main thing that I did notice was the typography and the similiarity to Godbit. At the time I did think Nathan was a little more involved in the color scheme and whatnot, thank you for the correction. Sorry for the misunderstanding. It’s still good work though. =)