Overview
BookClubbish.com is a Harlequin Books property that helps promote and encourage the formation and continuation of book clubs all over the world. The brief for BookClubbish.com was meant to be a small design update from its original design. Their team was redesigning the logo and wanted me to integrate it into the previous site. Unfortunately the logo designers did a poor job of integrating the existing colors or aesthetic into the updated logo.
Challenges
The first challenge was finding a way to redesign the site around the new logo in a way that fit the client’s budget, while integrating WordPress author functionality in a way that benefitted the site content all in a responsive web design package.
Solutions
Reflecting the artistic direction of the new logo, I created a minimalist design that kept unnecesary stylistic flourises to a minimum. This had a two-fold effect in reducing the design and development time to keep it within the client’s budget.
On the backend I was able to build utilize WordPress’s custom post type functionality for the books, and then use its author functionality to link those books. Leveraging WordPress’s native functionality allowed me to keep the size of the site small, and deliver content quickly and efficiently, without the use of third-party plugins. This had a knock-on effect of keeping site maintenance low and reducing client headaches and hassles for plugin management and updates.
Results
BookClubbish.com is a beautiful, minimalist site that took a difficulty and turned it into an asset, using bright complementary colors to brighten and embolden the site. An easy-to-use back end allowed the client to easily and confidently publish book reviews for their book club members knowing that users could easily navigate through related titles and authors.
