Reality Skewed...
Work Samples
Work Samples
As with all things web, good web designs change over time. Here we've chosen a way of taking a slice-in-time look back at the process that went into a few web site designs over the years. These were chosen because they represent the diversity of approaches one can take in establishing or reestablishing a presence on the web. They reinforce the discussion about how design ideas flow from the types of clientele and their goals. The current incarnations of the original sites have long since changed or disappeared, but, the design choices and considerations still apply similar projects today.
![Broadway Theatre League - Main Page](javascript:popimage("snapshots/btl01.jpg",319,303); "A popup window showing a JPG of the home page - A darkened theatre stage with spotlights highlighting the placard menu of site sections.")
Broadway Theatre League of South Bend was a site designed on a very low budget for an organization that brought Broadway theatre productions into South Bend, Indiana. Because of the artistic sensibilities of the client and the creative freedom usually allowed in a pro-bono endeavour it was deemed appropriate to play off of the theatrical setting in the site design.
![Broadway Theatre League - Inner Page](javascript:popimage("snapshots/btl03.jpg",320,409); "A popup window showing a unique map that was created for the site.")
A simplified graphical treatment was designed and a bit of creative freedom was employed to vary from the usually expected menu structure and layout. Since the end users were more theatrically inclined it was expected that this deviation would be acceptable and place the site in a memorable position in the minds of the visitors.
![Broadway Theatre League - Morris Auditorium Inner Page](javascript:popimage("snapshots/btl02.jpg",319,693); "A popup window showing a long page of text with pictures interspursed. Note the marquee whose lights annimated on the original site.")
Since all of the information was static and the client approval process was streamlined the production time was rapid and a full site was serviceable quite quickly.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/ep01.jpg",320,366); "A popup window showing the Eagle Pack foods homepage. The menu for individual sections is along the right side, the color scheme reflects that of the Eagle Pack product line.")
Eagle Pack Pet Foods is a family run, quality pet food manufacturer. Their design grew from their unique qualities as a company. Instead of duplicating the corporate look of their competitors' sites a design choice was made to use the qualities and colors from their own packaging and portray the company in a manner more accessible and friendly (The dog in the upper right wagged his tail to greet visitors.) This led to a layout that was easy to navigate, yet still contained the informational substance about their unique product.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/ep02.jpg",320,700) "A popup window showing a large, colorful chart of ingredients. The nature of the web allowed the entire information to be accessible in one long page, allowing comparison and analysis in a form factor difficult to replicate in a print design without compromising other pages.")
Incorporating the graphical design into even their informational sections we were able to emulate the feeling of the company's print literature without direct replication. This allowed full freedom to take advantage of the web's own unique form of communication while still seeming familiar to the viewing audience.
This site design was able to accommodate growth as the company got comfortable with the more intricate aspects of the web. When database elements and more regular updates started to occur, the simplicity and flexibility of the structure allowed accommodation without needing to be immediately redesigned.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/fff01.jpg",320,406); "A popup window showing the home page of Fourth Freedom Forum. The information-centric nature of the organization is evident in the link heavy table on the front page.")
Fourth Freedom Forum is an independent political voice and that spirit of independence dominated their needs in a web site design. They wished to maintain a strictly informational site, with ever changing content while retaining their own hand in the frequent updating of the site.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/fff02.jpg",320,406); "A popup window showing an interior page of the Fourth Freedom Forum site. The ability to treat the organization's publications similarly to their printed for allowed for a representative sampling of the types of information the group espoused.")
While the site was designed originally without a database, the potential for one's use was taken into account and the structure was geared to accomodate one in the future. As with many things with a hands on client, their ideas of what to do with their site grew as they became more accostomed to the web. The site design was able to accomodate their ever evolving ideas of web presense for much longer than a typical, inflexible web design.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/tlc01.jpg",320,287); "A popup window showing the main page of Today's Life Choices. The television show focused on people and therefore, so did the site design.")
Today's Life Choices focused their television show on specific people and how they fit into society. Their low budget web site played off of this idea by using the graphical elements of puzzle pieces with the guests figured prominently within them. This allowed the design to reinforce the main aspects of the show.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/tlc02.jpg",320,287); "A popup window showing an interior page within Today's Life Choices. The design elements of the puzzle pieces rendered continuity throughout the site without interfering with the presentation of in depth information within.")
The bulk of the site was made up of descriptions of the multitude of previous episodes. By tying the design elements to the text information a continuity could be maintained while the visitor searched through the shows to find those of most interest.
![](javascript:popimage("snapshots/welsh01.jpg",319,406); "A popup window showing the simple, clean home page of Welsh Oil, Inc.")
Sometimes web sites are only asked to be little more than calling cards on the Internet. Such was the case with Welsh Oil, Inc. Their simple requirements didn't demand much of the technologies available and yet a good design allowed such a simple site to still maintain a pleasant appearance without overburdening the implementation with unnecessary mechanics.
