There are a lot of boutique development services companies in the marketplace competing on budgets, timeframe and such however Chappie Technologies needed another way to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. It was through this need that I became tasked with helping them come up with a new look to their site, and developing some brand assets.

First came the general layout and look-and-feel of the site. What kind of mood were they trying to convey to their customers? Most of Chappie Technologies’ competitors’ sites look a bit jumbled and full of technical jargon that is disorganized and hard to understand. They wanted something that looked clean, progressive and forward-thinking but still rooted in the task-oriented world of programming and IT.

We also worked on visuals and metaphors a bit further into a revision of our initial experimental designs. Visuals that were easy to understand were the first choice, however we didn’t want to just use the same tired stock photography so we made a conscious effort to use higher quality photographs and imagery.

After several passes at a logo, we focused on a classic feel, almost nostalgic. This was a logo that had a modern edge to it, yet it also had an industrial 1950s feel to it, conveying a traditional American sense of quality and trust.

Final product

The end result was a design coded in CSS and XHTML, using DIVs instead of tables, however it appears at this moment the customer has reverted to HTML tables. http://www.chappietech.com

This is the design that was eventually chosen.

The chosen logo, with a bit of a different take on the sometimes overused globe, focusing more on the idea that Chappie Technologies offers solutions that help their customers navigate the market's waters.

Back in 2003 I had been working on a project for Southern Cross Pin Company which involved photographing and setting up a surf jewelry website using osCommerce. It was a quick and dirty project but it helped me prepare myself for knowing the kinds of needs and requirements that an eCommerce site entails.

Shortly thereafter I started working on a project for Jane Elizabeth Jewelry (originally Jane Jewelry). Jane had several requirements. Jane Elizabeth was being worn by celebrities like Katie Couric and she was getting a lot of press in the Improper Bostonian as well as national mags like Lucky. However she had no commerce solution other than email, telephones and calculators.

Jane Elizabeth Jewelry design, iconography, catalog layout

We came up with the following solution:

• Create a homepage which showed recent and fresh new designs, as well as the latest magazines and media that featured Jane Elizabeth jewelry.
• Develop an eCommerce solution using the open source osCommerce product.
• Create a wishlist which would allow people to save their favorite items with an email response from Jane Elizabeth.
• Create a customer-initiated gift reminder which would allow Jane Elizabeth to send email reminders to people to buy product at certain times of the year.

If you’ve come to this site anticipating a portfolio containing logos, graphics, design, UI samples, and more, you’re not in the wrong place. It’s just that I’m in the process of catching up to the 21st century by converting my entire site to a more dynamic format: The blog.

At the risk of sounding magnanimous, I often find myself wishing I could jot down my thoughts about certain things related to user experience and how we interact with design in the world around around us. For someone who calls himself at various times an “information designer, “web designer”, “user experience specialist”, a portfolio really is very limiting. I don’t want people to just see pictures of things I’ve worked on. I want people to know what I’m thinking of and how I think about it. Additionally, I want them to see how I solve problems. I’m thinking a blog is a great format to keep people up-to-date with these things I’ve been involved in, and also things I’m currently involved in.

Hopefully, I’ll also learn to write better, and with better expression with minimal effort. After all, this is the hallmark of good design: convey ideas succinctly.

Anyway, so if you don’t see what you came to see, it’s quite possible I’m still in the process of adding those things you would like to see. In the meantime, I’ll be providing a link to my old site from 2005 which is like 20 years old in Internet time.