Damage+Control

**This assignment had originally been listed as allowing students to work in pairs on the syllabus. I have scaled it back – you are now expected to work on it by yourself (but the final project may be completed in teams of two).**
 * CCT360: Damage Control Assignment**
 * Assigned: October 11th**
 * Due: November 1st**
 * Evaluation: 10% of final mark**


 * Overview:** More often than not, you use an existing theme when designing a WordPress site. Some themes are ready to go 'out of the box' and others are more minimal and 'built up'. When working with themes that are relatively complete, a web designer often find themselves removing unwanted elements and editing the stylesheet prepared by the original theme developer. This assignment will challenge the class to try to make do with a heinous WordPress theme, entitled [|Esther Artistic]. Each student will be required to install this theme as a //starting point// and then alter the CSS declarations on the style.css file to try to make a site that is 'a little easier on the eyes'.


 * Exercise:** Install the Esther Artistic theme and make it your own. Try to improve the site design based off the principles covered in class and your own taste. In order to truly test the site you will need some filler content. Note the content requirements in the list of constraints below.


 * Constraints:**
 * You must use at least three fonts (these can be from one font family).
 * You must replace (or get rid of) every image of a flower in the theme.
 * You must serve at //least// one font through either [|TypeKit] or [|Google Web Fonts]. //See [|this walkthrough] for instructions on how to get TypeKit working with WordPress.//
 * You must create at least six 'filler' blog posts. These posts must include a smattering of hyperlinks, [|blockquote] text, bold and italic text and an unordered and ordered lists – the styling of **all** of these elements must be altered from the base state of theme.
 * At least one of your posts should have a comment.
 * At least two of your posts must contain captioned images.
 * You must create at least five 'filler' pages and have them all linked within the main menu.
 * You must have at least three of the default widgets in the right sidebar.


 * Hints:**
 * You are not expected to change the site layout – in fact that is not advised. Focus on the general styling.
 * Make a backup of your style.css every so often, that way if you don't like the direction you are heading (or break something) you can 'roll back' to the archived stylesheet.
 * It might be easier to determine how to go about the design if you imagine the site having a specific owner or audience – e.g. a site for car audio enthusiasts, a snarky pop culture blog, etc. (choose/organize your filler content accordingly)
 * This might be a good opportunity to test out a plug-in or two that you are interested in (just make sure that doing so doesn't pull your focus away from the design requirements)
 * //If you want to change the way that Esther Artistic truncates posts into teasers please note the 'helpful plugins' page that Jeremy has started.//


 * Submission Guidelines:** Email the instructor when you are complete at greg.smith1@sheridanc.on.ca and send along your style.css file – we know which URLs each of you are using but we will NOT inspect your site until we get a heads up from you that you are complete. The assignment is not complete until you've sent notification and your style.css file along.


 * Evaluation:** The rubric for the assignment has been posted below. Marks will be awarded for themes that are both readable and scannable, demonstrate effective font selection and 'authorship' over the default style settings of the theme. Marks will be deducted if the constraints listed above are not satisfied and **assignments submitted that are based on themes other than 'Esther Artistic' will not be accepted**. Beyond the rubric, spend some time reviewing the examples of work produced by your peers for the 'Apple Tart' exercise that were posted to the wiki. Assignments not received on November 1st will be considered late and subject to the late penalties described on the course outline.