We’ve been working with CMS Made Simple for quite awhile and it is a great CMS that has a lot of functional modules, including the Front End Users (FEU) module (used in tandem with the Self-Registration module you can have a premium content web site in nothing flat!), Bookmarks, Calendar, Events Calendar, File Uploads, to name just a few.

We’ve created the following sites proudly running CMS Made Simple:

• Stonefield Villas Homeowners Association
• Parkway Utility District
• Idylwood Civic Club
• The Hastings Law Firm
• Core Capital

There is no shortage of beautifully designed web sites out there using CMS Made Simple and we are going to show you just a few of them today. These are the “cream of the crop,” the creme de la creme of CMS Made Simple web sites out there. (In the coming weeks, we’ll show you small business web sites, hospitality web sites and web designers’ and other creatives’ web sites running CMS-MS, so stay tuned!)

Designing for CMS-MS is extremely simple. You can go hog wild with your CSS and basically just plop the CMS-MS code right into the midst of it all. The smarty templating system and generous styling hooks offered by all the modules makes designing intricate layouts and effects simple as childs’ play.

So sit back and ooh and ah over these lovely sites, handpicked by us.

Concentus Women’s Chorus

DESIGNER: Michel Godts
This is a gorgeous example of a friendly and inviting web site. It just smells elegant!! There are exquisite touches everywhere so that exploring the site is a delight, not only for the great content, the music samples, but the design. Very well done site, it’s one of the first CMS Made Simple-driven web sites I’d ever seen and it made me want to investigate CMS-MS. And I’m glad I did. Great job on the logo and design by Michel Godts.

Nikolai Kraneis

DESIGNER: Nikolai Kraneis
Great example of an artist’s portfolio site. While the artwork being featured should always take center stage, the design has some playful elements that don’t detract from his paintings, but add some whimsy to it. I think it helps that Nikolai designed the site himself. No pesky client getting in the way of artistic freedom!

Wessex Primary School

DESIGN FIRM: Clock Tower Web
Since this is a school for very young children, the drawing that forms the basis of the design and the navigation is very appropriate. It’s playful, yet well done so that it doesn’t look kitschy. It looks great and the site inspires parents to entrust their children to the care of this school. Lovely design. Good job, Clock Tower Web!

Antifoniq Online

WEB DESIGNER: Matthew Smith
Charleston’s only online recording studio. This site is using CMS Made Simple to its fullest potential with the following modules: Album, CGCalendar, Custom Content, Forum Made Simple, Front End Users (FEU), Newsletter Made Simple, RSS2HTML, Self-Registration, and Sitemap Made Simple, to name a few. It’s a great design, playing off the banner image of the control board with a masculine color palette. Definitely not an out-of-the-box CMS Made Simple site!

Leeds West Academy

DESIGN FIRM: Zest ST
This is a high school academy based on CMS Made Simple. The design is spectacular and the site is using CMS-MS to its fullest potential. Elegant use of thumbnail images for the news boxes on the front page along with Diary (CMSMS Calendar of Events) on the side bar keeps parents and students abreast of school activities and events.

Frankies (Belgian Rabbit)

DESIGN FIRM: Klemtoon
This site is in Belgian so I can’t expound on much other than the design elements. Frankies are apparently some kind of Belgian cloth rabbits and they now have their own web site, blog and ecommerce. You can buy these whimsical rabbits online. Frankies site is making use of the News Module and one of the blogs modules (Blogs Made Simple or CGBlogs?). It is likely using one of the CMS-MS ecommerce modules (Cart Made Simple?), but I am not sure which one. The design is uniform throughout and is a nice example of a full blown CMS-MS site!

DESIGNER: Nils Haack
This is a lovely site based on CMS Made Simple, with a lot of custom scripting and hand coding. The designer writes, at the CMS MS Forum:

So far, it is more of an experiment than a profit targeted consumer site. Some templates are not yet completed and error checking isn’t working in every instance (so you might be presented with a white or empty or half-way rendered page at times)…. The site[] uses a lot of adaptive navigation elements and template mechanics and remembers the locations you have last seen and will try to always provide you with related links and relevant content (e.g. you have looked at attractions in Germany near Berlin, so when you switch to the travel reports, it will show you a guide for Berlin … and so on).

A lot of care and thought went into this site, not only its structure, but its design as well — and it shows! Good job, Nils!

Teatro La Fabbrica

DESIGN FIRM: Michele Graphieti
This is a very trendy web site with a very trendy design. The color palette is used not only in the design, but as a way to let the site visitor know which kind of art event is being displayed. (See the legend on the right sidebar next to the calendar. And speaking of the calendar, the calendar styling is out of the box, horizontal rather than a boxy calendar that we are all familiar with.

Jazzatude

DESIGN FIRM: Plan A Media
This is a site devoted to the preservation of classic jazz. From the introduction:

JAZZATUDE stands for a mission: to preserve and cultivate the overwhelming musical cornucopia of the American Songbook with verve and spirit also in the 21st century.

Four jazz musicians from the Cologne, German, area, are dedicated to this cause. The site uses the XSF media player module (which serves up samples of the songs featured on the site) and the album module. Very nicely done site!

My Mannequins

DESIGN FIRM: DMS Factory
This is a plain vanilla site in terms of lack of special modules. According to the designer, the only technique employed other than straight out of the box CMS-MS, HTML and CSS is the jquery technique, Coda Slider, for the Showroom presentation. Very nice clean design!