Look Sharp Designs

When Robin Nobles and John Alexander teamed up to create Search Engine Workshops in 2002, they chose Look Sharp Designs, which also opened its doors in 2002, to create its website template. Little did we know that they would still be using the original design in 2010. In fact, Search Engine Workshops was our first customer and we’re still very proud of the design we created for them; so much so, that our first site design used the same basic template.

Of course, we interviewed Robin to find out how they intended to use the site, who their customers might be and get their ideas on layout, functionality, typography and colors. This is the design we came up with. Robin and John were a delight to work with providing guidance when needed and acting promptly when reviews and sign offs were needed.

The site features a large header, which was necessary for the custom logo to fit properly. As such, there is a large area of empty space on the right side of the header. We included markup in the template so that the area can be used for advertising, callouts or anything else that the client may wish to put in the space.

We decided on a horizontal scheme for the main navigation, saving the right sidebar for secondary navigation or any other content the client may wish to place in it. In this case, Robin and John decided to use it for some of the testimonials they’ve garnered from past students to further strengthen their product offering.

To cut back on their start up costs, Robin and John only requested a template that they could use to create their content. We attempted to make this as foolproof as possible, but, occasionally the widths on the columns gets a little messed up and needs to be fixed. Because of this, if we could recreate the site, we’d rebuild it using WordPress. We’re confident that we could take the layout and color scheme and create a custom WordPress theme. By doing so, John and Robin would never again have to fix the minor problems that occasionally occur with the HTML/CSS template we built for them in 2002. As an added benefit, they could open up their site to guest writers if they so desired, as well as take advantage of the many plug ins available.

Visit Search Engine Workshops to get the entire experience.