portfolio (more in the lab)
3cVendora
3cVendora is the first ecommerce application I worked on from conception to implementation. The version I’m sharing here is my favorite, though I only have access now to my original mockups.
I love how fresh and simple everything feels, despite the logo needing some improvement (which it later got).
3cVendora is part of a suite of products under the 3cPlatform SaaS umbrella.
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Nude Nite Orlando
Nude Nite needed something distinctive for their “dazzling art event celebrating the beauty of the nude” and their strong personality and wealth of content made conceptualization quick business. This design only took about 3.5 hours and that made me realize that getting a clear vision of the client comes more quickly when they have plenty of assets. Integrating the client’s personality through their own artwork can be the difference between a good website and the right website.
Roles: Design: web, UI, UX. CSS, HTML, Flash, some ASP.NET. Sales and marketing.
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2social network,
training log
Strands Fitness User Interface (2011)
This is probably a little redundant due to several other Strands Fitness entries in my portfolio, but it was a pretty big project and I thought my UI work deserved a little bit more light.
I’m particularly happy with how we tamed the interface for the workout forms and related permalinks. So many little moving pieces…
Roles: Design: web, UI, UX. CSS, HTML, JavaScript (jQuery). some Ruby on Rails.
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Mad Cow Theatre
This project was one of the first where I made the logo of the client a major design element, not just a branding touch. Mad Cow Theatre had a very nice logo, but it required a little extra thinking than I was comfortable with hence the spelling out of their name. That provided a great natural horizontal space to string the pitch phrase that runs above.
The client wanted to make sure that their quirkiness came through, so we went around a few times till the center of the home page, the area that displays their upcoming shows, was purposely unbalanced. Fun and a good shake-up for me; I was getting a little too hung up on equaling widths and heights. Seems to me that imbalance can be useful, but one needs to learn first how to balance to know better when not to.
Roles: Design: web, user interface. CSS, HTML, some ASP.NET. Sales and marketing.
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0Sports Rooster
This project was definitely a milestone for me in terms of user experience and project management, not to mention design. Besides creating the public side of a social network for amateur athletes, I also was responsible for designing and leading the development of a comprehensive administrative suite which a nationwide team of writers would use to contribute news articles while another team managing potentially millions of members. The front-end was developed and many pieces of the backend before funding was halted.
It is my understanding that work for Sports Rooster has resumed, but at the moment I’m not connected with the project.
Roles: Project management. Design: web, UX, UI. CSS, HTML, Flash (AS2) for video, some ASP.NET. Sales and marketing.
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1Hooters Calendar
Working with the crew at Hooters Calendar was fun; their job by its nature kept things pretty jovial. The design came together fairly quickly, aided in part by their rich collection of photos and distinctive personality. Managing the site, however, was a mountain almost too big to climb and we realized a bit late that a robust content management system should have been a major focal point of the project all along. Since then I only build sites that include a CMS.
While working on HootersCalendar.com, I also did a mockup for the Hooters Casino, which was just opening at the time. I don’t believe the Casino folks ever saw it, but it was a pretty good design for where I was as a designer.
Roles: Design: web. CSS, HTML. Sales and marketing.
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0fitness app
Strands Fitness concept (2)
This is the second of two concepts for a redesign of Strands Fitness. Unlike the first which tried to stay a bit within the limitations of the existing structure, this concept blows the doors off and goes wherever it pleases.
I wanted to avoid obvious boxes and let the outside in. Lots of fun adding the tech touches to the snowy background.
Probably a bit too artsy for a training log/social network, but it’s a concept, right?
Roles: Designer.
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Strands Fitness Concept (1)
In May of 2011, I had a chance to explore how I would redesign Strands Fitness given the chance. This is the first of two concepts.
This project was pure joy. Designers at Strands Fitness had never really had a chance to design from scratch (unless reworking an entire application in a week with zero guidance other than “make it cool” counts) and this was an opportunity to work without restrictions.
We were all really excited about the direction, but alas, this design remained on the shelf.
Roles: Design: web, user experience, user interface. Sales and marketing.
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Moodboards
A few moodboards that helped hone my team’s vision for a few fairly recent projects. For those who aren’t familiar with them, moodboards are a way to centralize and communicate design ideas. Sometimes these are actual bulletin boards, but I’ve found that digital versions can often be as equally effective.
Think of moodboards as a place where ideas for style and function are stuck so everyone can see the elements you believe you should include.
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Strands Fitness Pro (app)
Like its sister website, www.strandsfitness.com, the Strands Fitness iPhone app was feature packed yet daunting to new users. We were given the task of making it simpler and more goal oriented. My solution was a super simple design called “Big Dum Dum” (also see Strands Fitness: Before & After).
Big Dum Dum punted the former dashboard layout for a list view that was self-descriptive and which could be easily adapted to a free version format. Frequently accessed features are up front where they can’t be missed and a more logical view hierarchy put in place.
I’m pretty satisfied with version 1 but we’re not finished. There are still many ways we can make the app more useful and fun.
Roles: Mobile, user experience, user interface design. Wireframes using OmniGraffle.
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Volcano’s Coffee Bar
The Volcano’s Coffee Bar website was one of my favorite and best design’s for a long time. Unfortunately I don’t believe the chain exists now and it took a while to reassemble the original site – thank you Wayback Machine!
My favorite part of this design is probably the Flash menu. It was a challenge working with the round logo, so it occurred to me we could be a little unconventional and center it. The extension menu then could be divided up into categories, each with options that are revealed on hover. I loved it, the client loved it, and it worked well for them for a long time.
Volcano’s Coffee Bar Flash menu
Roles: CSS, HTML, Flash
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Orlando Repertory Theatre
The website for the Orlando Repertory Theatre was a lot of fun to design. I was able to use quite a bit from their print collateral, including the background curves which continue to flow visually through the front of the design. This was a breakthrough idea for me and from then on I’ve tried to make backgrounds more supportive of the foreground, not just something to fill up space.
Roles: Design: web, UI. Flash, CSS, HTML, some ASP.NET. Sales and marketing.
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Tony Michaelides
After months of life and business getting in the way, we finally launched tonymichaelides.com. Went a few wrong roads, but finally realized what we needed was simple and with Tony clearly in focus. It is all about him, his experiences, and what he’s got to say.
Roles: Design: web. CSS, HTML, some PHP.
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03cPlatform Product Themes [B2B]
A few years back, we were kicking around the idea of revamping all the product websites for 3cStudios and making them one-page websites. There wasn’t always a lot to say about them individually (since they were tools in a suite) so the approach seemed solid.
The goal was a one-page layout that could be applied to all products and a multi-page variation for the parent site. Each one-page would be customized to match their respective product logos. Avoiding obvious boxes was also a goal, though this proved impractical for anything other than the background and header.
Unfortunately not all the logos were as pretty as the others, so some of the one-pages seemed a little icky. It was tempting to tweak the logos just to get the pages to look better, but that was a really unprofessional solution. In the end, these were never used and I can’t exactly remember why… maybe it was because of the colors, but I vaguely recall a debate about content. Perhaps not a failure conceptually, but unused is unused.
As for the parent site, that was a success – at least to me, who found the idea of a non-typical navigational approach very compelling. There wouldn’t have been a standard menu for the home page; rather the main design elements would be the navigation. What one saw afterwards would be a reflection of the initial choice. Will need to play with that further because I think there’s something fascinating there.
For more on one-page websites, check out One Page Love.
Roles: Design, sales and marketing, copywriting.
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0Strands Fitness for Android (Free)
After revamping the Strands Fitness app for iPhone, I guided the conversion of the look to Android. The first thing we did is replace the rounded buttons for lists and squares. All graphics had to be recreated and icons came in at least three sizes (because there were three target resolutions). Had a bought with 9-patch images, so there were some rough spots.
Working in Android can be really weird since there are so many versions. Some use the older 3D leaning-towards-you icon style and others – the more current versions – are flatter, tamer. Impossible to test everywhere, so it seemed wise to stick to as much stock UI as possible.
Strands Fitness for Android (free)
Roles: Design: mobile, UI, UX.
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0for mobile/web
Pictogram Icons for Strands Fitness Web and Mobile Apps
These are a few of the icons I created for use on the Strands Fitness web, iPhone, and Android apps. These are essentially pictograms, inspired by internationally familiar iconography, and simple enough to look at home just about anywhere. The project motto at the time was “simple” and you don’t get much simpler than this.
Maybe not ground breaking, but I adore them.
Roles: Design: graphic.
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Weszt
I love designing sites around great photographs – establishing identity is usually a lot of fun. Working your dynamic content around extra large images can be challenging, but once I got a bit of a balance going with the photo from Hard Rock Live (Orlando, FL), the over-sized logo, navigation, and descriptive text, things really got rolling.
Roles: Design: web. CSS, HTML, some PHP. Audio production. Video for web.
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TShirtToday
TShirtToday is an ecommerce site that creates one of a kind t-shirt designs with short shelf lives. I designed the site and the logo and am still pretty happy with it. Very focused around the purpose: today’s t-shirt.
Roles: Design: e-commerce, user interface, user experience. Sales and marketing. CSS, HTML, ASP.NET.
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Strands Fitness
This web application was in desperate need of a diet. Too much… well… everything. Above all, it was a nightmare for first time users to learn and use. Reducing distraction was in order and we had to do it fast – our deadlines were ambitious.
Fewer elements, fresher aesthetics, and a heavy emphasis on the task at hand, the final “Dum Dum” design (as it’s called internally), is my favorite redesign project and the first at Strands where I’ve been solely directing the creativity. Everything is simplified and, if I get my wish, will be increasingly optimized to be the speed demon a fitness site should be.
Roles: Design: web, UI, UX. CSS, HTML, JavaScript (jQuery). some Ruby on Rails.
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0Orlando Puppet Festival
Early on in the design process, I got hooked on the idea of stringing the various elements of the Orlando Puppet Festival site like a puppet. Perhaps not the most original idea, but was inspiring and much of it came together early. However my client, Heather Henson (daughter of Jim Henson of Muppet fame) was expressing concerns that I couldn’t quite grasp over email. This was a valuable lesson. Email sometimes is the worst way to express ideas. In the end, we met in person and I completed the design with her over my shoulder. Working under that kind of pressure can sometimes be the best way to design.
Roles: Design. Flash, CSS, HTML, some ASP.NET. Sales and marketing.
