Posts Tagged ‘Portfolio’
Web Design Case Study - www.growwithit.org
We love playing with textures and layering here at Eightyone Design, so when Exeter based IT Company Switch Systems called us for a website visual with an underground / above ground feel we jumped with joy at the opportunity to create such an unusual site. In this article we discuss the website design visual and the elements used to create www.growwithit.org.
The campaign that Switch Systems developed was called Grow With IT and they wanted a website to reflect the idea of natural growth. We loved the idea of using soil textures for the content section of the site with the bottom of the header being at eye level so you can see the roots of the grass and plants right up to the elements above ground and the sky.
The campaign was aimed at local businesses so we created a sign post which was routed into the ground pointing to Exeter.
As I mentioned, the site was created to promote natural and organic growth so we created a server actually growing from the ground emerging from it’s leaves.
We experimented with several different skies as we wanted the sky to be bright but not too over powering as we wanted the below ground level to be the focal point.
Arista was used as we wanted a contemporary yet fun and bubbly font.
The earth colour palette almost looks retro with the cream text, but we felt this worked really well with the natural tone of the website design.
We are very pleased with the site, and believe it fulfills the brief adding a new spin on the usual style of IT Consultancy websites. The website design visual was handed over to the guys at Switch Systems who have done a great job of building the final website.
What do you think of the grow With IT website? What are your thoughts on the server growing from the ground? Do you think it works? Have you ever been given a project brief that you are particularly excited to start?
Tags: branding, Portfolio, Web Design
Posted in Portfolio, Web Design | 4 Comments »
Designing the Winter 08/09 WBR World Beach Rugby Clothing Range
As we have previously mentioned (WBR World Beach Rugby Summer 08 T-shirt Design and Development) we have been involved for the last 2 years in designing clothing for a rugby brand called World Beach Rugby (or WBR). In the post above we discuss how we developed the Summer 08 clothing range. After completion of the Summer 2008 range we started work straight away on the Winter 2008/09 additions. We completed these back in May and the items are now available for purchase through the Lovell Rugby online store. In this post we show you the design and development process we went through to create the garments which were added to the WBR range.
Back in April 2008 we met with the guys at Lovell Rugby and discussed their direction for the Winter collection of WBR. They wanted to extend their range of rugby shirts and wanted these to be branded with an imaginary team and crest. We decided upon four team names. We also discussed the sort of colour scheme required which was to feature washed out and distressed charcoals, maroons and browns. They also wanted the patching and neck labels to be slightly different to the summer range to reflect a more vintage and traditional style. We then set to work creating the crests.
In our initial meetings, we had discussed the use of traditional heraldry crests with full decoration. Initially we sketched out four different crest designs ensuring that the overall shape of each of the designs were quite different, allowing them to be distinctive at a glance.
After re-drawing the crests into Illustrator to create ultra crisp vectors we then started on the neck and side patches. They were to have a vintage, yet heraldry feel to them and include the WBR logo design. Including the WBR logo posed quite a problem as it is quite modern and curved which is quite removed from the vintage feel we were going for. So instead of trying to disguise or hide the logo we put it center stage and decorated around it. This branding was then applied to a new set of swing tickets which were to be attached to the garments.
The next step in the design process was to create various colour options. We chose dark tones due to the season and teamed this up with the vintage colours that had been requested. A month later the designs were revealed to the client as well as the clothing manufacturer. They were both happy with the designs. However, some of the crests were too detailed for mass embroidery so some minor amendments were made to the artwork to make the designs slightly bolder.
Once we had received the final pre-production samples we paid another visit to our favourite photographer Mike Evans who produced some beautiful shots for the website and brochure.
Although we were only adding a few extra garment designs to the existing WBR World Beach Rugby Range, this was still quite an involved design process. These sort of classic rugby club crest designs were something we had not put our hand to before. This combined with adding a new ‘vintage style’ to the existing range really took us out of the comfort zone which we had built over the previous 3 ranges. We had all new base garments to work with which meant new fabrics, new finishes and new textures to work around.
Despite this, we are very pleased with the final products. But what do you think of the designs? Is there a project where you have had to try to create something a little out of your comfort zone?
Tags: clothing design, Logo Design, Portfolio, T-shirt / Clothing design
Posted in Portfolio, T-shirt / Clothing design | No Comments »