The tricky part with this design was that I wanted to have a blog which was stylistically similar—yet thematically different—from the main site.

Client: Myself, Peter Chordas—freelance writer and web designer by day, post-apocalyptic superhero by night.

Project Description: Build a website for my post-apocalyptic trilogy-in-progress, including a blog, mailing list, and social sharing.

A Quote

On the outskirts of an abandoned city, a nameless warrior rides alone across a land of ruins. His only possessions: an ancient sword, a deadly machine, and a promise.

The Inside Scoop

Terragaste is a post-apocalyptic storyworld which I’ve been developing for over a decade. Several years ago, I began writing a novel in the Terragaste setting which in turn morphed into a trilogy.

Hey—the more the merrier, right?

Well, now I’m working diligently to complete Book One of the tale (entitled Tale of the Red Star Knight), and need a website to serve as the hub for the story, its updates, and all pertaining thereto.

Additionally, in order to have a successful book launch, it’s fairly imperative these days to build an audience in advance… So, enter www.terragaste.com to the rescue!

Site and Blog

The tricky part with this design was that I wanted to have a blog which was stylistically similar—yet thematically different—from the main site and the Terragaste world. I didn’t want to blog exclusively about my book and its progress, nor did I wish to be limited to creating fictional content from the Terragaste setting in blog form.

(I mean, what would be the purpose of writing a book at that point?!)

I wanted a blog that could potentially do those things, but which could also do more—a blog that could grapple with the ideas and subject matter of the Terragaste world and explore how those concepts relate to our everyday lives.

The blog would be called the End Times Gazette, and would feature a unique header and title.

But then…

WordPress said “Not so fast, Buster!”

As I found out, WordPress doesn’t like it when you try to name your site one thing and your blog another.

And it really doesn’t make it easy on you if this is what you want to do. I tried hunting down plugins that could pull it off, searched for answers in forums, and scoured the WordPress documentation for solutions—and found nary a one.

So I had to figure it out on my own.

Ultimately, I found a way to trick WordPress into swapping header information by using some clever PHP and CSS action. And let me tell you—it was a struggle there for a minute.

But it officially works, and my digital dream has at last come true.

Yay!

Logo

For the site logo, I used a—let’s say “distressed”—font as an alpha channel on an image of corroded metal.

Pretty brutal.

With a little embossing action, it looks like the freakin’ apocalypse.

I guess that’s the point, so… There it is.

Promotional Cards

For good measure, I also designed these business cards to hand to folks who express interest in my book.

Good idea? Bad idea?

Not a clue!

But here they are!

My Favorite Part

Apocalyptic website… So brutal…

See the results:
www.terragaste.com
www.terragaste.com/blog