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Better Burnside Website

The Better Burnside Alliance, a group of neighborhood citizens and businesses who are proposing a better plan for the West Burnside and NW Couch Couplet in Portland, wanted a new blog-based news website in a hurry. And, we delivered this cool little Wordpress website that can grow as big as needed — conveying news, updates, links to other articles and studies, and more.

Favorite Wordpress Plugins

OK, so you know that we love Wordpress for building new websites, and one of the reasons we do is that it is so extendable and customizable. There are literally thousands of plugins available for Wordpress that add functionality or change the look-and-feel of your site, but which ones are our favorites? Click here for our Top 10 short list!

Read more about the cost benefits of using Wordpress as your CMS solution.

Imagine the Future Campaign

DBD+A designed all of the marketing and promotional campaign components for the Laurelhurst School Auction + Party, including posters, banners, t-shirts, buttons and the official website. The various pieces were very bright and cheerful, and really caught your eye when walking around the school! The beautiful t-shirt screen printing was donated by Ivy Studio. Click the thumbnails for larger versions.

Is Wordpress a CMS? Yep.

A recent article in PC World, WordPress Guns for Web Content Management Duties posed the question, is Wordpress finally at a technological level to be a qualified as a CMS (Content Management System)?

“There’s a debate raging within Twitter about whether traditional blogging platform WordPress is also a CMS,” wrote Tony Byrne in a blog post. Byrne is the founder of the CMS analyst firm The Real Story Group, formerly called CMS Watch. “Our take: many organizations are using WordPress as a CMS. That makes it a CMS.”

Our response is the same. For smaller websites, Wordpress gives you all the control and all the muscle you really need to build a fully-functioning modern website. And if there’s a particular tool you need that’s not included, you can usually find it as a plugin from the Wordpress Website. In fact, there are now over 9,000 plugins available that let you add calendars, custom contact forms, slide shows, e-commerce, expert SEO and more!

And, all of this power comes with a price-tag that is usually significantly less than building a website in Drupal, Dreamweaver, or Expression Engine. In fact, cost is one of the big benefits for smaller businesses. Why use a jack-hammer to build a site, when a small hand-held hammer will do quite nicely?

For WNET, using WordPress cut the cost of setting up a television Web site, from an estimated average of US$25,000 to $40,000 down to $5,000 to $10,000, according to a white paper posted by WNET and digital design firm Tierra Innovation, which helped with the implementation.

Ready to have your new website built quick and cost-efficiently in Wordpress? You can contact us today (via our Contact Form plug-in) or learn more here.

Website CMS for Real Estate Broker

Here’s a nice, simple and uncluttered CMS (content management system) website we put together in Wordpress for local real estate broker, Peter Champ. The site’s content can be easily updated by the client after logging-in and using a simple Word-like interface.

A First-Class Website

New Website for Earth Class Mail that we designed in conjunction with the client with CSS styling by Felipe Lujan-Bear of Liquidbook. The site replaces their old site that was difficult to maintain, and even more troublesome to navigate. Now with a .Net CMS system for navigation elements and a locked-down CSS, the site can grow and adapt as needed and still look as pretty as the day it launched. Click image for larger view, and see secondary navigation here.

Totally Zapped!

We recently completed a big Wordpress Website design project that comprised of two separate, but similarly branded websites that cater to each of our client’s two target audiences. The client is EdZapp, a jobs application and hiring site for Education, and their 2 audiences are teachers and related staff who are looking for jobs, and schools and districts that are looking to hire. Previously we had helped EdZapp design the User Interface for their web-based application and tracking software, so it was great to finally give them a “front end” design that compliments their “backend.”

Click the thumbnails for larger views, or visit the live sites now…

Wilfs Web Site Launches

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new Wilfs Restaurant Web site. Built in Wordpress, the new site actually uses the same base template as the DBD+A site, but looks decidedly different. Their new site is now a truer reflection of the spirit of Wilfs and is brimming with news, information and more! Please let us know what you think, and be sure to sign-up for Wilfs’ mailing list to be the first to get their latest news and special event invitations, as well as a coupon good for 15% off your next lunch or dinner at Wilfs!

DBD+A Site Wins Smackdown!

OK, we actually won the Showcase Showdown–the inaugural site design contest from Woo Themes, not an actual smackdown. But our site did receive 80% of the total votes! Just think what we could do for your website’s design… Really, think about it. Here’s what some of the responder’s had to say about our site’s design:

“I’m going to have to go with DBDA. It’s simple, clean, and current.”

“DBDA, hands-down winner.”

“DBDA for me. It’s fresh. The copy and images stand out (especially the dog) and really grab your attention. The white background keeps it crisp. You’ve only got a short amount of time to grab and keep people’s interest and DBDA got through to me asap.”

“DBDA Studio is my choice! Awesome!”

“Definitely DBDA. Looks superb. Any chance of sharing how DBDA did the animation?”

“I like it a lot because it’s clean and minimal. Especially for the type of business that they are promoting. Our firm does the same type work and I have definitely learned a few things from a quick visit to their site.”

DBDA in Showcase Showdown!

After we designed our new website using one of Woo Themes’ superb and sublime Wordpress themes, we submitted our URL to their customized theme showcase. Now, we’re happy to report that our site is part of Woo Themes’ very first Showcase Showdown! Check out the contest, and don’t forget to vote!

Learn more about Wordpress-based Web sites.