Wordpress - Designing Website

Installing Theme and Changing the Background

Using the Wordpress dashboard I was able to search for themes that match the design I was hoping to achieve for the site.. 

After browsing the themes SKT Photo Session was selected. This theme is designed specifically for photography galleries and the overall look and feel matches what I required.

The theme was then installed and activated via the Wordpress dashboard.

After installation and activation of the theme this was the initial view.

The first thing to do was change the background image to one of my own images.

With the chosen image selected the home page now looks far better.

However, following on from tutorial feedback, I decided instead to create the website using Wix instead of Wordpress.

Business Card

Planning

http://www.flashuser.net/black-business-cards

http://smashfreakz.com/2012/07/photography-business-cards/

http://nerdprint.com/white-uncoated-business-card-design/

I wanted a simple design for the front of my business card. With the card above, I like the location of the logo and the writing that is underneath. The 'KAREN CAREY' font is a nice clear font but the writing below the font is not very clear so I will choose another option.

http://www.tjskl.org.cn/products/cz154f9b7/photographer_business_cards-pz2286ec0.html

For the back I also want to keep it simple as shown in the card above. Ignoring the design on the bottom of the card, I concentrated on the layout of the information. The font is clear to read but maybe have the writing a bit bigger.

http://motor-kid.com/photography-business-cards-background.html

The back of this business card is designed with the information laid out simply with a very clear font.




Sport Photography Business Cards

In the image below to me this business card seems very clustered and there is to much going on. The logo down the bottom on the left hand side seems very hidden and should be shown boldly to promote the photographers company. The spacing in-between 'Sports Shots' and 'Individual - Team - Action Shots' should be more spaced out as it looks like the photographer or designer ran out of room to put the information in. The whole thing looks very rushed and seemed to have no thought put into it when designing it.

http://www.vonarxphotography.com/galleries-2/sports-shots/

In the image below I did not want to go with a sporting template as I think it looks very fake and cliche. I'm also not photographing just one sporting event but many sporting games so showing one object of a sport will represent me photographing just one sporting event. The template also looks very cheap and does not stand out when handing them over to a client. 

http://blog.uprinting.com/10-free-recreational-sports-business-card-design-templates/

Front

Dark Purple


I have decided to go with a simple design, like the first business card displayed at the top of the page. I have put the logo at the top of the writing and have used a reasonable font that can be clearly read. I have also gone with a dark purple colour for the background. I have chosen this colour as it does not clash with the colours on my logo. As my logo includes a variety of colours it was quite hard trying to find a matching background colour for the business card.

I also tried red as my background colour. These two colours were the only ones that did not clash with my logo and that were a reasonable colour to use for a business card.

Red

Logo is bigger


I enlarged the logo to see if it is better than the first design. I'd preferably like the logo smaller as it makes the card look elegant and smart.

Back

Here is one design for the back of my business card. I have gone for the simple design of laying out the information going down the middle of the card. It's simple but quite boring to look at.

Here I have included my home address. I have also moved the first block of information to the top left of the card and aligned my home address at the bottom right hand side of the card. This makes the layout less boring but still looks like it needs more to it.

I removed my home address and replaced it with my logo. I have also moved the other block of information around the left side of the logo. With the logo included on the back of the card, it gives it more of a boost.

I have now included a QR code replacing the logo. I'm not sure about this design as it makes it look like just a square white box has just been placed on the back.


Final

Front


Changes: I have removed the writing below my logo and have just kept the top bit, I added "Photography" to the end of my name to make it longer which makes it look better with the logo on top, I have removed "Bristol Photographer" and changed it to "Sports Photographer" as my main area of photography is sport.

Back


Changes: I have made Email, Facebook, Twitter and Mobile bold so it does not look flat next to the information, I have changed the font style to Georgia.

Payment - Vista Print

I researched companies to get my business card printed but at Moo and Hello Blue you cannot design your own business card. You have to stick with their pre-designed templates and just add your logo or photo and information into the template. With VistaPrint you have more control over the design of your business card. The only problem with VistaPrint is that the lowest quantity you can buy is 100 and I only want 50, with the other two companies you can order just 50.




In a peer group review I showed the group my business card and at first they were not to keen on the colour but suggestions started to pass round to the colour pink as resembling a female/women in the sporting industry as male photographers are more dominant in sport photography. Also another class mate suggested that the colour pink will stand out from a person's wallet or purse in between cards. I did not want to go with white or black background as it would not stand out so I am happy that I have got the impression that my card will stand out with the colour pink.

Publicising

Twitter - https://twitter.com/download?logged_out=1&lang=en-gb

First I made a Twitter account. I changed the profile image from a picture of me to my new logo and also changed the background image to one of my favourite images. At the bottom left hand corner of the image I have shown that I have updated my information and have included a link to my website. I would have also included other links to my Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr pages but Twitter limits you to one link only.




Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/

I then created a Facebook page. I have had this page for a while but have now updated the information and included my website, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr links. I have also uploaded a few of my recent images as before I was not keeping up to date with the page. I have also changed the profile picture from my old logo to my new logo and have changed the background image from a collage of my work to my favourite photo that I have taken.


Instagram - https://instagram.com/

Next I set up an account on Instagram. I am new to Instagram so I am still getting to grips with where everything is and how it works. The image above shows the first image I have posted. I have included information about me and have included links to Tumblr and Twitter, so when I post a picture onto Instagram it will also show up in my Tumblr feed and Twitter feed. I also wanted to join my Facebook page link to Instagram as well but because its a page and not an account I can not link it. I have also changed my profile picture from a picture of me to replacing it with my logo. With all the changes I have made it now looks like an official account for Laura Usher Photography.


Tumblr - https://www.tumblr.com/

I set up a Tumblr account a while ago and never actually used it so like Instagram I am still getting to grips with where everything is and how things work. I have posted a few images to get the page started and also changed the profile account from a picture of me to my new logo but it will not swap.

Website Template Research

Front Page Layout

http://capturingyourmarket.com/templates/photography-website-templates/

I have researched these three templates as I like the style of the bar going down the left side of the page. I like how the bar is see-through as this allows you to see the full background image with little distraction

http://flashpalette.com/website/

With this template I like the simple menu layout at the top of the picture. I would not have the images in the middle of the screen but have it clear and only show one of my images as the background image.

Gallery Page Layout

http://sixthlife.net/blogs/90-fashion-photography-website-templates/


With this template I like the layout of the images in the four bars. It is a quick way to show a couple of images from each album/gallery. Also the design is quite plain and simple which is what I like.

http://creativemotiondesign.com/blog/new-website-features-and-releases/website-templates-for-photographers-cmd/

With this template I like the bar at the bottom showing images in the album/gallery. It is quite a popular style to go for as when I have been looking around that style of website is used quite a lot. 

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2013/06/wordpress-photography-website-templates.html

With this template I like the mixture of the images in the grid style. It shows a sneak peak of the images that are contained in that album.

Below I have researched a couple of themes off of the popular theme website, Theme Forest. The themes below are the style of themes I will be looking for when choosing them on Wordpress or Wix.



Theme Forest


http://themeforest.net/item/vor-clean-photography-template/9982099?WT.oss_phrase=&WT.oss_rank=45&WT.z_author=NRGthemes&WT.ac=search_list


http://themeforest.net/item/kubb-photography-magazine-html5-template/8132343?WT.oss_phrase=&WT.oss_rank=8&WT.z_author=elemis&WT.ac=search_list


http://themeforest.net/item/smartscreen-fullscreen-responsive-html-template/6954152?WT.oss_phrase=&WT.oss_rank=29&WT.z_author=HighThemes&WT.ac=search_list


http://themeforest.net/item/modelish-html5-site-template/3714190?WT.oss_phrase=Site%20templates&WT.oss_rank=10&WT.z_author=liviu_cerchez&WT.ac=search_list


http://themeforest.net/item/big-gallery-fullscreen-photography-portfolio/2793531?WT.oss_phrase=&WT.oss_rank=71&WT.z_author=johnnychaos&WT.ac=search_list


http://themeforest.net/item/pacifico-fullscreen-template-with-motion-slider/570525?WT.oss_phrase=&WT.oss_rank=27&WT.z_author=cmsmasters&WT.ac=search_list


http://themeforest.net/item/king-size-fullscreen-background-template-/148767?WT.oss_phrase=&WT.oss_rank=22&WT.z_author=Denoizzed&WT.ac=search_list

Sport Photographers Websites

Stuart Roy Clarke - http://homesoffootball.co.uk/

Steve Bonini - http://www.stevebonini.com/

Mark Pain - http://www.markpain.com/

Michael Clark - http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/

In the above images I have chosen 4 sport photographers and have looked at there websites. What I have noticed is that they are very similar in style. They all have just a menu bar and then either having one image shown as their background or a few sliding across in the background. I have based my website style on these 4 websites as I think they are very simple but professional looking websites.

Presentation

Tutorials

Tutorial 1:

In my tutorial we have discussed that I should use a site that has easy and simple templates to start with. I started my website by using Wordpress but then it got a little bit complicated so I moved on to using Wix.

Tutorial 2:

In my second tutorial we discussed about making a book with all my Macro images. So that week I got all my Macro images together and chose all my best ones and laid them out in to a book using Blurb software. After receiving my Macro book and had a good look at it and I thought I'd make two more for my Bristol City U-21's photos and my Bristol Flyers photos as Blurb did a really good job with my Macro book.

Tutorial 3:

To get rid of the banner at the bottom of the website I had to upgrade my website, so I chose a plan to pay £5.19 for a year.

I have got rid of the image names that appear in the top left hand corner so now nothing comes up when the mouse is hovered over the image.

On the contacts page I have got rid of my mobile number, email address and house address as one of my class mates also suggested removing them from the page in peer group review.

Tutorial 4:

I have changed my pages to having a Sport page, Macro page and adding a Project page to add all my projects that I have done over the past two years. By doing this I think it works out better and looks more professional and neater. 

Wordpress - Starting The Website

Domain Name

https://www.namecheap.com/

I have used NameCheap to search and register my domain name.

I began searching for a domain name called laurausherphotography.

There were a few domain names that I could choose, I selected the ".com" as this is the standard business domain name extension. laurausherphotography.com.

I then registered the domain and input my details as the new owner.

Web Hosting

https://shockhosting.net/

After searching for web hosting providers I chose Shock Hosting to host my website.

From the different packages available I selected the Low Shock package. This would give me enough hosting space for all my photos.

After receiving the welcome email from Shock Hosting, I then had to change my nameserver addresses at Namecheap. Once I have saved the information the domain name and web hosting are now connected. 

After changing the nameservers, I had to wait for the domain name to activate. This could take 5 minutes or 24 hours.

After the domain name has been activated my page looked like this ...

Nothing on it.

I then go to the website control panel as shown below ...

and enter my username and password.

This is the main control panel for the website where I can create email addresses and install website templates and programs such as Wordpress.

I then chose to install Wordpress.

Before it can install I have to sort out my username and password (as shown below) for my wordpress log in. The wordpress log in leads me to where I can get to design my website, for example, add photos, colour of the website etc.

After the login process is done, the installation of wordpress is done and now shows the links to the worpress log in and the link to my website.

After the default Wordpress installation, this is how the website looks.

To change the writing and the layout, here is the dashboard where I can take control over my website.