Avocado Sweet got in touch at the start of the year looking for a fresh new look for their successful design & lifestyle blog.

Packed with enlightening, inspirational and downright interesting articles, Avocado Sweet is one of those websites you could spend hours on. From art to gardening, there’s bound to be something that’ll grab your interest.

With an ecommerce element required too, once again WordPress ticked all the boxes. The theme was heavily customised to reflect the business, with plenty advertising space and social media integration to help it grow. And JigoShop provided a fully featured online shop where you can buy artworks and items featured on the site.

Get yourself a cuppa and head over to www.avocadosweet.com  (you may be some time, better get some biscuits too).

Emily Hogarth makes stunningly intricate papercut artworks (each piece is cut from a single sheet!) – and has worked for a range of high-profile clients such as Cadburys and Nivea. Emily approached 45b to develop a new site to replace her old blogger site and showcase her amazing artwork.

We managed to develop this a bit further thanks to the flexibility of WordPress – a custom theme was built, based on Emily’s artwork which allowed us to retain the blog element while adding a whole load of new gallery features to really show off the work. On top of this, we integrated the excellent JigoShop ecommerce plugin to handle online sales of Emily’s prints and postcards.

After the site was built, Emily said:

“Craig at 45b web design has been a joy to work with. He made all my website dreams come true and delivered me exactly what I envisaged. He made web design easy to understand and it is such a support to know he is there with advice whenever i need it. I am really pleased to have worked with a local designer, it made such a difference to meet Craig in person and talk through all our ideas. I would highly recommend him to anyone who wants a well designed website by a great company.”

The site launched in April this year and can be viewed at www.emilyhogarth.com

Well, it’s May already and this is the first chance I’ve had to update the blog. The year got off to a flyer with a call from CM Boutique, who wanted a new ecommerce site built as a replacement for their eBay store.  CM Boutique sell a large range of discount cosmetics, make-up supplies and gifts and needed a system that was flexible enough to expand along with their expanding range.

A quick meeting with Caroline allowed us to work out the best way forward. Having used the JigoShop e-commerce plugin on another WordPress site, this seemed like the best solution. With no on-going charges to pay, the only future outlay is on hosting. So, it was just a case of designing the theme – based on Caroline’s current eBay store, and integrating this with a fresh installation of WordPress. The site was online within a month of the first phone call. A nice way to start the year!

Caroline had this to say:

“45b has been great from start to finish. Craig was always willing to listen to my ideas and any changes I wanted made were not a problem. The site was delivered very quickly which I was impressed with and the work is excellent and really reflects what my business is all about. I would recommend 45b for anyone wanting a good qualtiy, professional looking website.”

Then, shortly after launch:

“Thought I’d share with you, I’ve just had my first customer order on the website and I havent even started marketing it yet! :) Very pleased, thank you.”

Visit the site at www.cmboutique.co.uk

Recently finished an ecommerce site for a new homeware shop in Stockbridge, Edinburgh – Elements for Home, purveyors of beautifully designed stuff of all shapes and sizes, from funky cheesegraters to stunning wall-sized custom built clocks. 

The site uses the excellent Shopify system which makes integrating a custom design as simple as possible, and the back-end makes managing products and orders a breeze for the client.

Tom, from Elements said: “I would always work with 45b. I have searched for years for someone like Craig who just gets it and makes it happen. No drama, great value and excellent service. I was delighted. Extremely good value for top-drawer service.”

There’s more to interiors than Ikea, so if you want your home to stand out from the crowd get yourself over to www.elementsforhome.com and fill that basket!