WordPress

WordPress as a CMS

Posted by kbs

My name is Ken and I am hopelessly addicted. (response: “Hello Ken.”) Last November I joined The New York City WordPress Meetup Group to meet other WordPress junkies. I wanted to see what they score and where. Always looking for that Blue Magic plugin. (see American Gangster)

wpsmallIn February, I went to a MeetUp titled WordPress as a CMS: The Strategy of Content Publishing. It was well presented but it wasn’t what I had expected. (That could be another post: expectations. But not here.) My comments did lead to some good discussion with the presenter Johnathan Andersen, who started a message board thread about CMS. Below is an excerpt of my post there. I am including it here because I think it begins to explain my evolving approach to web site design.

What do you think it means to use WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS)?

I have been designing sites for about ten years. Most of my clients are writers, photographers illustrators, a book publisher and a few small business owners. The more computer literate have been using Adobe Contribute to edit their sites. I started using WP about three years ago with some of my authors. Publishers Weekly wrote that an author should be blogging whenever they have a new book coming out. That’s when I added WP blogs to their sites. I have always wanted my clients to maintain their own sites and WP seems like a great solution.

WHAT IS CMS TO ME?
Content Management. For starters, that means pages for Press, Bios, News, Coming Events, Portfolios (Galleries) and Contact as well as posts for a Blog. It also means an eCommerce Store, though I have not had any demand for that yet. The traditional Blog and the Magazine formats can accomplish this.

I want to do some work outside of the available Theme Templates. I am a graphic designer. This is what I love. I also believe original site design gives my clients unique branding. But that probably doesn’t apply to this thread, except to say that I am learning to design my own modular WP sites (Thank you Chris @ www.css-tricks.com)

Because I want my clients to have as much control of their site as possible, I have been building some sites with Chris Pearson’s Thesis theme. (see www.thesisterproject.com) This has great promise, particularly because of the two extra Thesis Dashboard panels.

I will be very interested see if this generates any discussion. I have only been to two meetups but am looking forward to seeing what develops. It is great to get out from behind the monitor and meet with people. Even better when we are sharing the techie bong.

This is Valentines Day. I love my wife. (and my new iPod Touch)

113011UPDATE: see Smashing Magazine articleHow WordPress Took the CMS Crown.

Galleries, NextGen Solution

Posted by kbs

I have been working on a new site for Margaret Roach that will be known as The Sister Project. It has greatly expanded my belief in blogging as the new publishing and WordPress as the leading software. I will be writing more about The Sister Project (TSP) after we launch in late November.

One of the five TSP blogs is Galleries where we will display curated submissions of poetry, prose, photography and art. The Galleries need software to organize and present the art and photography. There are many WP gallery plugins available but our research led us to NextGen Gallery. It offers a variety of options and seems to be well maintained–many plugins are not. As with many Open Source programs, the instructions and tutorials could be more thorough. After spending many hours “under the hood,” I think I know how NextGen runs but some things are still not clear. That is why I am doing this test post using paintings I made almost twenty years ago. I want my clients to be aware of this solution and it gives me a chance to post some paintings from one of my favorite series.

Below and in the sidebar are thumbnails of my Field Report art. Almost all of the drawings and paintings are based on one avocado plant that I grew in my apartment. Other works based on the direct observation of nature are also included as part of this series. This last week I went to the Morandi exhibit at the Met. I suppose Field Report is my “Morandi” statement.

(This is the navigation for the NextGen Gallery.)

Margaret, Me and Blogging

Posted by kbs

Last December Margaret Roach contacted me about doing four websites for her. She was leaving Martha Stewart after twenty some years to get back to her roots. Roots, as in gardening. She is an amazing gardener and garden writer. You can read all about it here: www.awaytogarden.com.

That is the blog that I set up for her. She had not blogged before and we set out to learn together. She is a master now. As you know (or more likely have heard/read) the blogoshere is vast, complicated and growing. (yes, i am going to say it: Viral.) Margaret is smart, hard working and a very good writer. She is my source for blogging needs. Not that I need them, but my clients will.

I expect to be designing more sites with blogging software (right now WordPress) because it allows the client to manage/edit his own site through his/her browser: Safari, IE, Firefox. Tip: check out the browser Flock. If you are into Web 2.0 and social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) this browser wants to be your tool.

That is why you are reading this, right? You are thinking about your website? You may not want to blog or even hate the idea of blogging, but you would like to edit your own text, yes? I do have clients using Adobe Contribute to edit their sites now. Foremost all of this depends on the client’s level of digital savvy. Just knowing how to do email and surf is probably not enough. But close.

Why am I moving from Contribute to blogging? Mostly because WordPress offers so many add-ons. They are called plugins: guest books, mailing lists, photo galleries, newsletters. Maybe too many. Part of what can be annoying about blogs. But I am on a quest to make websites with WordPress that doen’t look like a blog. I want your site to have your identity when a visitor arrives, not the feeling you are coasting in the blogosphere slipstream. (I couldn’t help it. I get a metaphor in my head and I just can’t trash it)

That is the beginning of my journey with WordPress. Next I want to add more about the WordPress theme Revolution.

Keepin’ it Real

Posted by kbs

I have a lot to learn about WordPress. I may use blog and WordPress (WP) interchangeably because WordPress is the OpenSource blog software that I am using. I first put it on Kurt Andersen’s site and then Jamie Malanowski’s. But when Margaret Roach asked me to make three blogs for her, I knew I would be scaling the learning curve. Fortunately Margaret has done her homework and has a network of friends who are also into WP.

I put a blog here about four years ago using Blogger, the software that is now distributed by Google. But this week I finally loaded WP to use this a place to write about my commercial work and share my web learning experience. And right now that is about blogging.

My goal is to set up sites for clients that they can control the content from their computer. I have been doing that by using Adobe Contribute software. But I think WordPress will prove to be a worthy content management system (CMS).