My Graphic/Web Design History » By Employer/Client

Chase Hibbard (2000)

John — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:23:05 +0000

A mutual friend hired me to do a site for Chase’ 2000 campaign for Montana State Senate. I worked with Chase and his staff to assemble content for the site. The real treat was having access to professional photography by John Reddy. His work is amazing. In retrospect I wish I had done more with that source material. Unfortunately Chase didn’t win. And as with Anita’s site, I wasn’t able to acquire any stats regarding the traffic.

When I locate the original files I will update the screenshot with a better quality version.

Anita Varone (2000)

John — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:39:39 +0000

A mutual friend hired me to do a simple one-page site for Anita’s 2000 campaign for Lewis and Clark County Commissioner. I used her brochure as a jumping off point. I was paid one non-running 1987 Mazda 4×4 pickup. Unfortunately I didn’t save any stats for the site so I don’t know what her traffic level was. Also, when I find my original files I will update this screenshot with the full page site.

DanEllison.com (2010)

John — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:27:12 +0000

Following Dan’s success in his run for City Commission, I suggested we repurpose the campaign site and continue to use it for a conduit for communicating with the citizens of Helena. The campaign site received over 36.6k unique page views between July and December ‘09. I “realigned” the design from the campaign site using the same customized theme, updated the logo, and implemented it on the new domain.

As with the campaign site I continue to manage all aspects of this site, including content creation.

Ellison For City Commission (2009)

John — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:20:18 +0000

When a good friend of 10 years informed me he was running for Helena City Commission, naturally I jumped at the chance to help him out. This was a quick effort and I was able to implement this site very quickly and inexpensively.

I started by designing his logo (also used on business cards, brochures and other collateral items), incorporating it into a modified stock free theme called “Fusion” that Dan and his wife Jane picked out. I formatted the content and integrated the blog with his Twitter and Facebook accounts, coaching Dan on how and when to update each. When he created a commercial for local TV, I hosted it with Vimeo and pulled that into the site as well. I’m also performed various other administrative tasks like managing the domain(s) (9 of them, all variations), email accounts (through Google Accounts), keeping Wordpress, the theme and plug-ins updated, and everything else behind the scenes having to do with the hosting (with Dreamhost.com). Nothing I did on the site required custom programming. I wanted to insure that it remained easy to update with WordPress’ automatic updating functionality for itself, the themes and the plug-ins.

The future of the site, now that he won one of the two available seats in the election, is to convert the site from WordPress to static HTML pages and keep it online as an archive of the campaign, at least while Dan serves out his term. I’ve molded this campaign web site into a new form, with new content and a new logo, at DanEllison.com.

HKM Engineering (2007)

John — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:07:43 +0000

Though the client has offices in several states I worked primarily with the staff of the Helena HKM office to analyze the needs of the company, strategize appropriate solutions, then design and develop the site. The primary audience demographic included not only potential clients and the general public, but potential new hires. A great deal of effort was put into the content to help attract new college graduates.

HKM staff assumed the maintenance duties for the site upon launch. The site was originally constructed with semantic, standards-compliant markup, with full separation of the content and presentation code. Server-side includes, in this case using ASP, further modularized the site by reusing common page elements such as the header, navigation and footer. The homepage also features an animated slideshow using Flash, implemented with Monoslideshow. This slideshow is used to showcase featured projects.

Note: In this screenshot I have restored the original HKM Logo used when I delivered with the site. Since then the company was purchased and the logo was changed.

Note 2 (3/21/2010): The entire site has been replaced by a new design.

Women’s Leadership Network (2006)

John — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:57:11 +0000

The client trusted my vision on the design of this site and cut me loose to explore many options. I’m gratified that they picked my favorite out of the bunch. The target demographic for the organization is professional women in the Helena area in the 20-50 age range. The theme uses an analogous color scheme with blues and greens, giving it a harmonious, professional look. This site is a combination of WordPress blogs (2) and static HTML pages. Two blogs were used to maintain a separation for the web site admins and the members, who are allowed to post their own announcements (this separation can now be accomplished with various plug-ins on a single WordPress installation).

WordPress was used for the Announcements page and the Event Information page. The rest is static HTML using the same design as the WordPress theme. Each member was given an account in the Announcements blog and that data was used to create the Member Directory and customize the Contact Information page. Small scripting enhancements were used to tie the site together, for example, PHP is used to grab the three newest entries in the Event Information blog and post them on the homepage. Finally, the Membership Application page was tied into Paypal allowing members to pay their dues via credit card, without creating a maintenance or administration nightmare for the client.

New Zealand Journey (2006)

John — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:51:19 +0000

The focus of the New Zealand Journey project was to create a fresh new web site for their bi-annual tour for weaving enthusiasts. The target demographic was primarily women in the 40-70 age range. The implementation focused almost solely on ease of use. The design was created with images provided and approved by the New Zealand tourism site as well as the client’s personal collection. A highly customized e-mail form used to allow online registration, with a downloadable PDF version optional. There were also links to Paypal that allowed the participants to pay the trip deposit via credit card, with the balance due sent via a personalized invoice.

Sadly, they no longer hold these tours, but the site remains up with a final message.

Helena Association of Realtors® (2008)

John — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Quick logo for the a local Realtor’s® association. Used on stationery and their web site (that I didn’t do).

Asian Arts Festival (2006)

John — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:05:29 +0000

One thing that drives me crazy is stereotypical design (I’m sure I haven’t avoided it completely). There are many martial arts and Asian design themes that have been done to death: the yin-yang symbol, the Japanese flag, Chinese dragons, etc. I pride myself on finding a fresh take on an old concept. Clean. Simple. “Less is more.” This logo and flier I designed for the event, epitomize this concept.

This was a project for a friend.

Jeff’s Cycle Service

John — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:52:28 +0000

My friend Jeff only services Harley Davidsons but I don’t hold that against him. He’s actually a wealth of general motorcycle knowledge and not only did he help me install new valves in my Triumph’s cylinder head, I’ve purchased several sets of tires from him.

Jeff actually gets quite a bit of out-of-state business, helping travelers with breakdowns or new tires. I was happy to whip up a one-page, business card/brochure style web site for his shop. The logo at the top of the page is actually a scan of one of his t-shirts that I cleaned up in Photoshop, since the original artwork no longer exists.

If I recall correctly we launched it in 2007.