Whitefields

This organization specializes in providing sanctuary for young adults in need of care. It was satisying to work alongside my coworkers on a project that helps so many people.

One of the biggest breakthroughs I had while developing this website was realizing just how powerful the WordPress Gutenberg editor can be. In previous projects, I had used core WordPress features like theme JSON for global styles and relied on default blocks, but this project pushed me to take that approach further.

When reviewing the Figma designs, I noticed that many of the modules were relatively simple. That led me to ask: Could I build the majority of this site using only the default WordPress blocks — without creating a custom module for every section? The answer was yes.

A key part of that process was learning how to register custom block styles for core blocks. This allowed me to take native blocks, like the Columns block, and extend them to fit the design system. For example, rather than building a custom two-column layout just to add a background pattern to one side, I registered a block style that applied the background to one column. It was clean, reusable, and stayed true to the Figma designs — all while saving development time and keeping the editing experience intuitive for content managers.