Economy Websites

Rick Kustich is a master fly fisherman, author and photographer.  He needed a website to sell his books, link to his publishing company, post his photographs and keep a weblog.  During our initial conversations, it became apparent that Rick did not need a full-size, Joomla! CMS website.  After a bit of research, we decided that a DIY website would provide the level of flexibility that Rick needed and could be designed at a substantially lower cost. 

Design notes -

• Rick selected a nice template from Homestead's inventory but the colors were all wrong for fishing.  We swapped out all of the burnt orange artwork and replaced it with a nice, deep pool green. 
• The Homestead template was designed for a spa and had a semi-translucent massage bed at the bottom of the page.  We replaced this with a semi-translucent fly rod. 
  
• Rick's original menu outline fit well on the page.  However, he later wanted to add a few headings and this pushed the menu into a column of photos.  They just didn't look right.  So we selected one of Rick's lovely fall fishing photos and blended it into the menu area.  Looks good now!
  

Bill Holden makes stunning leather products.  After learning the fine points of saddle making from a reknowned saddle maker, for many years Bill split his time between perfecting his skills in saddle construction and long-haul trucking.  When he decided to hang up the CB and devote his time to Line Camp Saddle Shop (LCSS), Bill and his wife, Linda, felt that their best advertising investment would be a website.

Design notes -

• The initial outline for the website clearly indicated that a "starter" DIY website was the most cost effective solution.  However, some excellent ideas materialized during the construction phase and LCSS is well over the five item limitation for menu items typically found with their selected DIY provider.  Fortunately, we squeezed the template to accommodate the extra pages.
• The template Bill and Linda selected needed little customization except for background extensions for the longer pages.  The masthead also required some modifications. 
  
• For the masthead, TRG converted a photograph of a leather rendering of the Line Camp logo into a wood-burn representation.  The font was selected for its old west character from TRG's inventory.
  
• Linda has maintained an excellent photo inventory of the saddles Bill has made.  The range of Bill's saddle design skills are well represented with Homestead's photo gallery utility.
• Photo borders of dark wood texture were designed in Photoshop to complement Homestead's heavy wooden template.  As Linda and Bill prefer to do their own maintenance, TRG is researching a low cost photo editing system that will product the same borders. 
  

Lynn Nemeth had designed the layout of her on-line store before she came to Tobacco Root Graffics.  However, the construction of her website was not progressing and Lynn hoped we could get things moving.  After researching some DIY on-line store systems and discussing Lynn's growth plans, we determined that a DIY would be the best solution.  It would provide a quick implementation without sacrificing the necessary on-line store infrastructure and it would be cost effective.

Development notes -

• The artwork that Lynn had previously commissioned integrated smoothly with the DIYeStore layout templates.
• The DIYeStore system was sophisticated and easy to use.  Organizing and adding inventory was very straightforward. 
  
• Tobacco Root Graffics created all of the copy, produced most of the product photos and all of the modeling photos for this website. 
  

Sarah and Justin Miller have the only drive-through espresso business in the Ruby Valley and they are located across the street from Tobacco Root Graffics.  (How cool is that?!!)  During the summer, much of Jumping Rainbow's business comes from the cyclists touring the Ruby Valley.  To reach out to their future customers, Sarah and Justin decided to extend their internet advertising from Facebook.  Budget considerations made a DIY website a very attractive option.

Design notes -

• Justin had drawn a terrific black & white cartoon of a jumping rainbow trout.  We colorized the trout and used it for branding in the masthead.  Justin's trout was also perfect in the background logo, combined with a camp-style coffee cup and an arching rainbow.
• The background of the website template was redesigned to display the trout-cup-rainbow on top of the original template's mottled sand background.
  
• Sarah and Justin preferred a vertical menu that is bounded by the masthead banner.  The size of the banner has imposed a strict 5 item limit.  We have been able to extend that limit by creating a menu button for "Specials".