Octane Media » wordpress

WordPress for Magnum Ink

brit — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:38:24 +0000

While doing some official industry research (better said, “surfing the forums at Pirate4x4.com”), I came across a company making a big splash in the custom screen printing world, Magnum Ink. The shirt designs I saw were both innovative, grungy and clean at the same time, something very hard to pull off with one creative work. I couldn’t help but reach out to them in hopes of putting a website out for them that matched their design style.

With products as innovative as those created by Magnum Ink, it was important to present those products up front. To accomplish this, we constructed a very unique layout that displayed the artwork proofs on the very front page. This type of layout creates some problems.

Problems created by this type of layout:

Different screen resolutions (and thus, browser sizes) wreak havoc on displaying the artwork proofs in a symmetrical flow. When the browser resizes, the artwork proofs would normally be lost in the overflow or the grid would go from three columns to two, or worse they would cause a horizontal scroll.
With smaller viewports (ie. browser window size), the right columns (news, company info) would be lost or not cause a vertical scroll.
Artwork proofs don’t scale

How we solved these problems:

By using custom, but standardized Javascript and CSS we progressively enhance the HTML layout to cause a vertical scroll and affix the right column to the top right if the viewport width falls below 960px. This assures that the layout stays readable and usable on smaller computers, including the newly popular netbooks. The design also continues to maximize the size of the artwork proofs on these smaller browser layouts. You can verify this by resizing your browser while the Magnum Ink site is loaded. As the resolution lowers, notice how the proofs resize and the right column affixes to the top right.

We greatly enjoyed working with Magnum Ink on this project and are looking forward to a long lasting relationship as their company and products explode into the custom clothing market.

WordPress for AnkleSavers.com

brit — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:53:30 +0000

I was contacted by Tom Crain of Ankle-Savers™ about improving the website for his new product. He has an innovative product that maintains a very high level of simplicity. The website needed to reflect those product features. The main goals of this project were: high impact, simple (one page if possible), show product through video. See for yourself if you think these goals were accomplished – AnkleSavers.com.

WordPress for AtlantaRooftopWeddings.com

brit — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:47:19 +0000

One of our first clients, The Peachtree Club, in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, contact us about building a separate site for their new rooftop terrace. The site needed to be very focused and streamlined, strictly for the purpose of revealing the beauty of their new rooftop terrace and more specifically, this terrace for wedding events.

Enter WordPress. The terrace is still under construction, so we wanted to keep fresh updates on the site informing the visitors of the progress being made. Also, after the construction is completed, we still need to post frequent updates to the different program options available and updated photos from events held on the rooftop. The fluid nature of WordPress and its ability to aid in search engine optimization meant that it was a shoe-in for the platform for this new site.

We’re very happy with how it turned out.

You can view the site at AtlantaRooftopWeddings.com.

WordPress Integrates With Twitter API

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:42:57 +0000

We are asked this by almost every client who implements a WordPress site, “How do I update all of my ‘streams’ at the same time?” Well, the answer to that question is one step closer.

This morning, a blogging platform and a microblogging platform have become more symbiotic. WordPress has enabled posting and reading the blogs the platform powers via the Twitter API.

Read the rest of this story on TechCrunch.

Magento Live for Extreme Roc Rigs

brit — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:33:19 +0000

We have done quite a few Magento installations now. Each time we dig into Magento, we appreciate the platform even more. Agreed, it’s a huge beast and a pain to get setup, but once it’s up and running it’s great. The flexibility and scalability are the major benefits.

You can checkout our latest Magento installation at the Extreme Roc Rigs store.

This site is also coupled with a WordPress installation available at the root of the site.

Extreme Roc Rigs WordPress

brit — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:54:33 +0000

We have been talking with Extreme Roc Rigs for a while about building them a new website. They make custom parts for off road vehicles, primarily Jeeps. Their products are CAD designed for near perfect fit and finish and the website had to portray that professionalism, but still be edgy enough to say “we are off road”.

WordPress was chosen for the content management system and Magento is the commerce system of choice.

Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch in Clanton, AL. They have an amazing product and do business much the same way we do, the old fashioned way. We spoke with them on Wednesday and three days later we had the site you see here. Obviously, this isn’t a normal timeline, but they were under a massive time crunch due to it being in the middle of pumpkin season, so it was imperative that their site be completed ASAP. Their market is fairly saturated, so maximizing SEO for this site was the number one priority. WordPress was chosen for the content platform due to its lower development time and SEO abilities.

Visit the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch website.

Blue Torch Fab WordPress

brit — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:39:27 +0000

We just finished up the final touches on the Blue Torch Fab website. It is built on WordPress and uses a custom theme and customized OS Commerce shopping cart. There are still a few visual bugs we’re working out, but for the most part, it’s up! Take a look and let us know what you think.

HelenaDepot.com Website Launched

brit — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:47:29 +0000

We have been working with one of our favorite local restaurants for a few weeks putting together a simple website for them. It has finally launched and is available at http://www.HelenaDepot.com. This site is built on WordPress for easy content updates and content syndication.

This site serves as a great example of the power of WordPress and proper content organization. Expect more from this site soon as it hopefully becomes more popular within the community.

Faith Racers Ministry WordPress

brit — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:31:10 +0000

The brain child of Andre Pene, the Faith Racers ministry has grown into a vital asset for motocross events all over the Southeast. Andre prepares monthly “Life Lessons” that often relate to the sport of motocross. The impact that this ministry is having on the MX racing scene is apparent at ecah event.

Andre contacted us in hopes of getting a quick website built that looked good, wasn’t overly expensive and was easy to update. Enter, WordPress, the same software on which our OctaneMedia.com site is built. The site was deployed onto a Linux server with PHP5 and utilizing MySQL for data. The entire site, graphics and all was deployed within a week, keeping costs low.