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ID’s new look and how it came to be.

Posted by    |   September 16th, 2008   |   No Comments

Hey there, my name is Carlos Real and I am one of the designers here at Insight Designs. Over the last few weeks we’ve been complimented about ID’s new look and asked about its concept and how it came to be. So here it is:

First and foremost, Insight Designs is a fun place to be, where — as Beth mentions two blog entries down — “work-hard-play-hard” is an ethos. We wanted our website, which is ultimately our business card and highest-profile marketing tool, to capture our essence. Thus, the bright colors, the simplicity in structure and the Jack-in-the-Box theme.

I wanted our site to have some depth and volume as opposed to being 2 dimensional. So we immediately thought of using our 3D modeling and animation skills to accomplish this.

As for how I came up with the boxes, well, they are full of surprises. And that’s the line that kept on surfacing every time when trying to describe our design process. I though of things every kid (chronological and at heart) in the world likes: circuses, carnivals, animals, fairs… but one idea kept springing up (pun intended) and that was the Jack-in-the-Box. I don’t know of anyone that resists the urge to turn the crank if presented with one. They are fun — just like us. They make you giddy with anticipation – just like our first design rounds. And they are surprising — just like our solutions and final delivery.

The next step was to build and animate the boxes in 3D. We had four categories — Our Faces, Our Services, Our Company, and Our Work. Each box was to have a signature “Jack” that would pop out representing the category in a simple yet fun way. For example, Our Faces pops a “Jack” of masks and a locket to display our actual faces. The “Jack” for Our Services became a hammer to symbolize our strength with back-end applications, a painter’s palette for creativity and a Swiss Army Knife as a symbol of our flexibility and resourcefulness. Next we created a scale representation of the building that houses our office including the Ben & Jerry’s awnings for the Our Company “Jack”. Finally, the “Jack” for Our Work became a collection of our websites displayed within frames as works of art. Some truly belong in a gallery if I do say so myself!

Anyway, after a bit of tinkering with the aesthetics, the rest is history. Our new website was built, content was written, pictures were taken, websites were chronologically and alphabetically showcased, everything was tested and retested, and the site was launched. I know I speak from everyone here at Insight –- even Java, when I say that we are damn proud of it, but already thinking about how to make it better for next time!

Enjoy.

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