Category: Digital

Elle b. Salon

Exceptional Expertise

elle b. salon—a hair styling salon in Denver—wanted a new site to match the one we recently built for their Academy. EnZed design created some custom background patterns and developed a new color palette for the salon, and we moved their new site to WordPress from Squarespace. WordPress gives them more control over the design of the site and a better CMS for managing the content on their own.

Features

Patterns were used extensively throughout the site as a background element, and as a way to distinguish the two locations from each other. We also built two different navigation headers that changed on scroll from a more uniquely designed menu to a more traditional hamburger. We integrated a booking service to allow users to make appointments online without having to call the salon. Templates were used throughout to keep things consistent and make updates easy. The site is fully responsive and was built mobile first.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Site Development

Credits

Fully responsive, custom site built in WordPress. Built in conjunction with EnZed Design. Copy by Carla Carwile.

More like this

Transportation Solutions

Making change. Together.

This Transportation Management Association has the goal of making it easier for residents and employees move into and out of their Denver community. They needed an updated, more modern, more professional site that speaks to three different audiences: employers, residents and land developers. Their old site had last been designed about six years ago and had become bloated with pages and a user experience that was confusing at best. We reorganized their site, bringing the focus more to their resources section where we provided the different audiences with ways to tailor their commutes.

Features

We streamlined the user experience to make it easier for users to find the information they needed easily and quickly. We also trimmed down the overall amount of information on the site into more ‘bite-sized’ chunks, to make everything less overwhelming.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Site Development

Credits

Fully responsive, custom site built in WordPress. Copy by Laura Churchman.

More like this

UrbanTrans

Bring on the movement

UrbanTrans North America, an urban planning consulting firm headquartered in Denver, had an outdated site that needed an upgrade. We focused on modernizing with a custom WordPress site that leaned heavily on their expertise and their team members to bring some personality to what could be a dry subject. Large type, language that was lighter in tone and some quirky photos helped drive home the message that this is a team you want to work with.

Features

The whole site is an ad for the company, with the goal of selling their services and get possible clients to reach out and start a project. With that in mind we introduced little bits of movement throughout, as well as focused heavily on the company’s portfolio.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Site Development

Credits

Fully responsive, custom site built in WordPress. Copy by Laura Churchman.

More like this

Elle b. Academy

Because beautiful hair is measured by the inch

Elle b. Academy—a digital storefront that sells hair styling classes to stylists and salons—wanted more control over design and functionality than their old site, built in Shopify, would allow. They also needed to integrate the classes shopping experience with the ability to sell actual physical products needed by the stylists in order to take the classes, so we moved them over to WordPress and let WooCommerce do the heavy lifting of building out the shopping experience.

Features

Patterns were used extensively throughout the site as a background element, and as a way to distinguish the classes from each other. We also built two different navigation headers that changed on scroll from a more uniquely designed menu to a more traditional hamburger. We integrated Square to allow them to accept payments directly on their site for a more seamless shopping experience. The site is fully responsive and was built mobile first.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Site Development

Credits

Fully responsive, custom site built in WordPress. Built in conjunction with EnZed Design. Copy by Carla Carwile.

More like this

Colorado Enterprise Fund

Helping small business make it big.

Colorado Enterprise Fund is a non-profit that helps small businesses in Colorado get loans—often when banks won’t—and in turn, thrive. They wanted a more modern-looking site—their current site was more than five years old—and one that would allow them to more easily make updates. Both to the blog and to the different sections of the site. We switched them over to WordPress and gave them a custom-built design with different templates for similar sections of the site.

We highlighted their Success Stories by placing them up at the top of each page.

Features

The most important goal of the site, other than giving loan prospects a place to find out more about the company, was to encourage them to apply for a loan. We used strategically placed CTAs throughout the site that lead users to the loans page. We also included a step-by-step application process that walked users through exactly what they would need to do in order to fill out an application. Because there were so many items the client wanted in the nav, we simplified the menu by placing it behind a ‘hamburger’ icon on all screen sizes—not just mobile. Then, to give more attention to the loans page, we provided a ‘Start Here’ button right next to the menu icon.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Site Development

Credits

Fully responsive, custom site built in WordPress. Copy by Laura Churchman.

More like this

Korgy

Swipe that job

KJ Technical Recruiters saw a hole that needed to be filled. People in the service industry (think servers, baristas, bartenders) didn’t have a good way to find available jobs in their area. We built an app based on the Tinder model that would allow them to swipe quickly through available jobs. Search filters allowed them to set a mile radius (a lot of these people aren’t willing to travel far for work) that would limit their search results, as well as filter out by job type. The app automatically sends their application to the hiring manager, and lets them keep track of applications they’ve sent. After two weeks, open positions refresh which allow them to reconsider jobs they may have swiped past in the past.

Capabilities

Design

User Interaction

User Experience

App Design

Branding

A new brand

The owner wanted something unique and memorable, so we started with several ideas for names. Once we landed on three different options that he liked, we started in on identity concepts.

From the beginning, the owner was pretty set on the name Korgy. He really loves those weird, little dogs, and he thought it would provide a memorable name for the app.

Round Two

We landed on two different options that the client wanted to see in color. Each had completely different personalities—both fairly playful, but one more traditional, and the other more contemporary.

Color exploration

The client decided that the options from the previous round were too playful, and didn’t speak enough to the service industry aspect of the app. So, we went back to one from the first round that highlighted that more strongly, and used it to explore some color palettes.

The app

While we had been exploring logo options, we started working on possible designs for the app.

User Dashboard

For easy management of job openings, we built a dashboard that hiring managers could use to build wanted ads and post them to the app.

Credits

Built in React by Joseph Chambers. Copy by Laura Churchman.

More like this

Elevated Computing

Elevate your IT

Elevated, an IT firm, was tired of their old site. They hated nearly everything about it, but mostly they felt it was hurting their business. Their only constraint was that it had to be a one-page, parallax site. I convinced them that they also needed a new identity, so we started there, and finished up with a new, fully responsive site built in WordPress and a whole mess of Javascript. The biggest feature is a dual navigation system that lets users move through the site in either a traditional way, via a header nav, or chronologically with little banners that drop down at the bottom of each section.

Capabilities

Art Direction

Branding

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Where to start

The thing Elevated has going for them that makes them better than all the other IT companies out there is their level of customer service. That and, unlike most IT companies, they are not vendor specific and will use whatever products work best for their clients. Add that to 24/7 customer support and offices distributed across the United States (which allows for faster response times), and they truly are a head above the rest.

New identity

We convinced Elevated that if they really wanted to revamp their brand, they needed to start with their identity—which looked like it had been designed back in the ’90s. For the first round of new identities, Andy and I came up with three initial ‘buckets’ under which we fit three taglines and quite a few visual concepts.

We presented computer roughs, but kept them black and white, hoping that would help them focus on concepts rather than content.

Bucket One: IT Supports Your Business. We Support Your IT.

Bucket Two: What IT Should Be.

Bucket Three: A Higher Form of IT.

Further refinement

For the next round, I explored several of the visual concepts the client liked from the first round, as well as some new ideas we had to fit the tagline. I focused on refining the icons and explored different typefaces that I felt would complement the icons.

Final color

Once the client landed on one of the concepts from the second round, I moved into color exploration. These are just a few of the many, many combinations I tried. I only wanted to show the client color palettes I felt fit the objective of a professional firm in a technical field that was easy to work with. I limited what I showed the client so the options wouldn’t be overwhelming.

The site

Once an identity was settled on, I moved on to the website. Because of a smaller budget, I didn’t have the luxury of really exploring content and functionality through wireframes and user flows, so I limited our interaction exploration to two simple wireframe options and a site map that helped us plan out the majority of the site before we moved into developing content and design.

We ended up with a parallax, one-page site that has some interesting little touches. The line and circle graphics move on different levels, at different speeds as the user scrolls through the site. Each section has a banner that alerts the user to the next section that will load as they scroll. Users can navigate using the more traditional nav bar, or chronologically using the banners.

Credits

Fully responsive, custom WordPress site built in conjunction with e9.

More like this

Frederique’s Choice

Background

When Frederique Van Der Wal retired from modeling, she decided to use her passion for flowers to start a new lifestyle brand, Frederique’s Choice. She built up quite a successful flowery delivery business in the Netherlands, and wanted to replicate that in the United States. Her subscription service makes her stand out in a somewhat crowded field, and differentiates her brand by pushing American consumers to build a lifestyle around beauty. I gave her a fully responsive e-commerce site built in WordPress. It was built on a mosaic tile grid (much like the one used by Pinterest) with an easy to use shopping experience that promotes the subscription service as often as possible without being intrusive.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

eCommerce

Home

The home page features a rotating hero image to call out different aspects of the service. Underneath is a lazy-load, infinite scrolling content section that allows the client to feature as many products as they’d like and intersperse different callout sections that break up the colorful photography and drive users to different content.

Product pages

The product is divided up so that users can shop by category or type of bouquet. A typical product page is populated using tags and a fluid grid that automatically reflows based on screen size and number of products. I used three overall tile sizes that allow the mosaic to build itself proportionally while also allowing some products to be highlighted over others.

Single product page

The individual bouquet pages feature large product shots, details about the bouquet, delivery options and a ‘Drop a Hint’ form that allows users to send an email to someone that prompts that person to purchase the bouquet for them. Below that, are large lifestyle images that help the users visualize what the bouquet looks like in actual settings.

Credits

Fully responsive, custom WordPress site. Built in conjunction with e9.

More like this

Marino CLE

Background

This e-commerce site for a family-owned continuing education program was the first refresh they’d had in quite awhile. We used WordPress’ popular shopping cart, Woo Commerce, which gave them an easy way to manage their product listings and worked seamlessly with their current cart software. Black and white photography that was focused on the end user and duo-toned on top of a bold color palette gave them a contemporary face lift.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Home

The home page features a few different sections to drive users to different parts of the site: different products the company offers and a calendar of upcoming classes.

Products

Underneath the hero slider, is a module block that allows the client to target different audiences with different course offerings.

Upcoming courses

An easy way to help users find courses that fit their hectic schedules is provided by a calendar that highlights the dates that the different courses are offered. Two distinct colors let users immediately identify which type of courses their looking for: live or online.

How this works

A step-by-step guide that showcases how easy it is for lawyers to fulfill their yearly CLE requirements.

The shopping experience

Because the user audience is fairly diverse and has pretty unique needs, the most distinctive feature of the shopping cart is a way to filter based on several different categories: state residency, level of experience and venue requirements.

Individual course listing

Each course listing provides information through a tab system so that users can find the info they need easily.

Credits

Fully responsive, custom WordPress site, built in conjunction with e9.

More like this

Old Mill

Start Popping

Old Mill Kettle Corn wanted to bring their brand into the 21st century by updating their old, smallish, non-responsive site. I gave them a one-page, scrolling site based on a 12-col fluid grid that works well on all devices, both desktop and mobile. I felt it was really important to tell their story: a small batch, made-by-hand, Southern kettlecorn company that used a recipe handed down through generations. Each section addresses different aspects of the making of their product in a more or less chronological order. Built on Foundation for WordPress, the site is easy to maintain and update.

Capabilities

Site Design

User Interface

User Experience

Home

The home page features a fullscreen video of popping corn falling down into the frame. Overlaid are the brand identity, with a subtly animated scroll prompt at the bottom of the screen.

The navigation

The nav floats with the content, staying fixed on the right and left sides of the screen. It features two ways to move down the page: via the dots on the right, or the slide out initiated by the hamburger on the left. It’s also easy for the user to go back to the beginning with a ‘back to top’ button above the hamburger.

The flavors

To showcase the four flavors, I designed a sideways scrolling section in the middle of the page. Users can move through it chronologically, or directly by hitting any of the flavor badges on the home page.

Credits

A customized WordPress template, built in conjunction with e9.

More like this