WebDesign
I’ve mentioned before on my Facebook page that I never realised how many websites I would design in my new career. I always thought it would be a great additional service I could offer but I’ve just completed my 7th website (including my own) since graduating and have another two lined up in the next few months.
As you may know, I design all my websites on WordPress. First of all the software is Open Source, which means anyone can create an account and design a website for free (*not including buying the domain name and hosting). I also find it so user friendly (even as a beginner) and it’s easy to explain and train clients for a smooth transition.
Moreover, WordPress is flexible and the possibilities are endless. There are literally thousands of themes and plug-ins (some free, some paid for) to ensure you design a truly bespoke and unique website every time.
Themes
This leads very nicely to the actual topic of my blog. Themes… There’s soooo many of them and when you start out with a blank canvas, you often don’t know where to start. It can be quite daunting actually especially as a theme dictates the look and feel of your entire website.
I often start by doing some simple Google research i.e. top 10 themes for a hotel website etc. It’s a great way to narrow down your options.
WordPress has a variety of free themes available and you can also find some great paid for ones. It’s often relatively cheap, between £30-£100 – just double check the cost is a one-off and not a yearly subscription. Theme Forest is a very popular website to find WordPress themes.
You can also start with a free theme and then upgrade to the Pro version for more options. I often do this actually and I’ll explain why in a bit.
mesmerise
One-pagers or scrolling websites are very ‘in’ lately. They are a great solution for people or businesses who want small yet sleek looking websites. They particularly work well for static (i.e. none e-commerce) websites and for those who don’t necessarily have that much content to share.
I’ve now finished my third one-page website and I’ve used the same theme every time. It’s called Mesmerise and it truly lives up to its name. It has a build-in drag & drop feature (no need for Elementor for example) which basically allows you to build the entire website on the front end. There are loads of gorgeous layout options available, including in the header (or hero as they call it).
I’m not going to explain too many more details as this might get a little too ‘technical’ or boring for some but do check out my portfolio to see all my websites or the ones built using Mesmerise: Silver Executive & EQT Ventures’ CEO summit.
For Silver Executive I used the free version. It’s absolutely enough to built a modern and professional looking website. The only downside to the free version is the fact that you can’t change font type and size and more importantly colours. If your client/company has strict brand guidelines, this isn’t ideal.
For EQT Ventures I used the paid for version for this exact reason. It gives you even more layout and design options but more importantly, it allows you to change colours, fonts and more.
Basically, it’s mesmerising 😉
I hope this helps anyone starting out with WordPress a little bit. Feel free to comment or ask any questions below. Or do share if you think this may benefit anyone else!
Thanks,
Babs