Archive for July, 2008

NBT Wear was a custom order embroidery and design wear site, built with a complete shopping cart system.  Paypal was used for the third-party credit card processing system.

The unique thing about this site was that each customer company could set up their section of the site with the products they wanted to offer and the site owner allowed shoppers to choose from those products, customizing with various sizes and colors. It was a rather complex shopping cart.

The site utilized custom graphics from Mitcher T Custom Painting & Design, who was one of the customer companies represented on the site. Other companies included the Hastings School District and Thornapple Valley Church.

This site was developed by modifying an existing template layout, using a table-style layout.

Lone Feather’s owner, Evelyn, is a Native American crafter who makes Dreamcatchers and Medicine Wheels, which are legendary to the Senaca tribe that she belongs to.

This site incorporates a printable order form and a simple catalog, as the client did not want to have an online shopping cart.

Lone Feather is an original Dramatic Design creation.

Kids First Learning Place was my very first paying design job after opening Dramatic Design. KFLP is a Daycare Center and Preschool right here in the small town of Middleville.

When I started this site, Kelly was operating out of her home, but had plans to open a large center once it was built. The website was a nice way for her to display pictures of the ongoing building process. This site incorporated monthly menu calendars, as well as the planned activity calendar.

The site was very profitable for Kelly. At one point, she told me that a family with four kids enrolled and their tuition alone would pay for her website for three years!

The screenshot above is actually a redesign for Kids First. It’s good to freshen things up from time to time.

Sharon Walker Ministries is a former client’s site. Sharon requested that I modify this template that she purchased online. It featured a flash header graphic that played a brief sound upon the opening of each page.

Sharon had me build several photo galleries into this site. I also integrated a calendar and a blog so that they worked seamlessly and appeared to be a part of the site, instead of third-party applications. We had a Verse-of-the-Day wiget next to her blog and sample chapters of her book that were downloadable.

Testimonial:

“Dramatic Design is an answer to my prayer. I wanted someone who understood “dramatic” in its highest form. Kim understood that in dealing with my personal level of dramatic excellence. She allows you to have a voice, and your own hint of creativity. Kim is patient, understanding, well equipped to handle difficult questions, and quite capable of creating a style just for the customer. I have enjoyed working with her, and look forward to other great dramatic designs she will create for us in the future! Excellent Job Kim, Thanks for everything.”

All The Good Stuff is a former client from the nearby Gun Lake area. Unfortunately, the store had to close, which brought the end of the website along with it.

I particularly liked the vibrant coloring of this site. It was very rich looking–much like the amazing fudge that was sold in the store! The full shopping cart enabled visitors to choose their product selections and checkout using a credit card through the third-party credit card processing site,
Paypal. Paypal has always been a safe and inexpensive option for small businesses and I recommend it highly.

Sharon comments, “Wow! Thanks Kim. I went to a site called [removed] because I thought they had the ultimate basket site – not anymore! You are doing a great job for me. I really love the corporate image and all that purple and gold is really impressive.”

Sharon, the owner, also maintained a blog on this site. Since her in-store customers were fairly seasonal, she was able to keep them updated during the winter months about the new products in her store, as well as continuing to sell them fudge and other goodies through her online store.

We also utilized a sub-contracted photographer (Kris Foote) to shoot pictures of Sharon’s wonderful products. The results of this collaboration turned out nicely.

Testimonial:

I would like to highly recommend Kim Smith with Dramatic Design for the construction of your wonderful web site. Kim took me under her wing after a long year of trying to get my web site up and running. Everything that could go wrong went wrong with the original web designer I used. I had Kim’s business card in my file and decided to give her a call. We met. She understood exactly what I was looking for. When I told her I wanted a corporate appeal to the website, that is exactly what I got. Kim never gets frustrated with my indecision (that I know of anyway). I probably drive her crazy but she is understanding and compassionate and as long as I pay for these changes at her very reasonable rate, we get along fine. She knows how to take your ideas and put them in a simple format that makes the site very easy to use. Please feel confident in using Kim’s services. She is highly skilled and I have appreciated her helping me through this process.

Thanks Kim, Sharon for All the Good Stuff.