Website Design & Development
Below is a selection of websites that I’ve worked on in the recent past. In all cases I was responsible for both the design and development (layout, graphics, and coding). I put a lot of thought into all of the websites I create to ensure that they’re as accessible, usable, and beautiful as possible.
918 Bathurst: Culture, Arts,
Media & Education Centre
In December 2009 and January 2010 I designed and coded a new website for 918 Bathurst, built on Wordpress as a CMS. The vibrant look of the site captures the high-energy mood at the centre.
laforet.ca
In the summer of 2009 I redesigned laforet.ca, the online home of community activist and citizen journalist John Laforet. The project, which started as a simple redesign of the existing Wordpress blog, developed into a major reworking of the website. I implemented a search feature, made RSS and email subscription options more prominent, made the top and side navigation more user-friendly, and reorganized the static pages. I also took all of the pictures that appear in the section headers on the website.
STAND Canada
Starting in the Spring of 2009, as Web Manager of STAND Canada I was responsible for directing a full site overhaul, as well as designing, developing, and managing the site’s operations. I rebuilt the new site using Wordpress as its content management system, integrating the blog (previously on blogspot) and the website. With usability in mind, I completely reorganized the static pages so visitors wouldn’t get lost in layers of pages while trying to find information. The new site is dynamic, easy to navigate, searchable, integrated with STAND’s social media (e.g. Twitter in the sidebar) and easy for staff to update.
Lonsdale Gallery
Website for a contemporary art gallery in Toronto. The objective for this redesign was to create a website that was clean, minimalist, well branded, easy to navigate, and easy to maintain. The result is a very customized Wordpress website, which has the advantage of being dynamic (constantly changing) and easy to update. In addition to the usual HTML and CSS, the site uses Javascript to power the image rotation seen on the front page, Flash to power individual artists’ photo galleries, and a lot of PHP in the background to pull everything together.
The Love Show 2009
Website for The Love Show, a charitable miniature art exhibition in its seventh year that was held from November 20-22, 2009. The design of the website matches the marketing materials for the show (e.g. postcards, posters), which I was also responsible for developing. The site first served as a call for submissions, and later as an informational page about the show.
Henderson Avenue Public School
I am currently creating a new website for Henderson Avenue Public School, an elementary school in Thornhill, Ontario. My aim is to make the site clean and easy to use. I integrated a Google Calendar for school events, which is very easy for staff to update.
openedeyes.net
openedeyes.net was my old portfolio website before I moved to my current site at daraskolnick.com. The site was created in Spring 2006 to showcase my photography, art, and design. It also served as a good place to experiment with certain functionality that wasn’t needed for other projects, like having two different colour schemes (one colour, one black and white) that could be selected by the user.