Date created: November 2010

Web Address: www.mamanpoulet.com

About the Project: I recently created a custom WordPress theme for Maman Poulet, one of Ireland’s most popular and highly-regarded political blogs.  The site had previously been using a standard WordPress template, and Suzy of Maman Poulet wanted a new, cleaner and personalised look.

The chicken illustration is by minimil at iStockphoto.

Click the image for some large screengrabs of the new website.

Date created: May 2010

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org

About the Project: In the spring of 2010, I redesigned and rebuilt Oxfam Ireland’s main organisational website, www.oxfamireland.org. The objectives of the redesign were to:

• Improve and modernise the look of the site
• Install a CMS for updating content
• Add tags and categories to cross-link content
• Clean up the homepage, make Oxfam’s organisational priorities clear
• Simplify the content
• Encourage the users to explore the site with interesting content snippets
• Improve search engine optimisation with fresh content

I researched a number of CMS options, and in the end came back to good old WordPress.  The excellent WordPress MU system allowed me to set up a WordPress installation with multiple blogs (a feature that is now available in WordPress 3.0).

WordPress MU is good deal more challenging than WordPress, as there is less online support available, and I found that I had to hack, slash and burn my way through templates, code and plugins in order to get everything working.  I’ve done lots of WordPress customisation before, but this was the most complex one yet. It was very satisfying -  I learned a lot and ended up with a really nice CMS that has lots of excellent features. Updating is so much quicker than it was before, and best of all, content is output in a really useful, flexible way.  Our feeds are going to other sites and social networks without any duplication of work.

Some of the plugins that I used and found invaluable were:

• Sitewide feed – creates a feed of all posts from the multiple blogs. Tricky to get working as the plugin is no longer supported – there’s probably a better solution in WordPress 3.
• WP Menu Manager – creates custom menus without coding, handy if you need other people to be able to add pages
• WordPress Mobile Edition – creates a very well designed mobile version of your site
• Redirection – sets up and manages really quick 301 redirects. Crucial if you are redesigning an existing site and are changing page addresses
• Latest Posts by Category Archive – this plugin enables you to show latest posts in a single category on a page.  Really handy for a site such as Oxfamireland.org – I can now automatically feed the climate change news to the climate change campaigns page, for example.
• Mass Page Maker – also a lifesaver.  WordPress is great for many things, but creating or duplicating lots of pages is not its strength. This plugin allowed me to create our 50+ shop pages all in one go, and much more.
• CMS – this plugin makes handy adjustments to the WordPress backend, allowing the administrator to drag-and-drop pages, and add multiple content blocks to pages.

Date created: January 2010

Web Address: www.maevehiggins.com

About the Project: A WordPress blog and site for the comedian Maeve Higgins. The brief was to make the site very clean and minimalist, with a few small feminine touches. Maeve is one of my favourite comedians of all time, if you haven’t seen her, go check her out.

I just received my Postcard Box from Chris Judge in the post (things in the post! yay!) today.  Chris is a Dublin-based illustrator, a lovely chap and very very talented indeed.  He’s currently selling this collection on his website for an extremely reasonable €20.  I’m addicted to buying art on the web, and this might be one of the best deals I’ve come across.  Take a look at Chris’ site and blog to see his  colourful and joyous illustration work.

Date created: December 2008

Web Address: www.cheapeats.ie

About the Project: This is my new baby, a food blog edited by myself and my good buddy Peter McGuire. CheapEats is all about eating well in Ireland while getting value for money, and we’re covering everything from shopping tips to restaurant reviews to recipes. Check out the site, leave your feedback and send us your tips on the best places to get good food in Ireland.

Date created: November 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/oxjam

About the Project: We’ve started a Heroes of Oxjam series on our Oxjam website, to thank all the great musicians and organisers who did such a fantastic job this year.  If you were involved in Oxjam, keep an eye on the site; you may be one of our prize winners.

The superhero illustration is adapted from an istock image.

Date created: Summer 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/oxjam

About the Project: I’ve just been working on a major redesign of our Oxjam site. I needed something a bit more dynamic than the flat html we used last year – our Oxjam Officer will be blogging and I also wanted to add some content-rich features like a gig calendar and a google map. So I set it up through lovely old trusty old WordPress. Having said that, WordPress did give me some rare trouble this time, but we won’t be falling out over such a small snafu.

I went plugin loopy for this installation, and found some really great addons out there. Big thanks to the geniuses who created the Event Calendar, the Contact Form 7 and MyPageOrder in particular; you’ve made my life a lot easier.

Date created: February 2008

About the Project: Banner identity for Oxfam’s 2008 Fairtrade Woman – see also the Fairtrade Woman blog.  The lovely Eilis will be living off Fairtrade Food for the duration of Fairtrade Fortnight, and blogging about her adventures – including tips on where to find Fairtrade goods and how to incorporate more Fair Trade into your life.

Date created: July 2005

Web Address: lizmcmanus.blogspot.com

About the Project: I set up this weblog for the Labour Party TD Liz McManus. Liz McManus was one of the first TDs to write a weblog and it has received a lot of media attention, including a mention in the Irish Times.

Date created: 2005

Web Address: www.juliewilsonworld.com

About the Project: A portfolio website and blog for the wickedly talented artist and illustrator Julie Wilson