I recently to be able to help build a new info site for Adbase, a ~200 page product resource for my FTJ.
Last week we launched an info site for Found Folios, a new photography sourcebook set to hit the market with its first issue this September. Found’s books are unique in that they’re published monthly rather than once a year and each issue targets a specific market segment. Traditional creative sourcebooks are bulky annual monoliths (think: yellow pages of photographers) that make these sleek, targeted books look like an attractive new option for the industry.
I’m a big fan of Oxygen Design’s minimal, typography-oriented design featuring big, bold headlines and dramatic use of whitespace. While we were building this site I came across Smashing Magazine’s Top 10 web design trends in 2009, and realized that FoundFolios.com scores a 5/10. Is the glass half empty or half full? Either way, the effect is nicely realized and sets a terse, clear voice for the brand.
Stephen DeMarsh and I just launched a new website for Change for the Environment, a cool new environmental charity aiming to raise some funds for tree planting. So far they have a bunch of retail partners in Toronto, Trenton and Belleville who have either agreed to host dropoff spots or have worked directly with CFTE on this worthy project.
My part of building the site was to create xhtml/css markup matching Stephen’s designs, build an interactive map to plot the various donation locations and integrate a WordPress blog into the core of the site. I used the the Google Maps API to build an entirely JavaScript map application and location database, complete with pagination, IP-based geolocation, search geocoding and distance sorting.
Jan 11
So I just completed my first week as a full-time software developer at Adbase, and I think it’s going pretty well. Adbase sells a database of marketing contacts to photographers and illustrators. They have been filling this niche for a little over a decade, and seem like a fairly solid fixture in the industry. My role is to squash bugs and develop new features in their database and web application tiers.