Lessons on Web Design

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

Today we finally went live with the site for Awakening Yourself Life Coaching.

When constructing this site we learned a valuable lesson–to test the design on one’s target market before fully implementing it. We had a design that both Nicole (my Life Coach and client) and I were completely in love with–but we were too close to it. We were therefore unable to see that it was too chaotic to really convey the message–that Nicole’s job as a Life Coach is to help you see practical steps to really help your life–that working with her will make you feel more grounded and centered, while energized and empowered.

We stopped, sacrificed some of the design elements we loved so much, revisited her mission and this is what we came up with: www.awakeningyourselfcoaching.com.

I'm not perfect

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I’m not perfect and that’s okay.

I’ve been obsessing for months about Jenniferheller.com and how it should look, be organized, …

Here it is.  A work in progress. Forever.

Here at jenniferheller.com, I have incorporated my past blog entries once located at daunted.blogspot.com.  I named that blog as such because it is so easy to be daunted in the world…  I find more than anything the need for perfection is what daunts me.

This site is an experiment in putting perfection aside and following my dreams.

What scares me the most (besides earthquakes) is the possibility of never realizing my dreams because I have let perfection keep me in a state of perpetual inaction.

Because Van Gogh My Pet dot com is still not up..

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I post here.

TITO!!

I began painting pet portraits this past February after visiting a craft fair in Orange County. I saw a woman doing a lovely watercolor of a pet with a sign that said “Pet Portraits! For more info call…” I thought, OMG, I need a portrait of Gus BAD! But I was trying to quit my job, and saving money, and I wasn’t really all that into this woman’s style… or lack there of. So I decided that I was going to come home and figure out how to pain a Warhol-like version of the Guster. It came Van Gogh.

Behold my first Warhol My Pet, Andy:

I did it in Photoshop. If I REALLY wanted to, I am sure my friends at Yes Press would make me a screen of the dark layer and screen it onto a canvas on top of my paint and I wonder how much I could charge for a real, live, fake Warhol of a pet?

Hella Fresh Theatre

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I am honored to unveil the new Hella Fresh Theatre website. If I don’t say so myself, I think it’s the best website I have done yet. The day I figured out how the mouse overs were going to work was one of my most creatively satisfying days yet in this lifetime!

This website uses javascript to achieve Flash-like effects. Of course, I wound up having to create the menu both in html and Flash because we wound up requiring Flash for the movie. But I stick by my belief that one should avoid Flash unless it’s absolutely necessary, even when it creates duplicate work!

I fought with Blogger for many hours over the blog section of the website. I wanted to fully host it on our domain so that I could fully customize the layout, and the favicon. Unfortunately, when I moved everything off Blogger, it stopped displaying new posts–though they were being uploaded to our server! After many frustrating hours of trying to get help, I finally moved it back over to Blogger and sacrificed many design points. I am disappointed with Google, who, as you know, I normally worship. Though I considered many other blogging tools, for now we are keeping it on Blogger. If anyone has any advice, please provide!

There are still improvements to be made to fully satisfy my detail-obsessed Virgo moon, but I am ecstatic to release the site to the public!

Hella Fresh Theatre is the works of my great friend, John Rosenberg.