Warm Forest Flash Sites for Designers

Be sure to check out the contest details at the bottom of the article for your chance to Win!

I should preface this review by saying that I, in no way, am a web expert. It is true, I have built a site or two in my day but I am not fluent in any coding or programming language. That being said I have taken on the challenge to review a couple customizable Flash sites from Warm Forest Flash.

I was given the link to Warm Forest Flash and I gotta say from the get go I was impressed with the clean lines and organization of thier website. I had no trouble navigating and checking out what they had to offer. They also have an outstanding help section for each of the customizable sites so you really should be good to go after installing them.

Overview

Both products include clean, crisp typography and a highly customizable way of showing off your best work. There are subtle details that really make these themes stand out from other pre-built templates. Below I will layout some of the major differences between the two customizable Flash sites.

Cedar

This template comes with two built in demos. Both are very similar just with some different settings to show you what is possible. This site is basically a horizontal oriented slide show. Very clean design and easy navigation. By default it is a very light color scheme consisting of white, brown, seafoam and orange. As I said, it includes a horizontal listing of images that, when clicked, take you to a focus page where you can have more detailed images of the project/item. Overall, a very classy look.

Click here for more information about Cedar

Sycamore

This theme has a decidedly darker, more sophisticated look to it. It is a vertical oriented portfolio allowing you to provide detailed information including multiple photos/designs without the viewer having to leave the page. In the same fashion as Cedar, this theme provides a clean way to showcase your work. There aren’t too many big differences between Sycamore and Cedar other than the vertical alignment and the darker colors. For the aesthetics alone, this was my preference.

Click here for more information about Sycamore

Installing

Really all you have to do to install these themse is to unzip using WinZip, 7-Zip or something similar and upload the contents of the folder to whatever directory you want under your domain. Once the files are uploaded you will be able to see the working site with default settings.

Editing

Both of these products were extremely easy to customize. From what I could tell, every color and image can be changed. To customize things you will need to open the settings.xml file as this is where the bulk of the changes will be made. When I first opened the xml file I must admit that it was a bit daunting. I have never worked with xml or really even seen it but I was determined to figure this thing out. I looked over the file and realized things are pretty simplified and everything is pretty well labeled as to what it is. I also read through the help pages for the different templates and that was more than enough to get me started. You will need to edit some of the other xml files for different pages such as contact.xml or about.xml. You may also need some HTML knowledge for this if you want to change things up at all but if you just use the default markup that is in there you should be just fine.

Conclusion

Whether you are a complete noob or have been programming for years, if you are looking for an easy way to set up an online portfolio then these are definitely great quality customizable Flash sites to do just that. Currently the price for Sycamore and Cedar is $49 and $59 respectively. For more information visit http://www.warmforestflash.com

Pros

• Easy customization
• Beautiful style
• Simple installation
• Great help section

Cons

• May require a little HTML knowledge
• Can be a bit confusing if you don’t read the help

Do you want to win one?

Here’s your chance. Comment here and tell us why you’d like to win a free Warm Forest Flash site! Contest entries must be submitted before Saturday, February 7th at Midnight EST. Winner will be chosen on Monday, February 9th.