Jim McKell Art Studio (Pottery)

[MarcC]

Just launched my father-in-law's pottery studio website: Jim McKell Art Studio. Technically I suppose it's nothing super special, but it's been really fun to put his work on display. Enjoy.

[diogo]

Love it! Both the website and the objects

[Marty Walker]

Nice work Marc.

[renobird]

Marc,

Nicely done. I like the subtle transitions here and there, and the overall design is super clean and easy to navigate.

I love how well commented all your code is too (yeah, I'm a snoop).

One thing I did notice, is that the prev/next links can get long on some items and end up pushed to 2 lines. Especially once you get down to the smaller device sizes. It's not really a huge deal, but it might be nice to have the prev/next links show the item name on hover for the larger widths, and then maybe just hide the name all together at smaller device widths. This are all opinions of course, and very nitpicky suggestions—overall it's a very nice site.

[DaveP]

Really nice site. Plain, simple, nice typography complements the subject matter well, and responsive!

[MarcC]

Love it! Both the website and the objects

Thanks, diogo!

Nice work Marc.

Appreciate it, Marty. Big fan of your work, too.

Nicely done. I like the subtle transitions here and there, and the overall design is super clean and easy to navigate.

I love how well commented all your code is too (yeah, I'm a snoop).

Thanks! And you're probably seeing plenty of comments from the framework I used, though I do like to use comments. Still bouncing around trying to get a feel for the different responsive approaches. I yanked a TON of junk out of this one. Lots of interactive bling that felt like it got in the way.

I'm working on another site using Initializr's H5BP mobile first setup, and I really, really like the simplicity of it. I hope to work in some more specific layouts between the different viewport sizes, too.

Next week I begin work on a government site that will have a separate mobile component, so I'm starting to brainstorm the different approaches. Also looking for a good PHP mobile detection / shunting method; let me know if you know of any. So far I've looked into the one TXP's adi_mobile uses: php-mobile-detect. I'm excited to really make the mobile experience special & useful somehow, without breaking continuity too much. I like the Carnation Group's mobile site, mostly because it feels like they actually put a lot of effort into it.

One thing I did notice, is that the prev/next links can get long on some items and end up pushed to 2 lines.

Funny, I thought about that all weekend! I had arrived at the idea of just truncating the title and adding ellipses, but your ideas are really great. I'll probably start with the easiest and work my way up from there as I have time. I need to address the same problem on my own site (just generally long titles, not fun to look at) but my stats show that the intra-section navigation is too valuable to leave out.

Also gotta fix that ugly double-green-band footer.

Really nice site. Plain, simple, nice typography complements the subject matter well, and responsive!

Thanks, Dave! I appreciate your comments.

[charliez]

Wonderful Marc, both the pottery and the site!

Very clean, classy... the only thing I would change would be the Facebook widget

and just place a Facebook button at the top... but that is just me....

[statestreet]

Ah, that typography just makes me happy to look at. Befitting of a high-end gallery publication.

[AnotherAndrew]

Great work Marc. Easy to navigate. Beautiful treatment of the type. Stunning. And the pottery is phenomenal. I might make a purchase for a gift one day!

My only suggestion is to have a mousover for the gallery similar to what you did for the collection highlights.

Keep up the good work.

[ryan]

Beautiful work Marc. Love the site and the work. I agree with Charliez that the facebook widget is an eyesore. But take that as a compliment because the site looks so great that it makes the facebook widget seem out of place.

[MarcC]

Thanks for the comments, everybody! I am getting a bit sick of FB Like Boxes, too. And a bit tired of the ephemeral nature of Facebook posting, to tell the truth. So I'll look at another way of presenting that info.

AnotherAndrew, you mean the visual effect of the rollover for the gallery items? There's a slight effect now but if you mean a border, maybe I'll try it out.

[AnotherAndrew]

Marc, ahh now I see the effect, the slight adjustment in the image opacity. But yes, what I was thinking was the addition of the slight gray border. Or you could do both, opacity and border.

Also, I didn't want to say it but I see that others are in agreement, I'm not a fan of the facebook fan box. How about just having a link to a facebook page via the square f facebook icon? Or some text saying "like us on facebook"? I feel the facebook fan box just spoils the cleanness of the design, is a distraction, and reminds me too much of a wordpress blog.

[MarcC]

I like the border effect more than the opacity effect, now that I've examined the two.

How about just having a link to a facebook page via the square f facebook icon?

Agreed. After visiting the Met website today (example) I have some ideas for changing the look of the social media integration. I'm excited to do more with the design after I work on the ecommerce side a bit.