Heirloom Custom Woodworks
One of the things I enjoy most about my job is when I’m able to mix mediums. When I was approached by Geoff Page of Heirloom Custom Woodworks to design a site for his business, I jumped at the chance to do a “wood website.” I wanted to maintain some of the texture you see around his shop in Minneapolis with some web technology that would really show off his work. Before we got started, Geoff laid out his vision for the HCW site.
The Work Should Be The Star
The first thing Geoff stated was that the work should be the star of the website. We decided that heart of the site would be a photo gallery that showcased his best pieces in categories his clients were familiar with. It was also important that he would be able to manage the gallery on his own; He wasn’t a web designer, he was a craftsman. There is a great plugin for WordPress called NextGen Gallery that allows users to upload and manage photos in a variety of ways. After showing him how the plugin works, we decided to use that to build the galleries.
Wood on the Web
The next step was to give the site a “workshop feel”. Most of the Geoff’s competition had websites but, 1) they were all very bland, and 2) It was hard to get to examples of their work. I decided that we should take a much more creative approach to the layout and presentation then what was out there already. The first thing I did was research some wood grain textures for the background. Different types of wood were all over the workshop, so finding inspiration was all too easy. After that, it was a matter of giving of designing a clean, content area that would visitors would find easy to read. After a few revision meetings with Geoff, we decided on a layout and production began.
The Result
The site was launched in January of 2009, and continues to provide Heirloom Custom Woodworks a great medium to display his work, keep in touch with his clients, and grow his business.
