Monthly Archives: May 2011

RIE: A New Design for a Timeless Philosophy

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Our role in creating a modern new website for the timeless philosophy of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE).

On the eve of their annual conference, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of our redesign of their website for Resources for Infant Educares. RIE is an international, non-profit organization that was founded by infant specialist and educator Magda Gerber and pediatric neurologist Tom Forrest, M.D. The RIE philosophy supports a relaxed approach to the bringing-up-of-baby, opposing overstimulation and parenting methods that pressure infants to succeed and flourish from the womb.

Although the organization has recently received a wealth of attention and media coverage for their unique methodology (due, in part, to celebrity supporters like Tobey Maguire, Helen Hunt and Jason Alexander), RIE has been dedicated to the betterment of infant care and education through teaching, supporting and mentoring parents and professionals since 1978.

We worked closely with the organization to redesign their website. We’re proud to say, the transformation of RIE’s online presence is really rather, well, transformational!

Before

Here is a before glimpse of the website in its entirety (click image to see full page):

After

And, here is a view of the home page after the redesign:

Summary

The project had a number of goals. The first goal was to update the visual landscape more in line with RIE’s new identity system. The second was to add key functionality to the website (we made it possible for guests of the site to sign up for a membership, donate funds, and peruse their online store). We do hope you will take a time out to stop by and check out RIE’s admirable vision and new website.

 

 

Bringing Facebook to Your Website

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On writing a custom Wordpress plug-in for displaying the latest Facebook status in a way that matches our designs.

When the new website for EDRIS Salon launched last week, we tried something new to get visitors interested in liking Edris on Facebook: we brought content from the Edris Facebook Wall onto the new website in the header. The final result looks like this.

This solution came out of a desire to bring Facebook content onto the new website while having the design elements match with the bright reds and bold text that defines the new Edris Salon site. We tried dozens of different looks using the default Facebook social tools (Like boxes and Like buttons), all of which ruined the designs. Can you imagine this working with the bright reds?

Frustrated, I came up with a solution that gets public status updates from the Edris Facebook page and displays them on the site. It was a perfect way to  show off the personality and fun that happens on the Edris Facebook page on the website. I’m planning to continue revising the plugin I wrote for Edris and hopefully release it was a WordPress plugin soon.

 

Savoir Flair Launches Dubai Edition

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Needmore works with Savoir Flair, international fashion magazine, to launch its long-awaited Dubai edition.

We are so proud to announce the launch of Savoir Flair’s Dubai edition!

While our relationship with Savoir Flair is not new (we’ve been working with them since December 2008 way before they first hit the world wide web), our continued partnership with the magazine has allowed us to continue to help their online presence evolve, including creating the brand spankin’ new Dubai section. Not to mention, the women of Savoir Flair are such extraordinary colleagues that we have long considered them a part of the Needmore family!

Savoir Flair magazine, based in Dubai, gathers content from style capitals all over the world and is exalted as the first fashion magazine to come out of the Middle Eastern market. It is now one of the only publications delivering content for an international audience. The Dubai section, which was launched this week, is an homage to the magazine’s hometown. Editor in Chief, Haleh Nia, dedicates the new section to Dubai’s local labels and designers. (Read more about that in this inspiring interview.)

To celebrate the new section, Savoir Flair threw a fabulous, upscale cocktail launch party in February for all Dubai’s finest fashionistas. Unfortunately, since Ray’s “incident” in Cancun last year, we haven’t been allowed to travel outside of the country… but we kept tabs on the glamourous affair through media coverage and photos. The event included live music, delectable finger food, photo booth by Fish Face, giveaways and, of course, Flairtinis. We’re so bummed we missed out.

Nevertheless, Needmore continues to truck on, working closely on the magazine’s website and newsletter design. We look forward to Savoir Flair’s inevitable growth and to working with them even more in the future.

EDRIS Salon’s New ‘Do

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A before and after view of our redesign for EDRIS Salon, taking them from Flash to a one-page social-media integrated HTML website.

EDIRS Salon, based in New York’s meatpacking district, is known for their uptown/downtown aesthetic and a multicultural approach to hair styling. (And, when we say known, we mean it; they were just named one of Elle Magazine’s top 100 hair salons.) When we initially started working with EDRS, we immediately got a sense that, while their Flash website was bold and striking, it was a bit stale in comparison to the sophisticated vibrance radiating from everyone talked to at the salon (see the before image below). Plus, their Facebook and Twitter presence, where much of their ass kicking personality is evident, was non-existent.

We were interested in thinking outside the box a bit with this project. We’ve been quite inspired by one-page websites lately and wanted to push ourselves to telling the whole story right up front. (It only seemed right for such a bold, distinguished group of hair artists.) And so, we gathered together a pile of great photography from the salon, had a nice long chat, and set to work creating the tallest graphic we’ve ever made in Adobe Illustrator. Not to change absolutely everything at once, we were careful to brought in the emblematic EDRIS colors together with a twist; as you dive deeper into the page, the mood gradually changes. We also matched their identity with a custom web font.

As you can see, the site focuses on social media as a first priority, making every visit fresh. There also are a number of unexpected details—full image press pieces and an integrated blog—that burst forth from the one-page rule. (Hey, rules are made to be broken.)

Overall, we are thrilled to have had the opportunity to translate EDRIS’S signature style into a forward-thinking website that takes social media integration seriously. We do hope you will enjoy.

Art of the Coming Soon Page

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Gone are the days of the old-school under construction pages. What to keep in mind when creating yours and a handful of great designs.

Gone are the days of the old-school under construction pages. Rather, the time between purchasing a URL and posting a website is valuable to for starting to engage with the world. We like to keep a couple things in mind when creating a great coming soon page:

  1. Set the tone for the brand. Is your project going to be whimsical? Musical? Modern? If so, the page should be as well.
  2. Give enough information to pique interest. Someone visiting the coming soon page for the first time needs to leave wanting to know more. Or, better yet, wanting to tell their friends to visit and learn more.
  3. Give a way for folks to become engaged immediately. Adding a mailing list sign up and social media buttons are key to building a base of people that are going to care when your website launches.
  4. Do something remarkable. If you want eyes on your page, create something memorable, unexpected, beautiful. Make it worth passing on (and easy to do so).

A few examples of pages that follow this path (some by us, some by others):

Made by Needmore, Coming Soon

We are in the process of starting a side business and first order of business was to get started on a coming soon page for the new venture. And so, for our page, we enlisted the help of illustrator Amy Ruppel and created a fun, whimsical introduction to our line of artsy apps for kids. Since we’re focused on mobile devices, we made sure the animation scaled in iPhones and iPads.

Love the look, great tagline, super simple to keep up-to-date. Only issue is that the 2008 date makes one think that this might be a very long in coming…

The bird completely wins us over here!

Simple and, if you are a fan, you know right away that you want more.

Finally, a more comprehensive coming soon page that we created for an upcoming print magazine.

Coming Soon

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If you are obsessed with your iPad, love art, have children, or are a child at heart – skip over to Made by Needmore and be one of the first to know when our new app unveils.

If you are obsessed with your iPad, love art, have children, or are a child at heart – skip over to Made by Needmore and be one of the first to know when our new app unveils.

Made by Needmore, Coming Soon

More than anything, this page is the work of our web producer, Patrick. We wanted to capture the essence of what we’re trying to bring to the world: iPad apps for children, created in partnership with great artists. Since we’ve already been talking to the enormously talented Amy Ruppel, her art seemed a natural fit.

Couple of things to notice here.

First, all of the artwork was provided by Amy, although we indulged in typography from the Photo-Lettering service by House Industries. We thought it would look lovely to see MADE BY NEEDMORE in such beautiful type, and it was worth it. The photo lettering is gorgeous, a sight to behold.

Notice that we’ve taken pains to create a design that works pretty much any device you can open it with. Try your phone. Try your iPad. Of course it looks great on an iPad. Open it in your web browser, and try resizing the window. And it doesn’t just resize – it adapts to fit the device, so you’ll see more stuff on your computer, and less on your phone. It’s adaptive. It’s smart.

And man, does it have character. The clouds change speed over time. Sometimes they move one way, sometimes they move the other. Some pass in front of the sun, some behind it. And of course, you can join our mailing list right there, or share it with the world on Twitter.

That’s just the coming soon page. We hope you enjoy it. We can’t wait to show you more.

One to Watch

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A modern, timeless website design for luxury interior design firm Jessica Jubelirer Design.

Today we’re pleased as can be to announce our latest design, an all-new website for Jessica Jubelirer Design. Jessica Jubelirer Design is a luxury interior design firm with an classic elegant, and timeless aesthetic. They’re masters of their craft, and we want visitors to know that immediately.

When we started work on this project, we tinkered with how to capture just the right aesthetic. (Our client emphasized their desire for a site that was “clean, modern, stylistic.”)  One piece we strove to nail was the portfolio. Our client had a look in mind (thumbnails on the right, a larger image to the left), but we wanted to push the images a bit further (and larger). For one thing, we wanted them to be able to add a ton of pictures, but make it easy to navigate them. There are numbers below that set of thumbnails, automatically sliding from set to set. And because we felt that the larger image wasn’t enough, we’ve made it so that curious visitors can click to see a larger version. Once zoomed in, you can navigate the images from right there, too.

Speaking of search engines, our client wanted the typography to reflect their identity, so we tracked down an elegant font that could be used on their website. Search engines can index their site without a problem, but the final product looks just as classy as our mockups.

Spend a little time exploring the site. We think you’ll enjoy Jessica’s designs just as much as we do.