Yummy Wakame

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Sock Dreams

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This was my first freelance project and is still one of my favourites.

Sock Dreams is a massive online sock shop for collectors of unusual socks that are hard to find anywhere else. I designed and built the new site to replace the old one which the client had lovingly made by hand over the years, but was becoming increasingly difficult to add products too. With all the images the site was becoming slower and slower to load and the navigation was increasingly problematic.

With over 800 products and growing by the week, it was essential to have a CMS (content management system) to easily add and delete products to the catalogue. I designed a new layout that had to load fast and complemented my client's unique style while appealing to a broader audience than the original site. The bespoke PHP backend was developed by Sybrand Strauss to my technical spec. I built the page layouts with CSS (cascading stylesheets) to increase content spiderability and ensure that Sock Dreams remained at the top of the search engines. The shopping cart system is the only remaining module from the old site, and will be replaced in 2005.

Due to its high rankings on search engines, a copy of the original site can still be found at www.fetishize-me.com.

Client's comments

"I found Olivia's portfolio to be quite impressive and I was even more impressed upon actually working with her. She is extremely professional and well organized. The results were spectacular and exceeded my expectations. I cannot say enough about how impressed I've been with the results. Sock Dreams is well organized and has a professional feel that has resulted in a huge increase in sales. Not only is it easier than ever for my customers to find what they want, it is easier for me to update products allowing me to keep it up-to-the-minute current.

I would recommend Olivia to anyone seeking a professionally designed site. In fact, I have already recommended her to several friends and family members."

What the customers are saying

"Holy c**p, the new design looks fantastic! I couldn't figure out what website I was looking at for a second. :)" ~ LK

"I just want to let you know that I love the website's new look! Much, much easier to navigate and to find what you're looking for!" ~ Ingrid S

"Really, it's a great makeover. Your navigation systems are lovely. I can find striped toe socks eighty-five ways from Sunday, as they say. Couldn't be better. Load speed is great. The journal is a nice touch that doesn't interfere with shopping. The pages aren't cluttered with a lot of fancy business. Great work!" ~ Onomiko