Adam will freely admit that he’s normally not a big fan of light-on-dark color schemes, but the site we worked on for the guys at CrossFit X-Factor changed his mind.

Why? Two words: Kill Bill.

We styled the site after the color palette of the movie Kill Bill, which was just too cool. Add to that a very cool logo, and some custom typographical touches, and the X-Factor site came out slick, if we say so ourselves.

By now you’ve probably realized that we’ve got a soft spot for creating sites for CrossFit affiliates, but it’s not just because Adam is a CrossFit addict. It’s in big part due to folks like Branden Johannesen and Breanne Feudale, of San Carlos CrossFit. Having clients this cool just makes it all that much better.

Okay, so Adam tried not to geek out too hard that he was creating a site for a well-known CrossFitter (who could forget Breanne’s first place finish in the Catch-22 event of the 2009 NorCal Regional Qualifiers?), but it was hard.

Add to the fact that the B’s are just cool, laid-back folks, they also have great taste in design, and creating their site was a joy.

I know many CrossFit affiliates who start out with a free Blogspot or Typepad blog, only to find out soon that their needs have outgrown the limitations of a free platform, and they want to come play with the big boys.

When my friend Amie told me she was taking over the site updates for the gym she trains out of, CrossFit Seven, I (politely, of course) told her that their time had come to upgrade. Like they say, “friends don’t let friends use free platforms.”

Welcome to The Show!

It’s not every day you’re approached to create a website by the head of an international spiritual order, but hey… why not, right?

The folks at the Zen Garland Society were looking, naturally, for a simple, almost minimalist feel for their site. We married their logo and artwork, along with custom typography and some simplifying design touches, to a clean, two-column design, and they were off and running.

These kinds of projects are always fun…

Andrew was days away from signing the lease on his space when he contacted me, and told me he needed his site up and running in about three weeks. Whew!

I think the “brand-new-box” energy was fueling us both, because we got the site up in a hurry, along with a fair amount of customizations, and got the site ready in time for the launch of his new gym, District CrossFit. Good luck, Andrew!

One of the benefits of my job is that I get to know amazing people. Prime example: Melissa Urban, aka “Moxy Boss”, of Urban Gets Diesel fame, who’s now rockin’ it at Whole9Life.

Her sense of humor, edgy wit, and nutritional whiz-bang-ness is on full display at Whole9Life, along with her partner in crime, Dallas Hartwig. They wanted a site that was clean and simple, and allowed them to showcase both their business offers as well as the highly information-rich free content on their blog.

They’re tickled with their new site, and so am I.

Jason Stein and I go way back, thank goodness; he’s a great guy, and his work is really fantastic. So I didn’t take it personally when he hired another webdesigner, because being his first time, he wanted someone local, thinking it would make a big difference (rookie mistake, J! It’s okay!).

Well, as it turns out, he was unhappy with the site they produced, and when he asked me to come take a look at something that wasn’t working right, I realized that the glitch wasn’t an isolated problem; the site was a coding train-wreck. I did my best to patch it up on numerous occasions, until finally telling him, “Dude, let me re-do your site the right way. It’ll take half as long as fixing all these glitches, and you’ll have a solid framework you can grow with.” And, I’m happy to say, he did.

This may have been one of the quickest sites I’ve been a part of, yet… and then, maybe not.

When Lisa Taylor of Challenge Factory got in touch with me about her site, I had no idea she had been planning it for the past three years! All that planning sure paid off, though; the entire project took us about two weeks, and only five hours or so on my part.

As they say, “Luck favors the prepared!”

The portfolio of filmmaker Cara Biasucci, CaraMia Media sports custom sidebar content for each page, a variety of typographical styles, and custom artwork from Pete Joison (who also did the dolphins for Bright Coconut).

Because this was a brand-new site, and not a redesign, we used a custom placeholder to inform visitors that her site was coming soon, while we worked on the rest “behind the scenes.”

For my own personal site, I wanted to keep it stylish, yet simple. I wanted it to be colorful and unique, without being overpowering.

And thanks to the guys at WooThemes—whose themes I use for the jumping-off points of all my designs these days—I got what I was hoping for. A few typography tweaks, custom backgrounds, and playing around with some page templates, and I’m off and running.

After creating the Heart of Business website, Mark Silver wanted to give his membership site, The Business Oasis, a matching face-lift. And, the aesthetic changes were just the beginning…

The old site was running on amember with a phpBB forum, two systems that were driving them nuts. They asked if it was possible to have a membership system and forum solution that would be integrated with WordPress. My answer: You bet.

The Business Oasis now runs entirely through WordPress, has a bbPress forum, a custom Member Directory, and extensive archives for his members.

My long-time friend Mark Silver had a successful business that was seriously out-growing his old website, so we updated his look and feel, and moved everything into WordPress to make it easier to manage, as well as bring his blog into a more prominent position on the site.

One fun aspect of the project was creating a unique sidebar for each of his products and services pages (and there are a lot of them!). Mark is also a very expressive writer, so there was a large focus on custom typographical styles to capture the moods and inflections of his words.

The blog of Corrina Gordon-Barnes, a coach from the UK. I had an absolute blast working with her on her site.

Designed to be the jumping-off point for both of her sites, and the “business side” of her online presence, JenniferLouden.com is the official home of author, consultant, and coach Jennifer Louden (aka “Comfort Queen“).

Comfort Queen is the blog of author/consultant/coach Jennifer Louden. Jennifer wanted her sites to be minimalistic, yet playful and colorful. The two sites share a similar design, and complementary color schemes.

Michele and Sara at Working With Power had a site design they liked, but needed a whole ‘nother level of functionality, including a fully-integrated blog. This is what we came up with.

The CrossFit Fire site was a fun one, in that they didn’t want to redesign their site at all — they just wanted it in WordPress. So, I decided to see how fast I could rebuild their site from scratch (website, for time!): ~3 hours.

Susan Smith of Grace Personified approached me to create a minimalist, yet elegant website for her spiritual healing practice.