Courtney has an aesthetic approach very similar to ours: keep it as simple as possible. Elegeance is found in such things, but only where the simplicity is derived from distilling complexities into the most palatable and digestible of forms and formats. The short version of that sentence is: If something doesn’t need to be there it shouldn’t be there, and if you need that something, does it have to be complicated?

Most of the time to answer those questions is to work in design. In the case of Courtney Summers’ websites, we wouldn’t call it work.

Unique

We’ll always advocate that there’s room in this business for guys like us who build custom websites. Courtney’s design is a perfect example of why this is: functionally it does everything she needs it to, and design-wise it’s unique and stand-out and perfectly her own. Those things are hard to get when you look at some of the cookie cutter services and products out there. Not everyone knows PHP and CSS and Photoshop, and that’s where we come in.

V2

This theme is a version two. It’s an evolution of Courtney’s previous site that we did together. There are refinements, elements were removed and elements more appropriate for what she needs added. It’s still familiar to those who visit regularly and yet different enough to perhaps excite them about the new UI and what it offers readers. Complete re-designs are for the desperate, the misguided, and those who like whims and whimsy. Evolution is for those who see the purpose, branding, and identity of a website as something that does not need to be torn apart to be improved.

We had a great time working with Courtney again and look forward to seeing her grow and develop as young author with a bright career in front of her.

It’s been an uncharacteristically long time since we’ve done an overhaul of MatthewGood.org. Over the last few years we’ve worked on over a half dozen versions of the popular Canadian musician’s website, and in the process Matthew has become a part of the BraveNewCode team, now contributing his design talents to future projects.

In this most recent re-design of his website we’ve added a couple key innovations which serve its long list of registered members well.

The first major addition is the ability to switch the main view of the website’s entries from the default listing of excerpts over to a full post view, something rarely employed on blogging platform-based websites due to its intensive code requirements. This feature degrades gracefully for those without cookies or javascript in use.

The next feature was the custom addition of a modified “My Favourite Entries” plugin. We added to the plugin and built it to work with MatthewGood.org’s community to add the ability for logged in users to save those entries they’d like to revisit or remind themselves of in the sidebar.

Design-wise Matthew ponderously selected every detail of its presentation, and (as always) it has resulted in a pixel-perfect design, which is clear, concise, and innovative. MatthewGood.org remains one of the progressive and unique homes for quality blogging on the web.

The whole project is chalk full of small but thorough improvements, changes, & feature enhancements. It is (in our opinion) arguably the best all around version of the site that we’ve collectively worked on to date.

We recently launched her new website for her, and are proud to have worked for such a talented performer. When initially contacted we jumped at the opportunity to create a unique site for her that allowed us to explore some new ground in design and development.

The site features a large header banner which immediately sets the tone for the layout, something which we wanted to be both memorable while also user-friendly, with a clear navigation list up top and a place for important updates/information to be shared.

The rest of the website follows an easy to understand layout, with a combination of pinks, browns, and dirty blues to give a modern chic mixed with a classically country feel.

We worked quickly to get the site launched for Jessie before the CCMA’s, and are proud of the end result. We still have more work to do on the site, and will be adding a few new features for Jessie in the near future, including multimedia features and an integrated store.

Jessie had this to say about our work:

I just wanted to send you a note and thank you so much for meeting the deadline before the CCMA’s and doing such a great job!

Thanks for creating such a clear, stylish, and effective design.

Thanks again!

Jessie

You’re welcome Jessie! And thank you for the opportunity- we look forward to our continued work on your website to make it even better.

The possibilities for WordPress as a bonafide CMS are always growing, and plugins like WPLite only enhance that possibility. With WPLite you can remove unnecessary aspects of the WordPress back-end from the eyes of your clients, helping them focus on and learn the pertinent aspects of the WordPress publishing platform easily and effectively. The WPLite admin page let’s you select/deselect checkboxes for almost every single WordPress feature/page/option.

For first-time WordPress client users, this plugin will become essential to ensuring they feel comfortable with diving in and managing content for themselves.

The work itself was rather standard, but the highlight for me was being able to convert the site from its flash roots to WordPress in only a few days, including full cross-browser compatibility testing and the addition of a few new site features. It goes to show that we’ve got our work process down, and can come through for clients with limited timelines and deliver the intended content.

We’re proud to have been involved with the team at Urban Project, and wholeheartedly wish to extend our best to them in their efforts going forward.

Here at BraveNewCode we pride ourselves in doing more than just coding and photoshopping all the time. Because seriously, who wants a website designed by a bunch of guys that just sit home every Friday night and play World of Warcraft? Not us, that’s for sure. And thankfully, none of our clients.

That’s why at BraveNewCode we encourage everyone to have other interests. Some of us have taken up pottery, others gardening, some boating, some fishing, and some of us have even dabbled a bit in the music scene. And that’s good, we encourage that.

Because really, it all comes down to balance, not just in our lives, but in all lives, from the the websites we create to the lives we strive to shape in the process. Sure, we could be like the competition and just hack out stale versions of the same old bread, but that’s just not our bag – we work like we live, and infuse every design or site we touch with the same passion and fun we put into everything else in our lives.

And that’s why after you’ve tasted a bit of BraveNewCode, it’s really hard to go back to just eating plain-old bananas.