Ben Martin Studios

Smith & Gray

admin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:29:04 +0000

I was contracted by Smith & Gray to add some extra functionality to their existing website. I did not design the theme/layout, as they did not want a redesign, but added some backend functionality to the site such as a sidebar, an image slideshow on the homepage, and dynamically generating and organizing thumbnail images for their portfolio.

Currently Smith & Gray are in the middle of tweaking a few things themselves, and there are still a few things to be done before the new site goes live. This should be completed around mid to late November.

Planet + Starburst Wallpaper

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:05:40 +0000

I saw a cool starburst effect demonstrated, so decided to try my hand at making a cool wallpaper out of it. The point of the wallpaper is to show off the starburst/lens flare, not so much the planet, which was … Continue reading →

Bokeh Wallpaper

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:00:25 +0000

This is another wallpaper that I created when following a tutorial for Photoshop. Like most others, I liked the idea of the tutorial, so pushed it further and also made it into a wallpaper with some text wrapped around one of the bokeh “bubbles”.

Bokeh is a blur on out of focus parts of an image. You can see more about it on Wikipedia.

Righteousness Through the Law

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:40:22 +0000

I was at McDonalds once, carrying my (ESV Study) Bible. A man sitting by himself noticed and asked if he could ask a question. We ended up getting into a discussion about the law, his argument was that since many so called Christians (wrongly) disregard the law (a.k.a. antinomianism), we are required to keep the law (in order to be saved). This is not quite true. Righteousness is imputed 100% from Christ, and after being regenerated, while not being required to keep the law to be saved, the Christian loves to obey God’s law because it please Him.

The man’s name was Dalet (D in Hebrew – it looks like this: ד). I had to leave because I was getting a lift with someone, and left saying: “It’s just wrong, I’m sorry that I can’t explain it more because I have to go” (perhaps not those exact words, but that general idea). When I got home, I was thinking about Galatians 2:21, and I was inspired to create this wallpaper; some have said that blue symbolizes the Law, and red the blood of Christ. The purple is what happens when someone foolishly tries to fuse them both for salvation. Good works (i.e. obedience to the law) are the result of salvation, not the cause.

The book of Galatians is the Apostle Paul’s writing to those who desert the grace of Christ to be under the law again. 2:21 is a very strong assertion, saying that if righteousness (a right standing before God) could be gained or achieved through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. It can only ever be Christ + nothing for salvation.

Just a note: I used the NIV of Gal 2:21 for this wallpaper (I don’t know why). The ESV is by far a superior translation.

The Great Exchange Wallpaper

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:58:45 +0000

Just before I created this wallpaper, I got a new book called In My Place Condemned He Stood. I really liked the colour scheme of the cover, so I decided to make a wallpaper about the great exchange. This was … Continue reading →

Community Workforce Solutions 2010

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:25:09 +0000

This is CWS’ new website design. I designed the whole thing from the ground up. First I consulted with them about the layout, and polished according to their preference; then I took it and cut it into a HTML/CSS layout. … Continue reading →

Eclipse Youth

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:28:14 +0000

I designed the layout for this website using Photoshop. Though the design was approved, this site was cancelled shortly after the layout design phase.

Nuts About Jesus

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:05:58 +0000

Nuts About Jesus was created originally so that I could blog about Christian stuff. I never advertised the blog, and decided that for personal reasons I wanted to take the content down. For the moment, the site advises that it is in maintenance mode, but I have no plans at this point in time of taking the site back online.

This site was built from the ground up using WordPress. I designed the layout myself, and turned it into the WordPress theme. This was my first full WordPress theme. The design itself took less than one month to create and implement, but from thereon after I managed the content.

Pro Life Media

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:14:22 +0000

Though I did not create the theme for this website, I was responsible for maintaining the content on this website. Pro Life Media is a group that aims to present the pro-life message to the public by using the medium of television. I am the treasurer of this organisation. This website is no longer updated, as Bob Hockings, the founder and president of this organization, passed away on 14th July 2010; he will be missed. The board are currently deciding the direction for the organization (July 2010).

Square Apple Wallpaper

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:36:16 +0000

I can’t remember whether I either watched a video tutorial on the subject or followed a text/picture tutorial, but the topic was making a square apple using certain tools in Photoshop. I thought it would be fun to take one apple, and make this wallpaper. The typography is very basic, the main point of the design was the apples. You may notice that each of the round apples looks slightly different; these were originally the same apple, just slightly edited.