I created this CSS/HTML template site specifically to sell on ThemeForest. I saw a theme there that inspired me and thought that I could do much better with it. View the live demo here.

As of right now though, I am giving it away for free for one week! (Feb 4-11). After that, it will be sold on Themeforest. Download information at the bottom.

For all you web geeks: it is validated at XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Works in IE 7 & 8, and mostly in IE 6, but why are you using that browser anyways? Go upgrade already. Tested in Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on both Windows & Mac.

The download includes Photoshop files so you can edit whatever you need.

The Cans:
Here’s what you can do with this: You can edit it to your hearts content. You can use it for commercial and non-commercial use. You must give credit for the original work. You must leave “Designed by McCulloughDesign” or some variation thereof in the footer and in the code, as long as it credits McCullough Design in a positive way.

The Cant’s:
You cannot redistribute this work in any way shape or form, even modified.

By downloading this file, you agree to the paragraphs above.

Now that the legal junk is out of the way, have fun with it! DOWNLOAD

Let’s just say that this project was a life lesson for many, many reasons. But I’ll get into that later.

This site is for a South African construction and materials manufacturing company, Group Five. They wanted to roll a CMS website about their company and a place to get financial information all at the same time, while keeping the site simple and clean. My design accomplished this and the client loved what I had produced. I was told that the boys & girls at Happy Cog wrote the back end for it and made it work into their CMS. Apparently, Happy Cog also loved the design, which I consider a very high compliment since they are one of the best major web design firms around.

What I learned on this project:

1. Always have an air-proof  contract, especially when dealing with companies that are overseas.

2. When working with someone outside of your country, require at least 50% upfront, if not more, in the case they disappear suddenly.

3. There can never be too much communication between you and the client. I think I did this quite well in this respect, but unfortunately, the client just stopped responding back and I was left hanging.

4. Even if you lose a whole lot of time and money in a project, if you worked hard and made good work, you have a killer portfolio piece.

This was the first page that I designed for this new product style. It was complicated trying to promote two products, separately, but somewhat at the the same time, without confusing the user. Between the Flash header and the two tabbed sections, this helped accomplish this tricky goal. See the page here.

This page is really two in one. The top header is a Flash piece that rotates between the book and the curriculum. I also art directed both of the header product shots. This new page format I designed has become our standard layout for new books and products. See the actual page here.

This is another comp that never came into being. It was all approved and ready to go, and then someone decided to wait until we redesign the whole site. I really liked the way this turned out, especially compared to the current eStore. So, another comp made it into the portfolio.

This project was given to me mere hours before it was due. I quickly made a Photoshop brush for the hearts, scattered it and used random levels of color saturation. Overall, the result turned out well for only having such a short turn around.

We needed page where you could either log in as a previous partner or join as a partner. I really wanted to keep this page simple and easy, leaving only two options on what you can do, as to not confuse the user. I like the big blue buttons, begging you go click further.

This is an old comp of a video player that I did for JMM. I have included this comp in my portfolio because I really like the simplicity of the design. The tabs at the top keep the page from getting all cluttered, as well as the mouse over video controls. Alas, “the committee” got a hold of this project and put the kitchen sink in it, but I still love this design.