The International Symposium on Fireworks is held once every year or two. Fred Wade, of Nova Scotia’s Fireworks FX Inc., and a leading “light” in pyrotechnics, organizes the event and asked for a redesign of the Symposium’s website.
I don’t often work on a black background because it’s a bit harder to read, but for a fireworks theme it makes total sense. Choosing the colour scheme was fun. For readability, I like the gold text – I find it easy on the eyes. Colour-coding the menu helps people find what they’re looking for.
For the slideshows of past Symposia, I used a PHP script by Greg Lawler that I’ve employed in a number of other sites, including the Nova Scotia Photo Album, except that this time there were so many photos in each slideshow (up to 240) that the thumbnails (1) needed to appear, so that people could find the pictures they wanted to see, but (2) needed to NOT be on the same page as the slideshow, or they would slow it down too much.
I’m not a PHP programmer, but I figured it out, and am pleased with the results (and with myself!). The thumbnails appear on a second page, and when you click on one, it links you back to the first page with the slideshow. See these Mexican fireworks for an example. Oh, and if you ever go to Mexico, take in some fireworks if you can.