When I first acquired this domain name, I had grand visions of a website that truly expressed all the complexities that makes me, me. Needless to say, I soon felt overwhelmed by the infinite possibilities and the creation of my masterpiece website was pushed aside to accommodate more pressing matters such as finishing school and finding a job…
To make long story short, I have been working for Hannon Hill, a web content management software company, for about 2 and a half years now and the itch to create my own little web space has returned (I would guess that ogling at professionally designed websites day in and day out probably has something to do with it).
My first order of business: choosing a Content Management System (CMS) that provided nice, easy-to-use features with a friendly price tag. Although I’m a huge fan of Cascade Server, the software we sell and manage, it is more targeted towards larger organizations with larger websites and larger budgets…Anyway, if you have ever done your free CMS research, or if you already have a site powered by WordPress, you’ll already know all the reasons why I’ve chosen to go with WP.
Second order of business: site design. This is my current roadblock because I am somewhat artistically-challenged and am surely no CSS guru. Luckily for me, there are plenty of free premade WP templates/themes I can pick from and use until I have the time and knowledge to put together my own.
Here is a short list of some impressive designers that I’ve come across who also dabble with WP.
Nick La is a graphic/web designer based in Toronto whose main focus is to design beautiful and usable CSS websites. He is the creator behind iTheme, a WordPress theme for Mac lovers that allows site visitors to rearrange the sidebar using drag & drop. N.Design Studio
Mani Sheriar is “a self-proclaimed CSS-obsessed freak” who “shares her passions, thoughts, and insights into web design and development using web standards.” Sheriar Designs
John Politowski conceived rpm design factory almost ten years ago. Today, it has evolved into a creative space for web development and 3d graphics.
Elena Gafita is the designer at Design Disease.
Tung Do started WPDesigner.com in May 2006 to improve the quality of free WordPress themes at that time. It is now an informative blog focused on developing WordPress themes and improving your blog’s performance through code and design tweaks.
Liza Kliko, owner and designer behind Lorelei Web Design. Be sure you check out her collection of free themes at TopTut.com.
