Portfolio

Description

Web Design, Logo Design, Training, WordPress development for a local Shingon Esoteric Buddhism Temple.

The temple’s old website was so old that the platform used to build it was only supported by one senior member’s 20-year-old Mac with the program “iWeb.” Additionally, the website was a maze- droves of information spread out over dozens of pages, leaving even experienced internet users baffled by the navigation.

When creating this website, I needed to use the traditional colors and symbols, much like the hula halau. I worked with the board to determine which palette would go perfectly with the “Koyasan purple” to be featured. The font pairing was created to communicate a respectable, established, feel that is both classic and modern. The symbology of the lotus flower, bud, and seedpod are representative of the circle of life, so it was incorporated in every possible way. 

The graceful composition of both modern elements like the icon graphics and ancient paintings and symbols was done intentionally to draw the attention of potential new members and to aesthetically please existing members. 

The site includes an animated, interactive timeline, uploaded zoom services as well. 

The staff and board of the temple were all given two workshops via zoom to familiarize themselves with the interface so they can make their own edits and updates to the site. 

Description

Web Design, WordPress Development, Training, and 3rd-party CRM integration for a nonprofit focused on making public transit in San Francisco as efficient and user-friendly as possible. 

The previous website wasn’t bad at all! However, it was built on an outdated platform and they needed something a little prettier, mobile responsive, and easy for anyone to make edits and updates. 

The most difficult part of this build was incorporating “SalsaLab” technology seamlessly. Since there was no built-in WordPress integration (like most CRMs do), I created a homogenous look by putting together some inline CSS so they could apply it to the “custom styles” whenever they generated a module on SalsaLab, whether it be for an email sign up, a donation button, or any other embedded item. 

Built into the site are a blog and event calendar, which both feed into the home page. Aside from donating, signing up for emails to receive updates on those blogs and events was the main call-to-action here. As of the time a screenshot was taken, no upcoming events were shown however. 

The part of this design that tickled everyone is the use of the honeycomb tile found in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) stations. While it may look just like an abstract, albeit interesting, background to people who aren’t from “the city,” for those that are familiar with BART it is a cheeky nod to the walls we spend so much time staring at while waiting for the train to arrive. 

Several hours of training were provided at the end of this build, which also included a domain transfer, complete hosting setup, and massive amounts of troubleshooting due to a disagreement between the hosting companies.