The Making of Sarah by the Sea: Putting it all Together
Over the past months, I have shared what inspired me to create Sarah by the Sea as well as why I was driven to do this and also how the seashell logo came to be. But having all these things come into place wasn’t the final step. I still had to develop content for the site — and more importantly, finish the design. The logo isn’t the end of the design process, you see.
After testing out a crazy number of themes, I decided to use the PressWork framework. With a front-end drag and drop editor, plenty of room for customization and lots of options and features, this site allowed me to create a unique site with limited HTML knowledge (I do know HTML — but not enough to completely design my own site). And since it’s free, it allowed me to try out creating my own site without purchasing a framework first. Thesis and Genesis are also well-respected frameworks I considered, but since this was my first time designing a site on my own I wanted to be sure it was something I could do well before I invested in a paid one. And you know what? I really love the PressWork framework. It’s full of possibility.
As for colors, I drew from the logo colors. For instance, the blue used in links throughout the site is in the same family as the color of the shell in the logo. Also, the header background is a Photoshop background called Canvas, that I drew colors from for other areas of the design as well.
Overall, the effect I am going for is serene and restful. I definitely get that from the design. But do you?
Category: Sarah by the Sea, The Making of Sarah by the Sea
