The brief was simple and open for this project. Take an existing WordPress site and turn it into an online magazine.
WordPress
It was clear from the start of working on Anime Picks that an existing template wouldn’t fit, so a new template had to be built from scratch.
The design
Anime Picks needed to look like a magazine – something that would stand out from a crowded market of other anime sites. A strong design was critical, but thankfully I inherited some wonderful character design and logo treatments that meant I could really focus on the layout.
Front page
Interior page
The build
First step was some heavy-lifting. The existing site was a broken collection of plug-ins and a custom template that wouldn’t survive an upgraded WordPress. New hosting was found, and a development environment created for safe construction. Once this was all in place, the build was fairly straight forward.
Code
PHP, WordPress API, jQuery, CSS3, HTML5
Design
PhotoShop CS5, Illustrator CS5
Visit the site
Anime Picks was launched in May 2011, and you can take a look here: Anime Picks