This weeks inspired post will be looking at Hicks Design.  Hicks Design is design agency, who’s website features a Blog, About page, and portfolio.  Alongside this it has a few other features.

Hicks Design

It is a very nicely done Wordpress theme, that I think much inspiration can be taken from.

For some real inspiration on what can be done with Wordpress, Komodo Media is well worth a look in on.

This weeks site shows what wordpress really can do, with a smooth and elegant design Discounted is an online store built off wordpress.  A truly brilliant example showing that wordpress does not need to power a Blog.

Discounted - A Wordpress Powered Online Store

Joren has broken the trends with his site, making something that is exciting and unique.  His design skills don’t stop here, he has come up with a new solution for his contact form, bringing down a JavaScript contact form that allows users to quickly contact him without ever leaving the page they are on.

On top of this I love the way Joren’s site has what feels like conventional main navigation, yet every link interacts with you in a different way. For example when clicking the “Portfolio” link it simply takes you to the homepage. Then, the “Services” link appears like it would simply take you to yet another page yet in reality it will simply scroll you down to the “Services” information on the page. After this the “Blog” link acts as expect and then comes the rather elaborate “Contact Me” link. This is a really fancy aspect of the website that I adore.

The contact me link will darken the page and pull down a JavaScript powered box from the corner which looks very effective on a design such as this one. Joren has included instructions on how he did this on his Blog.

I think that Joren should be highly influential to all designers. He is both highly creative and knowledgeable. I think that is is someone that we could all learn a thing or two from.

Something a little different this time. Rather than looking at one particular website I have decided to look at a selection of websites by a particular person. The person I have chosen for this event owns several popular blogs including Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line 25. These website’s are the work of Chris Spooner (@chrisspooner).

I guess the most logical place to begin would be with his personal Blog, ChrisSpooner.com. If I’m honest, this this is my favourite of all his site. I love the way the entire site changes around the weather.

So, as you can see above in the screenshot I took it was a cloudy day. Now, it’s not like I used the Safari Developer tools or anything to take a look at what other weather condition Chris had catered for in his CSS and changed the body class to get some rain…

…or even some snow.

Now, when I saw this effect for the first time I was instantly interested in how Chris managed to do this. After a little digging, it turn out that a different Chris was responsible for this one.

Moving on, we have other sites by Chris. Although these ones can’t predict the weather for me I still think they are worth a mention. The next site is Chris’s business site, SpoonGraphics.

I would like to say now, I am not a fan of the brown – yuk! But what I do like on this site is the scrolling portfolio. Normally with these I just think, whatever – every site has one these days. But Chris has done something a little different here. I like the way every slide is different. On most site every slide would have a standard template and every slide would be near-enough the same so, what’s different here? Every slide is unique.

The SpoonGraphics Blog is also a nice addition to the site. Although they are both very similar in style and fit in next to each other nicely, the Blog is still unique. It feels like it is separate form the rest of the site, but at the same time it still feel part of it. I like the graphic at the top of the blog, it adds a much more personal feeling to the blog, and makes it look kinda cool. Still don’t like the brown though.

His final site that I will look at today is Line25. There is one thing about this site that I notice every time I visit it, straightaway. This is the way the titles for each post are overlaid over an image for each post. This just jumps out at me as it creates a contrast between the title and the image.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this post. It would be interesting to see other people comment below with their thoughts of these sites.

I came across this site earlier and had to share it.  I think we can all learn a lot from it.  If you want to show-off your skills as a wordpress designer (or any designer by that matter) this site should be an inspiration to you.  I love the way everything takes place so smoothly on the site, using JavaScript to send things (in a good way) whizzing across the screen.

In fact, Rather than my normal method of just writing about what I love about this site, I thought I will show you instead. Sorry about the picture quality, I will try and remedy this shortly.

Black also happens so be something else.  It is a colour that I have never successfully designed with.  Every attempt, ever, has failed.  So for these reasons I do think that this is a very inspiring website, and best of all it’s run on Wordpress.

How often do you see a website with a proper header at the top of a website these days?  And without a set of links just below it or next to it?  Not often.  I think it is a good example of out-of-the-ordidery design due to the way the head of the page is incorporated into the sidebar, freeing more space for the content and for the content that matters to the user.

What do you think?

CSS–Tricks is a very inspirational website, not just in it’s writing but in it’s design as well.  I think the way Chris Coyier has achieved something that is very rarely seen in the most modern of designs, but I feel that it creates a real impact.  It may be something small, almost silly or insignificant to most people, but he has succeeded at something which I have failed at in past attempts.  He has created a sidebar that is wide enough to hold plenty of information without being too long.  But at the same time his content column is not too narrow and the overall design not to wide.

As I said it mat sound silly, be he really is a figure to look to in modern design.  And with that, I present CSS-Tricks as it was at the time of writing.