Bangkok Inn, the two-time winner of Best Thai Food in Dallas by D Magazine, started with a tradition that they still follow today – serve authentic Thai food to our family. Bangkok Inn in Dallas, Texas is a family run restaurant that has earned a spot in the hearts of patrons in the Lakewood area. This quaint mom and pop Thai food restaurant is known for its authentic Thai cuisine using recipes passed on from the owners grandmother.

Just before Christmas 2011, the owners of the Bangkok Inn restaurant approached me to discuss their website. At the time, they never really had a web presence. People posted some great reviews on websites such as Yelp and Yahoo. Their own website was a Flash-based template that was out dated and needed to be revised. They had their hearts set on creating an official brand for the restaurant and they wanted a website that was unique, and gave the user a feeling of a family-owned restaurant.

During our concept phase for the logo we played around with colors. We tried black with red, mute greens, and orange with burgundy. We settled on the orange with burgundy color scheme because it wasn’t traditional Asian restaurant colors and if felt more relaxed and friendly to the client. The same went for the font selection; I used a font that would still give it a Thai-feeling coupled with a more traditional San-serif font.

With the colors and logo complete we turned to the website. Instead of the traditional horizontal or vertical text-based navigation I create custom icons to represent each area of the menu. The overall layout has a grid feel with each area having it’s own space and identity. I added subtle hints of texture throughout to add some more depth to the site rather than just using solid blocks of color. Once the website was designed it was time to add content. My good friend Elizabeth Erickson of Elizabeth Erickson Photography was contracted to stop by the restaurant and take photographs of the interior and the Thai cuisine.

If you’re in the Dallas area, check out Bangkok Inn located just off Greenville Avenue.

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At the end of January 2012, I was on way out the door for an anniversary photo shoot with my wife when the phone rang. Dr. John Pitchford was on the line asking about a website. He had a strict deadline of three days to get a brand new WordPress website online. He loved the design that I created for Jim Pruitt; in fact, that is how he found my website. Dr. Pitchford wanted the traditional color scheme of red, white and blue. His main purpose was not to showcase himself, but more of the issues that people should be aware of. Not to mention the issues he is passionately fighting for and against. The design needed to be professional and easily managed by his son. The same custom programming for the Pruitt for Texas theme needed to be added to this custom websites.

Dr. John Pitchford is a conservative Republican who retired from the United States Army and chose to live in Plano. He and his wife, Holly, chose Collin County because of its excellent schools and its conservative values. Together they opened a small family dentistry practice in the Plano, Texas area. Now Dr. John Pitchford is running for the Texas House of Representatives – District 67.

Check out his website and what Dr. John Pitchford stands for. You can even sign-up for the newsletter and make a contribution if your in his district.

Several months ago, a photographer friend of mine referred me to BricHouse Media. BricHouse Media is a relatively new business venture located in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex whose passion is to provide ministries and businesses alike with professionally designed websites, custom Facebook applications, search engine optimization and more. At first, BricHouse had no website. Word-of-mouth advertising of their work has continued to bring in new business while their new website was being created.

This website started with one concept that morphed into what they have today. Something clean and professional moved towards something colorful with depth, literally. The owners are from Bermuda and love the water. Their second concept was a water theme with ocean on top and an underwater sea below. The color scheme is all shades of blue with light accents of green used sparingly throughout the site.

In addition to a great design, this website comes with some custom WordPress programming as well as an update to their logo. The original icon had round corners and the colors just weren’t to their liking. I tweaked the logo by squaring off the corners and switching the blue hues. On inner pages, you can see their twitter feed, a custom display of their recent projects and more.

Heritage Global Charities is an organization that provides solutions, comfort and help to families affected by the HIV/AIDS, poverty, hunger and other problems. We target the wholeness of the human race with exceptional services and experiences to neglected individuals in society in a formatted, methodical, accountable and faithful manner.

In 2011, Heritage Global Charities, the same contact from Heritage Christian Church and the Cedar Afro Network, contacted me about creating a second site for them. The heart of HGC is to provide awareness and support to the people of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Pastor Piers Finesse and his wife, Leah, wanted a website that was blue and gold. They wanted something that was easy to navigate, and would give every user the opportunity to support the cause from any page. Like the previous site I was contracted to design, they asked for me to create a quick logo for them using a very simple and clean font.

In the music industry the best designed websites are typically held by performing artists such as Adele, John Mayer, Bruno Mars and the list goes on. Music composers, such as Daniel Sadowski, typically design their own websites, and after awhile just need some additional help making a website that is impressive, a brand that fits them and a content management system that is easy to use. Composers are busy creating the sounds we enjoy while watching our favorite movies or playing our favorite video games. Why make them learn HTML, CSS and a coding language like PHP just to showcase their credits.

Just before Christmas, Daniel Sadowski, a film, television and video game composer, contacted me about creating his new website. Just like the many music composers out there, he too designed his own website and was ready to start a new one that was more vibrant with colors and yet carried over a theme fitting for a video game composer. Hues of blue, waves, and glowing text are just some of the elements that create the perfect brand for Daniel Sadowski.

In addition to a great design that was eye catching, Daniel wanted to display his credits in a unique way. I built a custom WordPress template just for his Credits to showcase a slide show of features graphics pertaining to Daniel’s projects as well as a list of thumbnails for his future clients to quickly see what his fantastic work.

Cedar Afro Network (CAN) is a company of music promoters whose primary goal is to publicize musicians from Africa. CAN is in charge of “putting on” the show. They work directly with the bands, churches and concert venues to arrange for a concert to take place. Cedar Afro Network also spreads the word about that show. They take care of arranging the incidentals, like hotels and back-line for the band. In a nutshell, it is CAN’s job is to book and promote the showcase and make sure things go off without a hitch.

Towards the end of 2011, the Cedar Afro Network approached me about designing a website for them. Previously, they were handing out flyers and business cards to promote their business. The trips that the head of the company would take to Africa was the main source of bringing in new clientele.

Their goal for the website was to be simple. CAN wanted to showcase who they are, what they do, some of the clients, and, more importantly, a way to contact them. The Cedar Afro Network didn’t have a logo. They asked if I could just used create a quick text-based version. Instead, I added a custom icon to accompany their font-based nameplate. They choose their color scheme of blues and grays.

 Some people ask what is Biltong? It is finely aged, robust, spicy, meaty flavored, South African Beef Biltong (pronounced Bull Tongue) that is better than our traditional Beef Jerky. Aside from a flavor and texture that makes people crawl back for more, Biltong is healthier, all natural and delicious!

Enough of the sales pitch about beef jerky. The bottom line is the Biltong Brothers approached me about creating a website that was unique, easy to navigate, showcased their flavors easily, had a touch of that South African flavor and ultimately drove you to order your Biltong now. When you think of South Africa don’t you hear drums and think of desert plains, mountain ranges and wild animals? Me too! I used earth tones and rugged textures to create the overall South African look. In addition, I went a big larger than like with the text and imagery. I wanted a homepage that scrolled for days to give more information to the prospective Beef Jerky buyer as soon as they hit the homepage.

At the beginning of this project the team wanted to spend little on advertising and rely more on organic search results to bring in order. With an eCommerce site through Shopify that is built to SEO standards they starting seeing order their first week of the Biltong Brothers website going live.

In October of this year (2011), the same company that contracted me to create a design for TBN Newswire returned with a new project. The goal of their previous project was to increase the web presence of TBN. The original concept that was created was not up the likings of the clients (or modern web design standards). In the beginning, I was contracted as a consultant to give design direction to the firm creating the website. After a couple of rounds and slow turn-around time, BricHouse Media decided to have me take the layout that was created and make adjustments to get the design where it needed to be.

This project for TBN is a tribute site to Paul Crouch, the founder of TBN. It needed to be heavy on search engine optimization and include all of their social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter just the previous project. The design had to be striking, colorful and have a modern look.

Back in August of 2011, I was responded to a Craigslist ad for someone who needed a few WordPress templates designed for political candidates. These templates needed to be in the traditional color scheme of red, white and blue. Anything else is unpatriotic. The designs needed to be professional as well as easy to manage. All of themes needed a few layers of custom WordPress development. For instance, if the candidate did not have a logo the header would display the candidates name in text only. There are icons in the header for the various social media sites as well as buttons to volunteer or contribute to the campaign. By default none of them are displayed until the client enters the website address in the themes settings page. You can also choose between three different kinds of Facebook modules.

The first official client was Jim Pruitt. Jim Pruitt is a lawyer running for the Texas House of Representatives in the new District 3. Tough times need aggressive and effective leaders, and Pruitt doesn’t just strongly believe in fiscal and social responsibility, limited government, and education, he has a record of proven experience to promote these ideals.

Jim initially loved a design of another candidates website. His only goal was to have a website that was “as good as theirs”. I began creating a custom website for Pruitt that later would become a template that can be purchased (and customized for those who want that) by other political candidates.