Bespoke Websites + Apps
project title
Socialistic Website
client
Socialistic
date
2012
categories
Website
primary role(s) for this project
- Art Director
project notes
A quick design update for the Socialistic Website done on my last day with the group, to promote for Social Media week. However in the the group decided to wait for launch until the regrouped on the content plan.
project title
PwC Website Pitch
client
DDB NY / PwC
date
2012
categories
Pitch, Website + App
primary role(s) for this project
- Art Director
- Design + Illustration
project notes
A few samples from the pitch for a financial services client who was looking to create a website and ipad like app around their small business services package.
Primarily I was tasked to come up with several design explorations / approaches for the layout of the site. As time went on we started focusing more on the App idea, and less on the earlier editorial idea, and I took several approaches including a Masonry layout and an App / Path direction.
DDB didn't have the opportunity to do the UX for the site, and needed work with the UX flow the client had already put forth, but it turned out ok and the client really liked the final results. An interesting "gridnik" and infographic based project overall.
project title
Twitter Events + Groups App
client
Client Confidential
date
2011
categories
App Pitch + Strategy + Art Direction
primary role(s) for this project
- Art Direction
- Design + Illustration
- Initial Design Mock-Ups
- Concept Development
- Creative Direction
- Social Strategy
project notes
An iPad/Tablet/HTML5 app proposal for the the twitter api to be expanded for events and groups. The following images display the Events and the Group Management panels.
project title
Minimal Wave Website / Forum
client
Minimal Wave Records
date
2010
categories
E-Com Website / Forum
primary role(s) for this project
- Art Direction + Design
- Creative Direction
- Client Engagement + Management
- Social Strategy
- CSS + EE Developer
additional team members
Alec Cumming - Lead Developerproject links
View Website
Vinyl Magazine Archive
Website UI + Layout Documents
project notes
Designed and built a new E-commerce Website and Forum for Minimal Wave Records, using Expression Engine + FoxyCart + Twitter + Google Search integration. The website has been fully optimized and google indexed, in accordance with the most effective SEO methods.
The layout was partially influenced by the idea of the record cover, since many of these releases are records, and we wanted to make sure the record and the artists were clearly represented before anything else. Another factor in the design came from weeks of roaming through tons of classic 80s magazines like The Face (Neville Brody), iD (Terry Jones), and most specifically Vinyl (Max Kisman), the dutch music magazine that featured many bands found on the site. A few of the colors and other elements where influenced by the faded pages when looking at our old issues, and the 4 color printing of the era.
One highlight of the site is that many people can now put faces to the bands/records that they have known and loved over the years, and also learn a lot more about other things the bands were involved in.
Additionally the MW Forum was updated quite substantially to give the content some room and air. Now you can easily find and read through the thousands of post about the genre without straining your eyes.
project title
B2 Website
client
B2 Collective
date
2009
categories
Website
primary role(s) for this project
- Art Direction + Design
- CSS + EE + JS Development
project links
project notes
A multi-view website for B2 Collective
project title
McDonalds Digital Future
client
TBWA / McDonalds
date
2009
categories
Strategy / Pitch
primary role(s) for this project
- Initial Pitch Concepts
- Creative Direction
- Client Engagement + Management
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
additional team members
Sean Branin - Initial Design Mock-UpsFlorian Fangohr - Initial Design Mock-Ups
Lucas Kim - Initial Design Mock-Ups
Jean-Paul Tremblay - Initial Design Mock-Ups
project notes
TBWA approached us to create a pitch (in 1 week) for what the near future of McDonalds online could look like, to be included as part of their larger Global Pitch for the brand. I started by sketching out everything that we know about McDonalds, from the original store, through their heyday in the 70's, up till now, and then some.
With transparency being one of the most important directives for companies globally these days, one idea was to convey McDonalds products, and all the data for each product, to be placed in very clear and concise display, and then to give each product it's own hero shot, similar to the great product design layouts of the 60s, like Braun, but in the tone and style of McDonalds.
With this same idea, you would also need provide and interesting way to search through all of the content, that would help visitors sort through all the content quickly, and even suggest similar content when appropriate.
Secondly, we wanted to capture what McDonalds meant emotionally to most people as a brand, by letting visitors connect with all the ephemera, and even americana, that existed in the real world for the brand, be it on Flicker or Facebook or other social platforms. There are thousands of objects.
Lastly, I wanted to explore the interesting food on the menu that I had noticed during my travels around the world (and even in the US, with the Lobster Roll in Maine, and Crab Cake Burger in my home town of Baltimore). As we researched this further, we were fascinated to find just how many different items there where (like the McCurry, or McFalafel).
project title
Goldsmith & Co. Website
client
Goldsmith & Co.
date
2009
categories
Website Pitch / Strategy
primary role(s) for this project
- Client Engagement + Management
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
- Initial Pitch Concepts
- Creative Direction
- Processing 1.0 Renders
additional team members
Lucas Kim - Initial Design Mock-UpsSean Branin - Initial Design Mock-Ups
Florian Fangohr - Initial Design Mock-Ups
project notes
With this pitch, we presented several ideas in tandem with narratives I created around the company’s brand and identity. One concept, From Many to One, is articulated below, and follows the more common ‘gridnick’ perspective, while another was created from a purely aesthetic perspective around the ideas of angular principles of modern freeform architecture.
project title
Climate Change App
client
Climate Central
date
2009
categories
App Pitch / Strategy
primary role(s) for this project
- Initial Pitch Concept
- Initial Design Mock-Up
- Client Engagement + Management
- Producer
project notes
Climate Central came to us for ways to display their complex climate change reports, that come from NASA in the form of very complex graphs and columns of data, into a much more accessible application for everyone to understand what changes are occurring, and how fast they are occurring.
At left are a few early concepts from sketches, for interactive apps pertaining to specific data around how fast the icebergs are melting, and the sea water is rising.
- Video (Requires Flash Player)
- Discover Your Epsonality Sizzle
project title
Discover Your Epsonality
client
BSSP / Epson
date
2008
categories
Strategy / Website Design
primary role(s) for this project
- Client Engagement + Management
- Concept Development
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
- Sr. Producer
additional team members
Zander Brimijoinn - Art Director, Concept DevelopmentDaniel Scheibel - Lead Developer, Concept Development
project links
Website
Merlin Project Schedule (pdf)
Site / Page Map (pdf)
project notes
Epson and Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners approached Big Spaceship to create the interactive branch of their Discover Your Epsonality campaign. The result was a whimsical world where visitors could discover their Epsonality, using a fluid and intuitive — yet non-linear — interface, based loosely on the the idea of a pseudo-science lab… as imagined inside the visitors head of course. This “simple” idea was culmination of several weeks worth of abstracting vast amounts of not very friendly spec sheet data, to create an algorithm that tied “character traits” to each printer function, which emanated into a “persona” — known in this world as an Epsonality — for each printer. Now that we had paired printers to personas, and created the “brain” of the site, we were then able to create the world of whimsy known as The Epsonality Lab. A piece of cake!
project title
The Corona Beach
client
Cramer Krasselt / Corona
date
2008
categories
Website / Digital Strategy
primary role(s) for this project
- Sr. Producer
- Client Engagement + Management
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
- Initial Pitch Concepts
- Tertiary Design
additional team members
Zander Brimijoinn - Art DirectorDaniel Scheibel - Lead Developer
project links
Project Brief (pdf)
Website "Ideology" Pitch - Principles of Relaxation (pdf)
Merlin Project Schedule (pdf)
Loader Sequence Fun (pdf)
project notes
Cramer-Krasselt approached Big Spaceship looking to bring their iconic Corona image and TV campaign, of the serene unexploited Corona beach, into the digital world. As the Corona brand has a rather large fan base in the real world, we also had the dual goal of connecting to Corona fans through common social media platforms. The task at hand was quite a difficult one, in that how do you give visitors a clean and realistic beach experience, and have the best of today’s social mediums all in one place, without cluttering the beach. The result of this excursion was to create two connected “worlds”, giving ample space for both the serene and complex, as well as an ongoing rotation of “easter egg” like activities to keep users coming back for more, and inevitable push Flash to it’s very limits in every way possible.
project title
30 Days of Night / Website
client
Sony Pictures
date
2007
categories
Website
primary role(s) for this project
- Client Engagement + Management
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
- Concept Development
- Initial Pitch Concepts
- Sr. Producer
additional team members
Zander Brimijoinn - Art Director, Conceptproject links
View Website
Creative Brief (pdf)
Merlin Project Schedule (pdf)
Site Page Map (pdf)
project notes
We teamed up with Sony Pictures to bring the 30 Days of Night graphic novel to the big (little) screen, creating a phantasmagorically frightening website, to match the chilling isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, where it is dark for 30 days each year. In this foray, we chose to create a mouse driven parallax environment, to simulate a rich sense of depth which allows for a more robust use of shadows, to bring to life the eerie town and it’s “characters”. (You can also witness my video game acting debut, as the vampire, in the twitch game on the website).
project title
30 Days of Night / Game
client
Sony Pictures
date
2007
categories
Multiplayer Flash Game
primary role(s) for this project
- Client Engagement + Management
- Concept Development
- Sr. Producer
additional team members
Dave Chau - Art Director, ConceptJosh Hirsch - Game Developer
Ben Templesmith - Character Design
project links
Play the Game
Creative Brief (pdf)
project notes
While achieving an absolute sense of realism for the Site, we wanted to do something very different with the game. With this creation we went straight to the graphic novel for inspiration, and even worked with the novel’s Graphic Artist, Ben Templesmith, to create the 3D characters. As this site used age verification, we were allowed to go all out with all the blood and guts one could imaging form such a novel as 30 Days of Night. Gameplay consists of battling your way through 30 nights (levels) of gameplay, playing as either humans or vampires, with the goal being to escape with your life.
project title
D21 Website Redesign
client
Design 21
date
2006
categories
Strategy / Redesign
primary role(s) for this project
- Client Engagement + Management
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
- Sr. Producer
additional team members
Chris Gardella - Art Directionproject links
project notes
When we were approached by D21, they had started to outgrow their original website, and wanted something much more robust, flexible, and easier to maintain then what they initially created. Their site needed to support vast amounts of cross matched data, that had dozens of complex connections to each others categories. Our task was to make them all of this look elegant and un-intimidating, which I feel was accomplished quite well.
project title
GOOD Magazine Website
client
GOOD Magazine
date
2006
categories
Website
primary role(s) for this project
- Client Engagement
- Digital + Social Media Strategy
- Sr. Producer
additional team members
Charles Adler - Client Engagement, Creative DirectorChris Gardella - Art Direction
project links
GOOD Magazine
Merlin Project Schedule (pdf)
project notes
Originally GOOD approached Area 17 to create a brand identity for their new forward thinking lifestyle magazine. The magazine design was then transformed into the digital domain as the face of a very cutting edge article and blogging management system, using RoR and implementing a unique and robust “meritocracy” based article voting system that others sites are adapting two years after it’s creation.
project title
MTV Plastikulture
client
MTV / Motorola Mobile Games
date
2004
categories
Website / Mobile Games
primary role(s) for this project
- Concept Development
- Character Development
- Logos + Iconography
- Technical Producer
additional team members
Playcom - Primary Design + Art Direction, Site and App Development, Concept Development, Character DevelopmentKate Sawall - Producer, Content Production
project notes
Plastikulture was the result of our teaming up with Playcom, to create a really clever online and mobile games franchise for Motorola and MTV. The Plastikulture website was unique in that access and content were restricted in certain areas with secret codes that you acquired through playing the various mobile games. The idea behind Plastikulture, was that there existed a parallel world to our own, where our plastic waste ends up and starts to live a life of its own. Your average typical plastic family - the Polyethyls - where the siblings T-Ruth, Roland and Aki deal with the everyday issues of your average plastic teenager, while evil (bumbling) antagonist Fex plots his secret schemes for domination of the plastic city.
project title
Worldwide Campaign Portal
client
Motorola / MTV
date
2004
categories
Website / Pitch
primary role(s) for this project
- Initial Pitch Concepts
- Art Direction for Web Design
project notes
This was to be a fairly simple and easily maintainable gateway for introducing Motorola mobile phone owners, to the ringtones, wallpapers, games and other content created by the 15+ MTV International mobile teams around the world.
project title
MTV Exquisite Corpse 03
client
MTV International
date
2003
categories
Art Direction + Sound
primary role(s) for this project
- Concept + Strategy
- Art Direction + Design
- Music + Sound Design
additional team members
Amy Kim - Website ProducerOleg Troyanovsky - International Campaign Producer
Large Animal - Flash popup implementation
project links
project notes
We did the design and the music and sound effects for the MTV Exquisite Corpse 03 campaign website. Exquisite Corpse (aka Exquisite MTV), was the theme of the 2003 MTV Global Image campaign.
The goal of the website was to allow visitors to understand and watch where each part of the 16 different Exquisite Corpse videos came from, and also watch the full videos. Each video started with a color, and had 7, 1 second parts (for a total of 8 seconds). Each 1 second part being created by a different international team, then passed to the next, which were then "sewn" together.
project title
Extranet
client
MTV International Digital
date
2003
categories
Website
primary role(s) for this project
- Art Direction + Design
- CSS + HTML Development
project notes
The MTV International Digital team in NYC needed to have a single place to keep contact info for hundreds of international team members and several dozens standards and practice documents, essentially a catch all for day to day connections. I designed and built this hand coded system in a week for them to use.
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