Portfolio – Jess Planck, Portfolio

Nicholls State University website 2015-2019

Posted on September 7, 2018February 17, 2020 by jess

The Nicholls State University website has been a project of continuous iteration and enhancements. The 2015 redesign project was no exception with a WordPress theme based on the Underscore(_S) starter theme using Sass to organize and simplify complex CSS techniques and customized PHP to create useful tools to communicate with visitors. Some of the custom applications include the homepage calendar feed that actually uses the Google Calendar API which allowed non-technical web editors to help update events using the calendar system they were already using as part of their daily duties.

This website was designed to be responsive based on screen size allowing the site to be useful with multiple devices. During this projects development around 60% of the visitors were using either phones or tablets when interacting with website.

Small Jobs: 2013 – 2014

Posted on January 30, 2014July 30, 2014 by jess

I’m starting to document the small jobs that I do. I am often requested to fix problems dealing with functionality and design for larger projects. Here are a few of the projects for 2013 and 2014.

Fundat – fix their custom Woocommerce additions that allows the site to act as a crowd-funding system similar to kickstarter.
Tales of the Cocktail – fix autosuggestion

American Organizer – Brazil

Posted on October 30, 2013July 30, 2014 by jess

This is another unconventional project. I alway follow the desires of my clients and I do try to get my clients to use solutions that will benefit them the most. In this case the client has a Brazilian based e-commerce website that needs multi-language and Brazilian based payment processing. They were very entrenched with using osCommerce as a solution and were not ready to explore other more conventional solutions. I am not a huge supporter of this solution, but like most PHP based solutions, it was not impossible to figure out.

Nicholls State University Website: 2012

Posted on December 30, 2012July 30, 2014 by jess

I continue to enjoy to progression of the Web as a platform for communication using multiple media. In this iteration of the website for Nicholls State University, the design is meant to be simpler and more visual in order to convey the sometimes complicated vision of the university. The site uses responsive techniques to make it more usable across smartphones and tablets, and the web technology under the hood is making a slow backwards compatible progression to HTML5 and CSS3. The tools used for this website continue to use WordPress for content management, but some new tools such as Sass/Less (Compas) & Susy are used to help produce the final CSS.

Phergie Logo

Posted on May 25, 2010August 1, 2014 by jess

This is a logo completed for the Phergie project. Phergie is an IRC bot written in PHP. It is software that can be used to handle automation and other communication tasks within the Internet Relay Chat network. This project was completed pro bono and as an exercise in logo design. This was completed part time so the project spanned a little over a month with a vacation and some minor communication with the client. The logged work time was roughly 10 hours.

The focus for this logo was the technical nature of the Phergie project combined with statements of diversity. Phergie is an autonomous bot that can respond to chat users, so it has a feminine nature, yet this project is also supported by PHPWomen.org to promote more women in the PHP programming communities. The final logo is an attempt to show the technical and feminine aspects of the Phergie project with respect, professionalism, and some whimsy. The Phergie logo uses a digitally drawn image combined with the Midiet typeface by Yasuhiro Yamaoka.

The Phergie logo is available in SVG: Phergie logo (svg)
The complete Phergie logo project (zip)

Bayou Country Children Museum Website

Posted on October 31, 2009July 30, 2014 by jess

This site was actually completed in 2008, but it was recently revised with some minor design revisions and upgrades. I’m displaying the most recent screenshots for this project.

The Bayou Country Children Museum is an interactive museum featuring displays and information related to the bayou region of south Louisiana. Initially the website is being used to communicate the progress and attract donations for the museum construction. The website design was initially completed by Eye Candy Creative, and they requested my skills to build the final site using an accessible content management system.

This website uses WordPress for content management with a few WordPress plugins to add features such as mailing lists communication, contact forms, and event notifications. The Bayou Country Children Museum website uses a custom child theme using my personal Funbox theme framework. The custom theme allows the creation of separate custom views based on simple WordPress custom fields. The entire website uses the jQuery javascript framework to add custom font effects (Sifr), web browser compatibility fixes, and flash animation displays.

Nicholls State University Websites: 2002 to 2009

Posted on October 29, 2009July 27, 2014 by jess

Websites for a higher education institutions are complex and always changing. I have worked for Nicholls State University for over six years and I’ve made several revisions. The site at this point uses a combination of static HTML, WordPress, and other web applications. I’m just going to put all the screen images I can for the Nicholls State University Website up to this point. There are a couple images of the site before I started working if you are interested in what I started with.

Blackhorse Association Website

Posted on September 18, 2009July 30, 2014 by jess

The Blackhorse Association is a non-profit organization made up of previous members of the 11th Calvary Regiment of the U.S. Army. The organization focuses on the scholarship, support, and commemoration of the duty it’s members and family have made as part of the 11th Calvary. This website is focused on communication with the members . related organizations, and the public. The Blackhorse Association uses this website to collect donations for operating expenses and scholarships that are offered to the families of fallen members of the 11th Calvary Regiment.

This website will never be finished for me, and it is annual contract with the Blackhorse Association. I hope to have a better revision soon because I feel the illustration and design were completed too quickly. The website uses WordPress for content management with a custom theme using the Funbox theme framework. The Blackhorse Association website uses a WordPress e-Commerce plugin to process and track donations to the scholarship and operating funds.

Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce Website

Posted on July 28, 2009July 30, 2014 by jess

The Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce has gone through one revision since I started on the project in 2008.

This version of the website is similar to the original work, but the design was modified to allow the Thibodaux Chamber staff to make more modifications to the site. It is always interesting to see how clients modify websites to meet their current needs. Allowing these modifications can cause some disruptive design changes to the original ideas, but it gives clients the ability to use the site how they need to communicate. Besides, at a later date I can always use their ideas to make the design more effective while blending in the clients needs.

The Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce uses WordPress for content management with a custom theme using the Funbox theme framework. There a couple of WordPress plugins used for event & calendar management. This website also has a custom WordPress plugin for creating a membership directory from a flat file that is exported from the clients contact management application.

South Lousiana Center for the Arts Website

Posted on January 29, 2009July 30, 2014 by jess

The SOLA Center for the Arts website was completed as a sub-contract project for Eye Candy Creative. The South Louisiana Center for the Arts is a non-profit community center focused on the visual and performing arts located in Houma, Louisiana.

This website uses WordPress for content management with a custom theme using the Funbox theme framework. The site has a couple additional plugins to help manage event calendar entries. The SOLA Center website uses jQuery and additional javascript for the display of custom fonts (Sifr) and rounded corner effects.