WindyCityPhotos has been showcasing the work of photographer Jordan Marsh for a number of years. Jordan approached Intechnic, seeking to give his website a facelift and simplify its administration. The first goal was to create a design that would complement the featured photography, not distract from it. The second, to create web interfaces that would allow for expansion of the entire website, not just the photo gallery.
Intechnic graphic designers created a contemporary look that involved a distinct, yet simple, color scheme and fully achieved the first goal of the client. To enhance the visitors experience even further, the photo gallery was equipped with an animated image picker. The picker, created with Macromedia’s Flash and ActionScript as well as PHP scripts referencing a MySQL database, dynamically loads thumbnail images based on the selected category allowing the visitor to cycles through them and select which full image they whish to view.
A password protected section of the new windycityphotos.com gives the client access to the administrative features of the website. These features include the Content and Structure Management Systems, which make it simple to modify the text, images, and links throughout the website or choose to add new pages that the website will generate automatically and apply the selected design template to keep them consistent with the rest of the website. Another feature is the Photo Catalog, an organized structure for storing the photographs that are featured in the Gallery on the front end of the website. In this section, the administrator can upload and categorize the photo images and update the information on the Details pages, which are generated automatically when the photo records are created.
The website was built with future expansion in mind. Windy City Photos is considering integration of credit card processing for distribution of photo prints as well as download management for digital image licensing.