I wonder why my post titles have had so much to do with the current state of the season lately. Either way, Happy Spring!

It’s an exciting time here at Blog What? Design! We are currently taking on new projects for the May - July season. If you are interested in receiving a quote for your project, please contact us. However, please note that we will not be able to complete your project before this time period.

Additionally, our starting prices have gone up from $700 to approximately $1200 per project. Business has been competitive and we would like to provide our clients with the best service possible.

One final note: I have been experiencing an infinite number of problems with my e-mail within that last two months thanks to my transfer over to Gmail. If you have not received a reply, please e-mail me at your convenience.

SO! There’s been quite a bit going on this side of the Hudson lately! I feel like I owe an explanation for the lack of activity. Maybe not, but here’s my life within the past few months anyways:

• Ahmadinjad came to Columbia University amidst great controversy. I had a few hearty political debates with around three cameras in my face at all times (as did every other student that day). Check out some interesting photos from the event.


• I got through my first semester of college! Woohoo! And no. Unless we’re Facebook friends, there are no “interesting photos” so see from that.


• I have reaffirmed my belief that New York City is the best city in the entire world and that every undergraduate who isn’t attending college here is seriously missing out.


• I interned for two months at College Humor as a web developer—owned by Connected Ventures. I subsequently learned that working for free is not cool.


• I became online editor at The Columbia Daily Spectator. Since the beginning of the semester I have launched an entirely new blog network—entitled SpecBlogs—completed many upgrades for the publishing company’s websites, and have many big plans in place! (Including some super awesome web applications never before seen by any other College Daily… no Harvard… not even your ”Crimson” will be putting out stuff as cool as us.


• I hatched up a brand new business plan… which involves fashion and websites; these are very obviously two things I truly enjoy. More on this possibly soon…


• I bought a black fedora and I wear it everywhere.


• … because I have finally started to take on new projects at Blog What? Design and will hopefully be blogging quite a bit more after the semester settles in.

And life couldn’t be happier Anyways, that’s it for now! 

The new website at Nick on Wine has certainly been one of the most exciting projects at Blog What? Design. Let me tell you a little bit about this “intoxicating” website…

Mr. Passmore was referred to me from one of my previous clients. The concept for the website he needed was simple yet precise. It would be a website that would showcase his articles and… his life.

“His life?” you ask? Mr. Passmore is one of the premiere wine critics in the world. His articles are featured in publications such as Forbes, BusinessWeek, and many, many more.

The task presented to me was certainly exciting. Mr. Passmore provided me with a selection of photos he wanted to incorporate into the site. As you can see, three of those magnificent wine photos are featured at the top of the design, and a few more around presented around the rest of the site.

Next came the color scheme. What better colors to choose than burgundy and champagne? Mr. Passmore already had a great, modern logo designed, so I grabbed these colors right from his business card.

The features of Mr. Passmore’s site suit his needs perfectly. The focal point of Nick on Wine is ”Nick’s Wine of the Week.” Each week, Mr. Passmore publishes a new article showcasing a wine of his choice. I was able to make use of WordPress’ custom fields, and provided him with a dynamic template and form in which he could enter his rating of the wine, food pairings, etc… Each new “NWOW” is featured on the front page, while the previous wine is archived.

Another aspect of Mr. Passmore’s career is his corporate wine events. To showcase this, I featured a page-link at the top with a promotional bit of information he provided me with. Alongside the explanation of his services is a lovely photo Mr. Passmore during one of his events.

Nick on Wine also features Mr. Passmore’s latest articles and a chance to comment on them, along with his own wine blog.

The final (and one of the most humorous) aspects of Nick on Wine is the gallery page. Mr. Passmore needed a static page which he could edit easily and constantly with photos and captions of his choice. I installed a few more plugins to WordPress’ TinyMCE editor which allowed him to create a table to drop any number of photos he wished.

So, looking for a great wine to accompany your meal tonight? Need to supply a corporate “wine and dine” event? If you’re an expert or a novice, looking for a great deal or the top of the line, Nick on Wine certainly has something to offer. Blog What? Design had a pleasure designing and developing Nick on Wine, and we know you’ll have the same pleasure reading Mr. Passmore’s articles as well!

Here’s the latest addition to the portfolio! Crunchy Mustard!

Crunchy Mustard is a personal blog of mine and Christian’s along with our friends Yurij and Ryan. This blog was launched a few months back and features a wide variety of absurd news stories and findings.

I decided on this excellent graphic from Simon Oxley because of its absurd nature and the way it fit into the theme. I put a fishbowl around it and voila: a strange blog logo (but a perfect fit!) was formed.

The aquas and greens fit together naturally; they’re reminiscent of a pond scene. The blog is run strictly off WordPress with your basic features in the sidebar. These include: an about blurb with some pretty funny author photos, the top commenters for the month (along with a link back to their blogs!), your basic blogroll, search spot, category display, and meta section with RSS and login “stuff.”

Our extra cool features include: a small sidebar chat room (it pops with each new message!), and a display of recent readers via mybloglog.  Not found in the sidebar are these great plugins: ajax comments for the permalink pages, and a special “dofollow” feature to allow our visitor’s sites to be crawled by Google!

And the summer is off! It’s been a busy one so far at my end. Currently, I’m blogging to you all via laptop from the Catskill mountains at which I am attending a Ukrainian dance workshop. We’ll be performing at the end of the week for around five to seven thousand people. Woah!

Anyways, there are quite a few projects I am balancing and tying off the loose ends for. These sites include:
Nick On Wine - written by the extremely distinguished wine connoisseur Nick Passmore who has written articles for Forbes, Business Week, and many other publications.
Andrew Stuttaford - currently we’re finishing up and revising hundreds of Mr. Stuttaford’s archived stories (He has written for National Review and The New York Sun among others).
Twirlin’ - An awesome steppin’ site I’m working for my friend and colleague Tyrone.

Plus, I have quite a few projects to catch up the portfolio! So far, it’s been quite a jam-packed summer and it seems it won’t let up much anytime soon. Come September, Christian and I will both be returning (and starting) college. (Fordham University and Barnard College at Columbia University respectively.) Our plans are not yet set in stone, but we will certainly be taking on only select projects come the school year to allow for not only school work, but our own online projects, and *gasp* a social life!

Itching for a design? Stay tuned to see when our schedule will next open up!