Weeknotes 22:38

December 6, 2022

Week of November 27–December 3

Site Launch

Last week, we launched a project for Principal Media, a company that licenses its vast content catalog to top-tier TV channels and digital platforms worldwide. The company is expanding its capabilities to create original productions. We built them a new site to help them communicate this new direction.

We were excited to receive this feedback from the client after the official launch.

I think the biggest compliment I can pay is that every time I go back to the site, I love the experience and how it presents/unfolds when first landing there. Great first impression for anyone, which is what I most hoped for. And still a visually impressive umpteenth impression considering how many times I’ve been back.

Many thanks for all the last minute tweaks to get this up and running for launch day!

The site is built with Gutenberg blocks in WordPress, the third site I have built this way in recent months. I started the project by sketching out the blocks I needed. I put a bit more thought into how I could reuse one block type by adding options to create the different layouts and content variations that the design called for. This allowed me to keep the block count lower than in some previous projects.

It helped me to have a visual representation of the blocks as I planned out reusing the same blocks for different layout or content.
An example of one of the block variations on the site.

I am very happy with several animations that I created for the site using GreenSock. I created several different variations for the different hero pages with text animating in and out. I am hoping to add some more animation in phase 2 of the project. We had to revise our original plans because the launch date was moved up.

This was my first project to collaborate with Karissa, who joined our design team in late June. I had been excited to build out one of her designs after seeing her work on other projects. I enjoyed getting to know her and hanging out with her at our in-person retreat last month. We had a lot of interaction in the last weeks of the project as the design continued to evolve and unfold based on client feedback. I look forward to working with her again on my next project which begins next week.

Highlights from the week

  • I celebrated my 4th anniversary as a full-time employee with LGND. As I mentioned in a post in August, I started with LGND as a contractor and then moved into a full-time position a little over a year later. This is the longest relationship I have had with one employer since I left Campus Crusade for Christ in 2010. I worked in different positions for that organization over a span of 16 years. I continue to count it a great privilege to work on a team of such talented people.
  • I had some time in between projects to finish a WordPress guide for the Energy Efficiency Hub that launched last month. I had built a previous guide in the WordPress admin with custom HTML and CSS. This time, I built a custom WordPress template, created a new content type, and then built out the guide using Gutenberg blocks. The guide focuses on the custom Gutenberg blocks that we created to build out the design. Some of the blocks have been modified since launch so I went back and updated some pages I created at the beginning of the month. I included some tips on how to build pages for future task groups and things I have learned about using the Gutenberg editor. It felt good to finish the guide to better equip the client to manage and build new pages on their site.
  • I did several estimates for different clients that wanted to add new features to their sites, including the Energy Efficiency Hub.
  • I played Gartic Phone with several of my teammates on Friday for our team Campfire. It is like the game telephone except with drawings. You get different prompts at the beginning that alternate between describing drawings other teammates have done and creating new drawings based on prompts or guesses by other teammates. In the end, we see the end product and had lots of laughs. I look forward to playing this game again in the future.

Articles I read

Books I am reading

What I watched

  • Downton Abbey (Prime)
  • Kim’s Convenience (Netflix)
  • Assembled: Thor Love and Thunder (Disney+)
  • Light and Magic (Disney+) – We finally watched the final episode of this documentary series.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming (Blu-Ray)

What I listened to

I started listening to Christmas albums this week.

  • Christmas by Michael W. Smith – I love the orchestral music and choral music on this one.
  • Adore: Christmas songs of worship live by Chris Tomlin
  • Our Christmas – another favorite from the 80s.

What I played

  • FIFA23 (Manchester City and US National Team) – I started playing a World Cup tournament with Team USA over the weekend. I am still alive in the tournament and will play in the round of 16 next.

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