Create Sean: Journey to Professional Designer

Yesterday I completed the publishing guide for my first client. it’s 10 pages long with screenshots and took much longer than I expected it would to write. The client now has access to their site to change and update content. It feels good to have successfully completed my first site and recieve the final payment.

The actual “design” of the site is a commercial theme that the client wanted. I took it and converted it to Expression Engine.

The site is a language school for children in Korea - ILE 외국어 학원. The client wanted a site to provide information for current and potential customers (parents) as well as showcase childrens progress. Student work is showcased via embedded video and mp3s.

A forum has been installed but not styled yet. That’s the second stage of development after the live launch of the site. Right now the forums are set up and can be used by students, parents, & staff. I’ll be working on fitting the forums to the rest of the site look shortly. This is not something I’m looking forward to as I remember styling forums for my teaching blog ages ago and it was a major pain in the butt.

I’m also very pleased to have recieved an email from my client suggesting that he would like to add further enhancements and features to his site in early 2009. Repeat work is always a good thing.

What’s Next

I’ve got to prepare mid-term exams for my students, but I’ve also got another client, also going to use ExpressionEngine. that I will be starting on while at the same time working on the forums for ILE.

With my new client, I’ve got the photoshop work pretty much done. The client is satisfied with it, but I may send it to my graphic design contact to improve it, since my photoshop Kung Fu is fairly weak.

I’ve added ILE to my portfolio, but it’s not done yet. I had a few minutes yesterday and quickly wrote something. later today, after grading some homework, I finish up the protfolio entry and get started coding the new client site.