Dr. Sketchy's hub site
Led design and front-end for a CMS hub connecting 100+ Dr. Sketchy's branches worldwide — profiles, a shared blog, events, and ticketing — launched in two months against a tight deadline.
Context
In 2010, drsketchy.com needed to grow into a CMS-based website with user profiles for all 100+ active branches of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. I led as project manager for the site's design and kept adding features as the site grew. The team included a designer for the new identity and wireframes, a back-end developer for templates, custom plugins and search, and a QA tester; I ran front-end development, member onboarding, and ongoing maintenance.
The problem
The original drsketchy.com was a static site listing branches and locations, with a simple PHP blog and event listings used only by the NYC branch. With nearly 100 licensed branches operating worldwide, it needed a dedicated hub where fans and local members could find their branch through individual profiles, and where the whole network could share what was happening through a common blog.
What I did
I was handed the project after it was already behind schedule, with a plan to build an original CMS. I scrapped that, and after researching and comparing existing software, settled on ExpressionEngine — its plugins covered event listings, ticket sales, mailing lists, and multi-user profiles with access management, and its PHP base made it easy to learn and customize. (We'd also had security issues with WordPress's standard platform.)
Working from screens designed in Photoshop, I built the templates in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With the team of three, the site launched in two months, meeting a tight deadline. Afterward, the QA tech and I built an internal wiki and an onboarding PDF; I trained all branch directors on the site and kept maintaining it and training new directors for several years, adding sponsor listings, a new photo gallery, and steady improvements.
The site was handed off to a new coordinator in 2018.