Daily Photojournalism by Jolie Myers
For this project, I worked closely with the photographer, Jolie Myers. My goal was to create something that was visually distinct from your average photo blog, while still maintaining the journalistic integrity of Jolie’s photos.
I wanted to avoid the gray scale color scheme of most photo blogs. Photojournalists often worry about the design conflicting with their photos, so they turn to a dull design. I wanted to make a site that engaged the user beyond the first photo they see. I wanted them to navigate the site. Applying some subtle color did the trick without overwhelming the user.
Beyond creating and coding the site’s layout, I was also responsible for setting up a framework to maintain the content on the site. I developed the site using CakePHP as a base. From there I added on functionality to easily upload photos, photo galleries, and multimedia pieces. Much of the design beyond the basic layout was left up to the photographer. I didn’t want to give Jolie something she had no part in creating and she was excited to learn how to code and style a website on her own. I set up the framework in such a way that allowed her to code individual pages and let the database handle the management of all the content. It provided her with a hands-on learning experience without sacrificing professional appearance.
A couple features to note on the site
- scrolling through thumbnails uses ajax to speed up navigation
- comments aren’t visible, until the user chooses to see them
- site maintains functionality in browsers with javascript disabled
Want to see more? Visit JolieMyers.com.
-
About the author
Eric Puidokas
A web developer living in Santa Monica, California who specializes in client-side web technologies.
-
Portfolio
GridFox - The Grid Layout Firefox Extension
If you can open it in Firefox, you can put a grid on top of it. It's easy to customize, allowing you to create the exact grid you designed your layout around.
