Winneshiek Medical Center approached Azurite Design early February 2008 to see about redoing their website. I gladly agreed. Their previous website was done about 3 years ago and it looked about 7 years old. This new modern approach has greatly simplified the hospital’s staff workload who now actively maintain the website. The website is maintained by a classic Azurite Design web administration control enterface complete with the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor fully upgraded containing the MCImageManager and MCFileManager upgrades.

There are many new web technologies that rolled out with this website to help take it over the top. They are: jQuery (Accordion) for the careers page, AJAX for homepage and news article comment forms, MooTools SmoothGallery for the 4 alternating homepage slideshows, OpenCube’s Menu System fully customized and dynamic, and again, the TinyMCE Editor fully upgraded to allow office staff to maintain the website they way they want it to look like.

Website Add-on’s used: Health Services (new), Events, e-Nusrsery (new), Careers (new), News, Comments (new), Health Providers (new). There are other supporting features that help control content on the website which were custom built by client request.

Congratulations WMC on your new website! May it bring you a new found success.

Robbie Smith, Designer, Database Integration, Developer, Graphics Designer

Web site: www.winmedical.com
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

This WordPress theme was custom built for the National Access Network, who provides meaningful educational opportunities for all children, especially those low-income and minority children currently being denied this opportunity.Enjoy! (Here’s the WP Theme DEMO from this design) Download: nan.rar (115 kb) | nan.zip (117 kb) This design is XHTML 1.0 Transitional and W3C CSS compliant.

This was a web site quote that was designed in the form of the website we wanted to build for Singer Cari Hutson to launch her career. The photos above are not of Cari Hutson.

Rob Smith, Graphic Designer

Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

Discount Hydroponics is the biggest project yet for Azurite Design. Imagining the seemingly insurmountable task of transforming a catalog into an online web presence stocked full with surprises and challenges at ever turn was a little daunting. Bring it on.

Working closely with the client and making sure that the administration area manages the site properly is what made this site a shining success.

Web site: http://www.discount-hydro.com/
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

The CSS Zen Garden invites you to relax and meditate on the important lessons of the masters. Begin to see with clarity. Learn to use the (yet to be) time-honored techniques in new and invigorating fashion. Become one with the web.

There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list. Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into this very page. The code remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external .css file. Yes, really.

CSS allows complete and total control over the style of a hypertext document. The only way this can be illustrated in a way that gets people excited is by demonstrating what it can truly be, once the reins are placed in the hands of those able to create beauty from structure. To date, most examples of neat tricks and hacks have been demonstrated by structurists and coders. Designers have yet to make their mark. This needs to change.

The site captures the true power of CSS design without the use of tables to get in the way. I chose the theme “Eyes Wide Open” because, well, it hasn’t been done yet. I try to seek this philosophy with every site I do. It also has that Wow factor at the beginning with the huge alien eyes. The eyes that follow each section of the page don’t really have any correlation to the text underneath, they were just paired appropriately. This has truly been a fun and educational experience that everyone who’s an aspiring web artist should undertake.

Rob Smith, Designer/Typographer, Graphics Designer, Database Integration/E-mail Distribution, Developer, Advertising, Design

Web site: www.csszengarden.com
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

Fostergraphs is a spinoff of Kent Foster Photographs in that Kent can take his list of professional colleagues and offer them a unique service to sell their artwork online. The website allows members to sign up and create their own online photo albums, upload their photographs, and album pricing.

This website also offers added value to the end clients. If they already have their own website and just need a shopping cart, then they can provide their own HTML code for a static version of their website to wrap around the Fostergraphs shopping experience. Ashley Dull was the first one to do this. The website looks exactly the same as the clients, but the URL is different. Most people wouldn’t catch this.

Rob Smith, Designer/Typographer, Database Integration/E-mail Distribution, Developer, Advertising, Design, Writer, Graphics Designer, Content Developer, promoter, and advertiser

Web site: www.fostergraphs.com
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

FreelanceCollege.com targets new web developers and arms them with all kinds of tools from lessons, marketing plans, tutorials, a message board to discuss current ideas and trends, legal forms, and leading articles from the industry, which is maintained/updated weekly.

When Mr. Olson purchased this site from another developer, it had a security system, which was tied to a Pay Pal account. He wanted to remove this feature and make the site free. He came to me to overhaul the security system. I proposed, built and upgraded the system to a session based/cookie driven security system that is working nicely.

This site has a lot of potential for growth and expansion. One of the site upgrades that are in the works is the actual College aspect of this site. At the time of this article, we’re currently planning out syllubi for various courses in web development, graphics, etc. Meanwhile, we’re adding new features like an eCommerce dictionary, and other valuable resources for this member only site.

As an added bonus to this members only site, Mr. Olson wanted the registration system to be automonous or self-registering. Members supply some very simple contact information (Name, Email, Username, Password, etc.) and the registration system will email them with the confirmation. Once you’ve confirmed your registration, you in.

This site is PHP based.

Rob Smith, Database Integration/E-mail Distribution, Developer
Brian Olson, Owner, Lead Creative Administrator

Web site: www.freelancecollege.com
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

American Karate is a culmination of Kick Boxing, Judo, Jujitsu, Shaolin Do Temple Boxing, and Karate. Hill Country Karate (HCK) serves as the Central Texas depot for learning this style. HCK has over 40 schools that meet regularly every week as far north as Kyle, as south as San Antonio, as west as Blanco, and as east as Seguin.

The keys to its success are a solid American visual design, smart and clean, clear navigation. Site graphics are consistent with the American Sprit and are lively, colorful. Headlines and section heads are also adorned with this stylistic approach.

The global nav is clear and distinct with all content categorized under the Adult Belt Ranking System (White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown and Black Belt).. A secondary navigation strip at the bottom allows instructors/assistants/staff members to download documentation and information to help with their teachings. The Staff Members have a simple and easy to use Content Management System to help with managing the site. They can control Events, Classes, Instructor Information, Online Store, and Newsletters. Individuals can sign up on the home page to receive the newsletters. Graphic components at the foot of each page repackage content in the form of image and text links. It’s not only a great way to get visitors to see everything, but the design keeps the site visually fresh and makes updating content and promotions a simple task.

The site captures the company philosophy with content that’s descriptive, fact-filled and written in a friendly, engaging style that entertains both connoisseurs and amateur Karate enthusiasts. Key features include up to date class and camp information, merchandise, and a sign-up section for the company’s newsletter—to notify recipients of events, updates, and special promotions.

The Photos and Links section will contain invaluable information resources for like-minded Karate students to exchange ideas and share information.
Rob Smith, Designer/Typographer,
Database Integration/E-mail Distribution,
Developer, Advertising, Design
Codie Smith, Graphics Designer
Tara Seymour, Content Developer
Angel Smith, Writer
Rob Smith, Azurite Design, Client

Web site: www.hckarate.com
Web stie: www.cdaustin.com
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

Kent Foster Photographs was recently redesigned, through the help of Michealle Boetger Designs, to have a modern, yet artistic aesthetic facade. The home page features a smooth slide show you must see, on all browsers and platforms, to respect its full power. It’s the first of its kind to be able to transition images cleanly without flash, that is also W3C compliant.

The site also offers a unique experience for Kent Foster Photograph clients. After the photo shoot, all the images will be uploaded into a back-end web based GUI (graphical user interface), and passcode protected for the clients use only. All they need is a valid email and the portfolio passcode to enter. Once they enter the portfolio, the web site will keep track of their visits, last visit, order history, and keep the entire customer database in tact for future emailing/newsletter purposes. The shopping cart was custom built to fit this need. Once the shopping cart is finished, shipping charges calculated, and cart confirmed, by request of Kent Foster Photographs, the user is taken to PayPal, a merchant gateway, to complete the transaction.

Once finished, the user is returned to Kent Foster Photographs to receive their order confirmation. The shopping cart is saved on the admin control panel at which Kent Foster Photographs will be notified that an order is ready to fill. Once the order is filled, Kent Foster Photographs, may update the order information with UPS, USPS, DHL, or FedEx tracking information. The customer is then automatically notified of the shipment with tracking information.

Kent Foster Photographs also deals in video production, among other things, as a new service. The image above was a still from the documentary. Click the image and watch the movie, “Habitat for Humanity.”

The technical challenge here was to get the original source Mini DV raw footage to a web friendly easy to watch, cross-browser, and fast loading movie. More movies will be added over time.

Images: © Kent Foster Photographs
Site Design: Michealle Boetger Designs

Michealle Boetger, Designer/Typographer, Advertising, Design, Graphics Designer
Rob Smith, Database Integration/E-mail Distribution, Developer
Kent Foster, Content Developer

Web site: www.kentfoster.us
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com

Livingwithsparkle.com is owned by Sr. Director Selena Lubben of Sarasota, FL. Now that Selena is rising the ranks at BeautiControl, a subsidiary of Tupperware, she needed the ability to communicate with her growing team on a regular basis. This project came with a small catch. It had to be fun, flashy, and visually enticing.

This Flash/MySQL/PHP website was completed in a week from start to finish. Each “page” of the website is controlled via a back-end website administration control panel. Selena just updates the information, and the Flash website responds by displaying the dynamic data. Some pieces of the website such as Spa Girl Unit News is complimented with a special Flash friendly WYSIWYG custom built editor. Selena can go crazy with her fonts, colors, and pictures and the Flash will simply display the correct information styled exactly to how Selena wants.

For the Spa Girl Photos area, there’s another special section of the administration to control these photo albums. Selena can pick what image she wants to display as the album cover. Users can click the image and go to a LAMP version of the photo album.

Selena has a ton of BeautiControl Consultants under her command. It’s a bit cumbersome at times to keep everyone informed with the latest Spa forms, guides, and tips to get the most out of their time. The administration control panel also allows Selena to create virtual folders, some with password protection, and upload documents for her consultants.

Spa Resources simply contains a list of companies that assist with BeautiControl Consultants.

Finally, under Comments/Requests anyone can submit a prayer request and/or success story to share with Selena and her team. The FLASH website sends a request off to a send mail program with the form data and Selena get’s notified of the communication.

In the end, everyone who’s seen the website is pleased with the result.

Rob Smith, Designer/Typographer, Graphics Designer, Database Integration/E-mail Distribution, Developer, Advertising, Design

Web site: www.livingwithsparkle.com
Web site: www.azuritedesign.com