The Hidden Beauty of the CMS

A “content management system” (CMS) is a program used to manage website data so that individual web pages can be easily updated with little knowledge of web programming. It’s designed for user collaboration, data storage and flexibility — modern CMS’s can contain hundreds of page templates or modules. The CMS is typically the heart of expansive websites such as hospitals and universities.

The things that make CMS’s great tend to make web designers cringe. Anything that involves a “system” tends to squash our dreams of breaking free from a conservative look and grid. And we gasp at the idea of allowing non-designer users to freely edit page elements.

Despite the cons of implementation costs, maintenance and untrained users, I admit that I often find the challenge of CMS design — with its modules and ordered chaos — intriguing. With the advancement of HTML5, web typography and blogging systems, the CMS is no longer a threatening idea; instead, it’s one that allows for nicely designed customizable content on the fly. These systems even allow for easier SEO (search engine optimization) implementation.

Let’s look at the best modern options for CMS implementations.

The Standard

Lush makes products from fresh organic fruit and vegetables, essential oils and safe synthetics.

In terms of choosing a CMS, Joomla and Drupal are two of the best-known names.

Joomla is the CMS behind Lush, a handmade cosmetics company. Its site features large colorful images and casual typography to promote the brand as fun and personal.

One doesn’t need to look further than Drupal itself for a strong example of CMS possibilities.

Drupal is no slouch, either; it’s behind the back-end of well-designed sites such as The White House, Warner Brothers Records and the late Michael Jackson.

The Beloved

This breathtaking Project Himalaya WordPress site tells "the story of one man's mission to take alpine speed climbing to new heights."

Of course, WordPress — www.wordpress.com for online ease or www.wordpress.org for an extensive back-end — should not be left out of the group of best-loved CMS engines. In the past few years, it’s quickly grown into one of the most popular blogging systems available.

But WordPress is so much more than a simple blog engine. With the ability to create individual pages, an extensive library of themes and plugins, WordPress has proven itself a simple yet easy-to-use CMS. WordPress is even used for some frequently updated sites that don’t feature a traditional blog. WordPress can be found as the back-end for online magazines, portfolios, education sites and design studios.

WordPress typography site Typographica regularly updates with new and interesting content.

The Many Faces Of... has illustrations and infographics that cover the dramatic ranges of famous actors.

In the Right Hands

Admittedly, a lot of sites built on these aren’t the most beautiful, but in the right capable hands, these sites are worth admiring. People shy away from using a CMS out of fear of the boring corporate websites, but with good communication between designers and developers, a CMS can become a strong partner in building your brand.