Technology: Gutenberg

Dean Sluyter

Posted on by fezziwigmedia

I’ve worked with author and meditation teacher Dean Sluyter for over two decades. What started as a simple author site has evolved through multiple platforms and redesigns as his books, teaching schedule, and media presence have grown.

Please visit the site at deansluyter.com, or click on the images to view enlarged screenshots.

The Evolution

I designed and built each version of the site as it moved through several generations of web technology:

  • The original site was built in ColdFusion, a reflection of where the web was in the early 2000s
  • A later rebuild moved to Drupal, which handled book promotion and event listings well but became harder to maintain
  • The current version runs on WordPress with Beaver Builder and ACF, giving Dean a streamlined editorial experience for blog posts, media embeds, and event updates

Current Work

I’m currently converting the Beaver Builder and ACF blocks to native, React-based Gutenberg blocks, one block at a time. The goal is to reduce plugin dependencies, improve long-term maintainability, and take advantage of WordPress’s modern editing experience while preserving the design and functionality Dean relies on.

This project reflects the kind of collaboration I value most: a long-term relationship where I understand the client’s needs deeply, and the site evolves thoughtfully over time rather than being rebuilt from scratch every few years.

Mysterious Face

Posted on by fezziwigmedia

Mysterious Face is a custom WordPress music site built to present the band, its albums, and individual songs through a structured, editor-friendly system.

The site uses Gutenberg and Full Site Editing so major page structures, navigation, headers, footers, and content layouts can be managed through block templates rather than hard-coded page markup. Albums and songs are modeled with custom content and custom fields, allowing each record to store details such as Bandcamp embed information, track relationships, personnel, authorship, lyrics, and related album/song data in a consistent way.

The Bandcamp player is integrated directly into the album and song layouts, with responsive small and large player variants so the listening experience works across desktop and mobile views. Together, the custom fields provide the data structure, the Gutenberg templates provide the editable layout system, and the theme ties them together into a focused music archive where visitors can browse the band, open albums, move through songs, and listen without the site becoming difficult to maintain.