In the Wish Studio

Mindy Tsonas’s Wish Studio covers a lot of ground: hands-on instruction, inspiration, guidance, tips and techniques. Touching on topics from motherhood to arts and crafts, the site helps nourish artistic sensibilities with a group blog, a forum and discussion board for the Studio’s authors and fans, and the latest on the activities and passions of this very creative community.

Working with another standout visual design from Darling Design, we implemented a custom theme and plugins on the WordPress-MU platform, and added to the site visually and functionally integrated discussion forum software. Exclusive subscriber/member content is delivered in subdomain sections like the Sky Studio, and information about Wish Studio seminars and events is front and center throughout.

The new Scott Hull Associates site

Scott Hull Associates is a respected representative for a varied and lauded stable of talented artists. When Scott and Co. needed a site that would deliver more control to each of the artists they represent, we worked from a beautifully simple design by our frequent collaborator, and Scott Hull-represented illustrator, Penelope Dullaghan. With Penny’s gorgeous look-and-feel, user interface collaboration by the brilliant Josh Sears, and lots of input from Scott, his staff, and their represented artists, we crafted a new site with a new look, powered by a multi-user site manager in the form of WordPress-µ.

It’s open-source foundation software that can empower many team members — and, with commenting and RSS syndication throughout, associates outside the team — to contribute and craft their corner of the site into their best face forward for the organization. We tried to build Scott’s vision of the most immediate, informative portfolio preview in the business. As each artist grows their sample work and their blog in the new format, we hope the site will be almost like a sit-down interview with an artist you might hire for your logo, brand image, or design project.

Each artist is master of their sub-section of the site, making the portfolios, blogs, and creative notes there direct, personal, and fresh. With so many striking personalities, styles, and subjects on display, it’s easy to browse the new Scott Hull site like a collection of awesome personal blogs, a comfortable yet vibrant and evocative atmosphere for prospective clients to get to know the artists they’ll work with.

Scott additionally contracted Utopian.net for training and support to help get the artists started with the new site and tools. We produced a number of custom screencast video tutorials for using the browser-based visual editor to keep portfolios updated, and other basic tasks. While similar to our progressing and publicly-available WordPress Video Guide series, these videos include details of the portfolio/gallery management features, admin panel extensions, and plugin functionality adapted or created specifically for scotthull.com.

Congratulations to Scott and everyone at Scott Hull Associates on the launch, and many thanks to them and their awesome lineup of some of the industry’s brightest talents for making this such a fun and creative project. We’ll continue to work closely with Scott and his team after the launch, too, helping to keep email, web traffic, and application data flowing smoothly throughout the Utopian.net-hosted Scott Hull Associates Internet presence.