Client site for an events promotions business

[megsmitley]

Hi all,

Yesterday we launched a new site for Busspepper, a specialist in premium Caribbean entertainment in London. We believe that we have worked through the teething problems and would be delighted for your feedback.

http://www.busspepper.com

Best wishes,
Meg

[ben_pyman]

Really lovely work Meg.

Love the inner page layout with the 4 widget looking areas under the feature section (ie. Video page).

And nice restraint in the overall design, good strong limited colour palette, not crowded, not overwhelmed with unnecessary background.

I really like it!

[megsmitley]

Hi Ben, that is very kind, thank you! There's still a few little niggles to work through - as there always is just after going live - but we're very happy with the overall effect. Glad you agree! Thanks for checking it out and for leaving your feedback.

By the way, the bottom feature section is an instance of the Catalyst Excerpt Widget with some messing about to make the excerpts float to the left: http://catalysttheme.com/forum/showt...al-excerpts%29

[eric]

Excellent job! As Ben said:

...nice restraint in the overall design, good strong limited colour palette, not crowded, not overwhelmed with unnecessary background.

Eric

[megsmitley]

Thanks, Eric! Means a lot coming from you folks. We're pleased with the results and we are diving into another site this week with a totally different layout and palette (though keeping to our minimal style). Catalyst makes it so easy! My love for this software gets deeper the longer I stick with it; like a good marriage

[eric]

Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus, that it can sometimes take a little time to really "get" Catalyst, but once you do, and as you peel more and more layers away, it just gets better and better.

That's why it's hard when I see some give up after a few days of "playing", saying they need something "simpler", knowing that in those same few days they'll have used up all that those "simpler" themes have to offer, leaving them wanting/needing more.

That's when they come back.

Not to go off on a tangent, but I'm just thinking out loud here...

Catalyst is a lot like Photoshop, where many other themes are more like Microsoft Paint (I seriously don't mean this in any disrespect).

My point is that you can pop open MS Paint for the very first time and start creating colorful squares, circles and lines right away, but with Photoshop you might spend the first half hour trying to figure out how to change the main background color.

So that instant gratification is right there with MS Paint, and instant frustration with Photoshop. But after a few days you've used up all that MS Paint has to offer and you realize that what you can create with it is very limited. That's where you realize the benefit of taking a little extra time to learn Photoshop, reaping the rewards of near limitless potential.

So we've got one of the best Themes out there, as far as we're concerned, we're just working hard to bridge that gap between those willing to learn Catalyst and those not. This is where more Dynamik Skins come in (Catalyst Marketplace, anyone?! ) as well as the possibility of a kind of basic version of Dynamik (very Basik).

OK, enough spilling the beans. Back to work I go...

Eric

[megsmitley]

That's a great analogy, Eric! I agree with you. A steep initial learning curve can be off putting - you see this with folk who go past WordPress for Blogger, but then end up without the features and support for a proper professional web presence - but, like so much in life, if you push through the rewards are great. Reminds me of a post by Kathy Sierra about the relationship between time, the suck threshold and the kick ass curve http://headrush.typepad.com/creating...g_users_p.html. I came to Catalyst from Frugal and while I still have a lot to learn to fully leverage Catalyst (as it is now much less as it grows!), I believe that you guys have got the Kick Ass Curve working for you much better on this second product than with Frugal. Not to mention this fantastic forum which you and the team cultivate so well. Got a problem? Check the forum or post a thread - in no time it'll be solved!

Thanks for making this wonderful thing, trickle down of positivity to my business and the businesses Sproutee serves

</endcatalystgrouphug> Back to the code face for me too!

Meg

[junioratoms]

Hot Hot Hot!

[megsmitley]

Hot Hot Hot!

Love it, thanks!

[thefamilykeys]

Very good indeed Meg.

I clicked on the +1 button because the site deserves it.

I'm months behind you on the learning curve, but working through the Cheatsheet is really helping.

John