online portfolio | web site design

Big Brother and the Holding Co. contacted me about a web site upgrade. Their previous site was set up very well but was lacking cosmetically.

So, I went to work and had an absolute blast. I had a lot of great photos from the early days when Janis Joplin was in the band and all types of vintage poster graphics to use from the old days. The band is still a very strong touring act and had a lot of brand new photos that I inserted too.

Overall the site has a very retro quality to it. That was done on purpose and I really feel like it matches the band's image perfectly.

Take a trip down memory lane and check out the Big Brother and the Holding Co. web site. There's a lot of great information on it for the classic rock fan that may be reading this.

Wanda Jackson is the Queen of Rockabilly Music and one of my favorite artists. Wanda made a huge comeback a few years ago with the release of "Heart Trouble". An album that included cool collaborations with such artists as Elvis Costello, Dave Alvin, & the Cramps.

With her career as hot as ever, Wanda wanted a cool new look for her web site and that's just what she got.

Flash animation was added, music, a message board for her fans, a chat room, an all new layout with new graphics, and much more.

Her hits have increased and so have her online sales. We've also used the web site in a big way to help promote Wanda for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Since starting with Wanda a few years ago, I've re-designed the web site several times. In addition to the web site I've also designed Wanda's official tour poster.

Check out her web site by clicking here

Jon Hensley & Wanda Jackson, August 2007 in Nashville

Recently my highest accomplishment was achieved as a web designer when I was hired to re-design Al Green's official web site. Al is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.. He's also a grammy award winner and one of the greatest singers of all time. I was just honored to take control of his online image.

I had interviewed Al on my syndicated radio show after the release of his "Everything's OK" cd on Blue Note.

His office wanted a new design to celebrate the release of the cd. I quickly created a web site to match the essence of the record. In May of 2008 Al released his most commercially successful album since the 1970's. "Lay it Down" debuted on the Billboard charts and on the day of the release I uploaded a new web site. There is some basic flash on the main site and a flash intro w/music at the entrance of the web site. Check it out here

Al Green & Jon Hensley, July 2007 in Memphis

The Sugar & Rox Clothing Company based in Los Angeles make some of the most trendy, rock n roll t-shirts for girls that you've ever seen. You may have seen the line at stores such as The Buckle, Pac Sun, and great boutiques all over the country. My sister's boutique carries the brand which is how I was introduced to Molly and her husband Diamond. They are partners in the Sugar & Rox Clothing Co. and besides being innovative entrepreneurs they are incredibly kind.

When I was asked to revamp their web site my answer was an automatic yes. There's a lot of flash animation involved with the upgrade as well as a few new graphics. The content from the other site was kept in place as well as the php design. Cosmetically I upgraded it so that it better matched the Sugar & Rox brand.

I'm happy with the turnout of this site and will be working with Molly & Diamond on yet another project in the near future.

This project was a lot of fun. Devine Soul Records contacted me with a vision of what they wanted their web site to look like. The overall concept of the web site is very sleek and simple yet modern all at the same time. Basically there isn't a lot of content but cosmetics was something that was very important to the label.

I completed this project for under $500 and finished it in a matter of days.

The entire front of the site is done in flash and the rest of the pages are mainly html pages with lots of sharp graphics and a hint of flash.

A few years after designing the web site for the record label, they asked me to design a new web site for one of their artists, Chris Alleyne. Chris' web site turned out well. He liked what I had done with the Al Green web sites, so I used some of the same elements of design that I had used for Al's web site.. yet still created a custom design.

My first music oriented website was designing the website for "Goose on the Lake" which is a music festival put on each year by Lloyd Settle. Lloyd was my teacher in high school and when I pitched the idea to him back then, he went for it. Through those shows each year I became friends with Charlie Gearheart of Goose Creek Symphony. In the summer of 2005 Charlie and I met about upgrading the Goose Creek official site.

He laid out some ideas and I gave him some prices. The new website went live in September of 2005 and we've continued to work together on various projects. Again, it's important for a web site to reflect the image and sound of the artist. This is another great example of capturing that with the look and feel of the site.

Since the initial creation of the web site I've re-designed it several times. I'm now managing the group and working directly with the band's frontman, Charlie Gearheart. We also co-own the exclusive record label for the band, Bo Records. I've put together several successful radio & publicity campaigns for the group's last few releases.

Click here to view the web site design work I've done for the band.

In April of 2005 I coordinated three concerts for three nights at the Cannery Ballroom in Nashville. The concerts were organized to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital which is a facility that deserves all the money it can get. They do amazing work at St. Jude and I wanted to help raise money, so I asked some of my favorite artists to take part in the concerts. Lee Roy Parnell, Cowboy Jack Clement, T. Graham Brown, and others took part. Gary Bennett was one of those artists that performed on the opening night. It was extra special for Gary to be there since it was his first real "live" performance since leaving Br5-49. He was the original co-frotnamn & lead singer of that successful country band.

Gary and I became friends through those shows and shortly after the shows ended, he asked me to manage him. He had already finsihed his record in Nashville and I was already a huge fan of it. I've now been managing him since then and his record was released to the public on February 21st 2006 courtesy of Landslide Records out of Atlanta.

For the release of the album I re-designed Gary's website and you can check it out by clicking the link here.

Gus's Really Good Fresh Jerky! What a great name for a company, right?

Gus is a real life big wheel in the jerky industry. Ash Seiter (whom I designed a web site for a few years ago, and whom I co-produced a documentary with in 2007) contacted me about re-designing Gus's web site. Gus had a site that not only was outdated cosmetically, but the e-commerce part of the site was also outdated badly. The money that they were spending on the web hosting and e-commerce cart was overwhelming.

So, I switched them to a much cheaper hosting company that actually gave them more features than the more expensive one they were using before. I also changed them over to a simple Paypal shopping cart system. It's a free e-commerce solution and we were able to do everything with it that we wanted. FreshJerky.com is a heavily hit web site.. they have customers from all over the world. I'm happy to help them grow their business, online. Now, check out that site and buy a ton of their fresh jerky.

Dustin Barber contacted me in mid 2008 to create a web site. Dustin plays guitar in Al Green's road band.

After having a couple of conversations on the phone, I went to work creating a unique design for Dustin. The result is cool and very reflective of his style and personality.

Dustin submitted a few cool photographs for me to use on the site, and I carried over a lot of the information that was on his previous web site. Small budget, great results. I never overcharge anybody and I often cringe at horror stories I hear from clients about previous experiences with web designers that they paid thousands of dollars to.

Check out Dustin's web site and see what you think..

www.DustinBarber.com

Steve Sparkman is a member of the Clinch Mountain Boys. He recently released an instructional DVD on how to capture that Ralph Stanley style of banjo playin.

His manager, Jason, contacted me after a referral from a previous client of mine. He had a few specific things that he wanted in place for the web site, the biggest being the ability to sell the dvd on the web site.

Design wise I utilized a lot of the great photos that Jason sent me for Steve's site. I built the web site around them and designed the entire site mainly in flash.

To view the web site, click here

Ashley Seiter is the son of Jimmi Seiter the great Road Manager for the Byrds & the Flying Burrito Brothers. Ashley started a t-shirt company using original graphics and artwork.. plus some rare photo's from his Dad's private collection.

He didn't have a web site when he contacted me. He paid a guy to build the web site.. the guy was lazy and the site was never built. I find that that happens often.

So, I took full advantage of the opportunity and told Ash what I could offer up. Ashley and I worked toward building a creative web site for his t-shirt company and the finished product includes a shopping cart with over 60 different products, a flash oriented juke box full of hip music, and much more.

Josh Halverson is a resident of Orange County, CA. He's a fantastic new singer/songwriter with an incredible batch of original songs.

Josh is a big Al Green fan and really liked the work that I did on Al's official web site. In early 2007 Josh contacted me about setting up a web site to promote him and his music. Unfortunately Josh had had a designer working on his web site but the designer never came up with anything.

So, we started from scratch and worked together to create a look to fit Josh's personality and style.

It was really interesting to work close on a design with the customer. Usually I'm told to come up with what I want and the customer rarely wants to give any opinions on the site. Josh wanted to be very involved with the design and that was rewarding. The finished product is a slick web site that will hopefully help build his career in the business.

Percy Sledge is one cool dude! C'mon.. everybody has a soft spot for "When a Man Loves a Woman".. it's one of the all time classic love songs.

I contacted Percy because I was a fan of his and knew that his web site had needed a facelift for years.

When it was announced that Percy was being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, AND he had a fantastic new record coming out.. I simply sent over a proposal to his manager Terry Shields to re-design the site.

They didn't purchase our most expensive web design package but they got a great web site. It's all about service. This is a perfect example of what you can get for a very, very low fee. Click Here

I'm obviously a huge music fan. Working in the music business as a manager and radio host allows me to get to know a lot of my favorite artists.

Dave Gleason's first record was sent in to my radio show and from then on I was hooked on the guy's music. Shortly after the second record was released I had Dave on the radio show for a chat. We've consistently stayed in touch and in 2007 I began consulting Dave on some career decisions in an effort to further his already established place in the industry.

Before the release of Dave's third album "Just Fall to Pieces", he asked me to re-design his web site.

I'm very proud of the final result and Dave was too. You can view the web site by clicking here. While you're there, read up on the California Country Rocker.

Kevin McKissick had heard about me working with Merle Haggard. He read about it in the newspaper and shortly afterwards contacted me about some design work.

Kevin called me up and told me about his Mortgage company located in Hopkinsville KY which is right down the road from me. We set up a meeting and I put up a web site for his company shortly after.

The design is a real clean finished product for the mortgage company. I've updated the web site for them several times and also handled all of the photography for the site..

We've established a great relationship and friendship with Kevin and McKissick Mortgage Company.

A few years ago I had the incredible opportunity to meet with Merle Haggard to talk about starting up a radio show and also designing a new web site for him. I've since had many interviews with Merle on my radio show, and the screen shot above is the web site that I designed for him. Yes, I was just a kid.. don't say anything to me about the hair cut.

Phone | 270.338-4055
E-Mail | Info@JonHensley.com

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