Welcome to Westcoaster 7!
EditorialsAuthor: James Disney
Well guys… it’s finally here! We started our discussions back on February 8th when I had an idea for tweaking things a little bit. Unfortunately nothing ever, ever goes that way with us and soon enough we were planning a whole new version of Westcoaster! Yeah, I know… none of us learn our lessons that easy!
So being that we’re all gluttons for punishment… let’s take you through the process! It started that day with me brainstorming about what we’d include, what wouldn’t be included. A new idea about the structure and how the site works. And of course… a color pallette…
The original swatch
We vetted out different systems for the backend but ended up deciding that if it ain’t broke… we’ll try to break it. Thankfully, despite our best efforts, all the engines that run the site wouldn’t break. Rather, we just added to them and of course, as you’re reading now… we’ve added a blog system! Soon we started working on layout concepts and from early on, you’ll see that we basically landed straight on the idea that you see now…
Andrew’s first concept for WC7
One of the first looks where the site started to look as it does now…
Once we decided on the tree concept… we started adding other things to the logo
Then it was buildings…
And then… on February 14th… we had a winner…
What happened from there… well… we wrestled with trying to fit that over a Joomla backend! Good luck to those of you who actually have the patience to make that software work for you. Lord knows I didn’t have the time or patience to try and make that one work! It is a fine piece of work when it comes to content management. Unfortunately the way it’s set up and the way this site is set up… well, sometimes things just don’t and won’t work together.
So being that the site was in good shape, we weren’t in any rush to finish things. Andrew, Ian and I all have families and other things that keep us from spending every waking moment working on the website. So I set out and made a big list of “here’s what I want” and sent it to Ian… who, god bless him has always been willing to help me out with my hair-brained ideas. For those that don’t know, Ian is really our man behind the curtain who makes everything go. If you’ve ever read one of our updates, and now watch our videos, read the front page… you have him to thank. Basically… what happens to make this site go… well it’s something like this:
- I get a hair-brained idea and send Andrew a note…
- Andrew comes up with something pretty based on my stupidity…
- I then send Ian an e-mail saying “Is this possible or am I an idiot”…
- Ian sends me an answer one way or another…
- SEXY PARTY!
Okay, maybe there’s no sexy party… but you get the idea. For the last 8 years or so now, Andrew, Ian and I have made a good team when it comes to bringing a good looking site to all of you so you can enjoy the articles over the years (not much recently, but that’s changing), and of course… the updates that Dan and I have been bringing you on a near weekly basis. More recently we’ve had a lot of participation from our readers too… some of the site staff have contributed updates as well, and will be doing more of them now that we’ve changed the structure of how updates happen!
So thank you to Albert, Amy, Andrew, Eric, Ian, Luke, Matt, Wes, Ian Clark (of Theme Park Photography) and of course, my right hand man; Dan… these are the people who put up with my silly ideas and for some strange reason still come around when I ask for their help. Without them, Westcoaster wouldn’t be what it is today.
So welcome to Westcoaster Version 7… so brazen it punched a nun in the vag!
-Jim