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WConroy.com

Note: This article was published while I was in my early 20s. I was much younger and dumber. Please don't hold it against me. One of the perils of having a 20+ year old website!
WConory.com

A new Featured Project. Bill Conroy is running in my district for Supreme Court Justice (of my district). He came to me asking for a site design for what he had already laid out page wise. After looking at some politicians’ websites, I noticed that a lot of these sites were simple, but not bad looking- they had a good balance of images and text. So I decided I would shoot for that too (considering that’s what I normally do). It was a little difficult to add a good mix of images, however, because he does not have photos from public events. That might change, and I would be glad to add them where I can, but back to the design.
For the banner, I went with a serif text to give kind of the elegant look that said ‘Supreme Court’. To drive that home even further, I added Lady Justice. The other main component of the banner is a map of the counties he will represent. I felt that not only did it look good, but it was also informative. The client also wanted the American Flag, which I added in the background at an opacity of 75%.
Getting to the layout, I wanted something, as I mentioned before, simple and informative. The information was not a problem, as all of it was provided to me. I decided to go with a left side navigation in a Georgia font keeping with a serif theme for something elegant. On the right I added a header to each page- and to make it better the image is just a background with a hidden header. I did this for 2 reasons. If someone has CSS disabled, they will not see an image block, they will see an actual header. Also, this is for Search Engine Optimization. Google does searching based on headers. So adding hidden headers allows me to add the design I want, but still makes the site come up in a google search. I also used only divs- no tables, all divs. Tables are slowly being phased out of web design, so I’m trying to employ new ways of organizing data. With CSS it’s very easy too.
After doing that, I did my normal design routines. PHP template, ul for navigation, verdana font for easy readability, etc. I’m glad to say the client is very happy with the site, as am I. Visit the Site

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