Project Overview: A Bespoke Digital Presence
Great Ocean Road Real Estate is the largest and most dynamic agency in their region, with a premium brand that needed a website to match. This project was a complete build from scratch to create a high-end, custom WordPress site that would serve as their primary marketing and operations hub.
From 2019 to 2021, I was the frontend developer responsible for building out the new theme and providing ongoing support. I worked in a close, collaborative partnership with a Senior WordPress Developer and a UI/UX designer to bring their vision to life.
The Challenge: "Pixel-Perfect" on a Dynamic Platform
The primary challenge was to take a designer's high-fidelity, "pixel-perfect" mockups and translate them into a fully dynamic and maintainable custom WordPress theme.
The design featured a clean, airy layout with a strong emphasis on brand. It required a high degree of frontend polish, including subtle, meaningful CSS animations to create a premium user experience. This meant we couldn't just use an off-the-shelf theme; every component had to be hand-crafted.
My Solution: A Collaborative "From-Scratch" Build
Working in tandem with the Senior WP Developer, we divided and conquered. He architected the backend logic and plugin integrations, while I was responsible for building the entire frontend.
1. Custom Theme Development Using SASS, PHP, and JavaScript (with jQuery for specific libraries), I wrote the theme from a blank slate. This gave us complete control over the HTML structure for SEO and the styling for performance.
2. Pixel-Perfect Translation I collaborated closely with the designer, meticulously translating their static designs into responsive, interactive components. A key part of this was a focus on "subtle but meaningful" CSS animations—like gentle fades, slide-ins, and hover effects—that gave the site a polished, premium feel without sacrificing performance.
3. Expanding WordPress Functionality As the site grew, I was responsible for expanding its capabilities. This included:
- New Templates: Building new, custom-coded page templates for various marketing campaigns.
- Custom Post Types (CPTs): Creating new post types in PHP to manage specific content (like team members or office locations) so the client could easily update them.
- CRM & 3rd-Party Integration: I handled the frontend integration for their CRM and various third-party JavaScript libraries, ensuring they were loaded efficiently and worked perfectly within the custom theme.
The Outcome: A Polished, Reliable Partnership
We successfully launched a beautiful, high-performance website that perfectly matched the client's premium brand and the designer's vision.
For the Client:
- They received a truly bespoke website that was fast, easy for their team to manage, and set them apart in their market.
- I provided over two years of consistent, reliable support, handling bug fixes and rolling out new features to keep the site fresh and functional.
For Me (The Developer):
- This project was a fantastic demonstration of teamwork. My collaboration with the Senior WordPress Developer was effortless and highly productive, proving my ability to be a reliable partner in a complex, remote-build environment.
- It solidified my skills in translating a strong design vision into a high-quality, maintainable, and "pixel-perfect" custom WordPress theme from the ground up.