Mark Duggan Artist
Background
Mark Duggan is an Award Winning artist living in New Zealand. His awards include the 2007 Inaugural National Hallifax Art Award, in which he took top prize, and he is also a previous winner of the Telecom Art Awards for the Christchurch region (2001).
Website: www.markduggan.co.nz
Mark contacted Web Matters about getting a website designed that would be ‘simple and straight forward in its design’. Web Matter’s recommended that he consider a blog / website combination as this would lend itself nicely to the nature of an art website, while providing Mark with a very high degree of control over the site contents.
Specific Recommendations
Web Matters recommended the open source WordPress blogging system, which has thousands of pre-made design templates and software add-ons (plugins).
Specific plugins were recommended in addition to the default install, including an SEO (search engine optimisation) add on, and an online photo gallery.
Action Taken
Web Matters recommended a number of WordPress themes that might be suitable, with Mark finding even more themes online that were also ideal. Themes were narrowed down to a select few and reviewed by Mark and Web Matters. A final theme was chosen based on ability to tweak the theme to Mark’s requirements and suitability to run the website / blog. Mark designed his own banner graphic.
Web Matters installed WordPress to Mark’s hosting account, installed the theme with Mark’s banner graphic (the paint brushes) installed the online gallery system, and moved content into the website from Mark’s existing website.
The Result:
Though powered by a blogging system, the website has typical web pages with a horizontal navigation system (which can be extended to a drop down), a blog page that publishes Mark’s two most recent blog posts, a page called New Work where you can see Mark’s latest painting evolve and where viewers can leave comments about the work (all comments can be moderated by Mark).
Other site features:
- The contact form has a challenge question to protect the site from form spamming
- Mark’s email address has been encrypted, to protect from automated email harvesters
- Search engine friendly keyword url’s used (no question marks) to help with search engine rankings
Client Feedback:
I have to say that you have made this process a real breeze for me so far. You are always on the ball replying to my queries and provide solutions which I am really happy with. I really appreciate your help in putting together my site! So… a big thanks to you Michelle! Mark Duggan
Visitor Feedback:
“I checked out the new site and it looks fantastic. I have spread the word to a few people around here too so you will probably get a few hits today.”
“My first impression of the site was ‘very professional’. So many sites look cheap but yours has a professional image that kind of says ‘this guy is good’
“Have just been checking out the new website and im very impressed!!! You have done a great job, its classy and sophisticated and nice and easy to navigate my way around. Well done!”
“Hi Mark, Website looks stunning, just like your artwork!”
