Deanna Zandt » launch

Launched: Let’s Panic About Babies!

deanna zandt — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:44:13 +0000

It’s been a hilarious couple of months working on this project, and I’m thrilled to launch the site hosting the genius work of Alice Bradley (aka, Finslippy) and Eden M. Kennedy (aka, Fussy). Tired of all the condescending parenting and pregnancy advice that’s out there, they took it upon themselves to write the funniest non-advice series ever. Have a look!

http://www.lets-panic.com/

Launched: Rat Terrier ResQ

deanna zandt — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:46:49 +0000

Six months ago, a nutty little dog named Izzy Louise came into my life via the incredible efforts of a rescue organization that works on saving dogs of her breed, Rat Terrier ResQ. An all-volunteer, nationwide staff that is tireless in its mission, ResQ was in desperate need of a new website that reflected all aspects of the work they do, as well as the group’s fun-loving nature. It didn’t take long for me to get sucked into the vibe as a volunteer, and over the last few months, I’ve been working on this redesign for them, volunteering to work with their board of directors to produce a new brand, corresponding logo and ultimately, the site.

Since I love all-things-WordPress, I decided to use this as a test case to run all kinds of flexibility tests. People need to be able to find available dogs, for example, using loads of parameters like location, sex, whether or not they were good with dogs/cats/kids, etc.. The site also had to be easy enough for staff to post dog profiles and stories. I ended up choosing WordPress’ categories structure to handle most of the taxonomic work, with a fairly extensive set of parent & child categories. The query_post fucntion became my best friend. I tried to avoid using custom fields (I think they can be confusing to the end user making the profiles), but ultimately gave in and implemented them for the thumbnails for the Featured Dog in the sidebar, the city each dog is in, and the extra information for dogs needing sponsors.

It was a fabulous challenge that really got my gears going. But besides all that, I know it’s going to help a lot more dogs find homes, and for that I couldn’t be happier. As they say at ResQ, “To one dog, you may just be the world.”

PS– Be sure to check out the Happy Endings page for Izzy Louise’s harrowing story of near death, rescue and coming home.

Launched: Betty Fussell

deanna zandt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:23:50 +0000

I’ve had the privilege of working with author Betty Fussell and her publicist, Fern Berman, for the past several weeks on launching a website to display Betty’s myriad of books (Raising Steaks is her latest), writing and other savory bits.� I often count my lucky stars that I get to work with fierce, passionate women who inspire me to do good work, and working with Betty and Fern was not just that, but a hoot to boot. (It’s not often that you’re told as a designer that dayglo is the direction the client is thinking of going…)

Check out BettyFussell.com.

Launched: The Media Consortium

deanna zandt — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:20:30 +0000

The Media Consortium was looking for a way to better highlight the projects they’re working on, and their old site solely focused on the membership community. I was happily selected to rearrange the sites and install WordPress with a couple of nifty doodads to help them show both the community and the rest of the world what’s happening. We launched yesterday, at long last! Check it out: www.themediaconsortium.org

Launched: Water Consciousness

deanna zandt — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:57:57 +0000

Ah yes, the trilogy is complete: my third launch in Launch Madness concludes the flurry (for the moment) of WordPress sites I’ve set up for various folks. This one is promoting AlterNet’s new book, Water Consciousness: How We All Have to Change to Protect Our Most Critical Resource. Edited by AlterNet’s own supremely awesome Tara Lohan, it’s an incredible set of articles, analysis, ideas… you name it, it’s here. Some of the artwork’s just stunning, too, and working with such a great piece makes it easy for designers like yours truly to implement a complementary website. Hurray!

Quick hit: Launched: Gotham Acme

deanna zandt — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:28:58 +0000

I did mention that it’s launch madness ’round these parts, yes? Over the weekend, I launched Gotham Acme, a personal music blog for a Democratic consultant. It’s reeeeeally pretty and lovely, and I’m quite proud of it. Record turnaround on this one, too — just under two weeks from concept to launch.

Launched: This Is What Women Want

deanna zandt — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:05:55 +0000

It’s Launch Madness here at DZ HQ, and this particular project is an issue near and dear to my heart. I can’t really say it better than the organizers, so, from http://thisiswhatwomenwant.com:

Tired of being talked about this election season? Done with being represented by skewed polls and stereotypes?

This is your chance to cut through the spin and tell the media, the candidates and the world exactly what you want this election season, both right here online and live in cities across the country this Fall.

Oh. Freakin’. Yeah. There were a lot of interesting technical challenges for the project: how to get WordPress to take anonymous submissions, how to make the site as managable and geek-free by the end users as possible, and so much more. Can’t wait to rip this election season up!

Launched: Thomas Frank’s new website

deanna zandt — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:50:43 +0000

That’s right, y’all, I am becoming the webgrrl to the stars. I had the honor to work with Thomas Frank and his publisher, Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt USA, on the redesign of his site, and I’m happy to say that it went live this evening. Have a gander at http://tcfrank.com/.