Envision Technology Advisors

Providence, Rhode Island

Project Details

• Company: Envision Technology Advisors
• Industry: Information technology, networking
• Responsibilities: Design, XHTML and CSS templates, overall art direction
• Launched: October 17, 2008
• View This Project: www.envisionsuccess.net

Project Summary

In July of 2008, I started a new job as the Creative Director for Providence, Rhode Island based technology company Envision Technology Advisors. Envision has been in business for over 10 years and has had a Web development division since 2001. Like many companies, internal design needs consistently take a backseat to client work and by the time I came on board with Envision, the company’s Web site (which had been designed in 2003) was in need of an overhaul.

The timing of me coming to Envision was ideal as the company was on the cusp of their 10-year anniversary and a rebranding effort, which included a new Web site, quickly became a priority. As the Creative Director, I helped lead this rebranding effort and was incredibly excited to be able to contribute the actual design for the new site. Being new to the company, it was especially gratifying to have my design work suddenly become such a featured part of the organization.

Like all projects at Envision, the site was a team effort. I contributed the actual design of the site and coded (XHTML and CSS) the original template pages which were later turned into .NET master pages by other members of the team. I also conceptualized and directed much of the 'spots' that would become the Flash movie on the homepage. For this area, which has been updated since the site first went live a few years ago, we wanted to do something fun (hence the grizzly bear and fish) and flexible, allowing us to change individual spots to promote and highlight different services or time sensitive items, like upcoming events or awards we have won. We also wanted to have a little 'wow' factor to the page - which fellow Envision designer, Sarah O'Donnell, provided with her fun animations!

The site itself is one that I am really proud of design wise. It was a challenge to find visuals for the site that weren’t super generic. Envision offers a variety of technology consulting services, including virtualization, networking, security consulting and a full suite of Web services that include Web site design, development and online traffic generation. Right from the start of this design, I knew that I didn’t want to use images of network cables or generic ‘techie’ looking graphics, but wanted something different than what I saw on many tech-company sites. Instead of the same old images that you often see used in this industry, I decided to use some landscapes and other images of New England since we are a regional company. I loved the rich colors of the New England photographs and what they added to the overall design and texture of the site and thankfully the idea was very well received internally (the images that were eventually used on the site were not chosen at random - I choose pictures for specific reasons – like the shot of lobster traps for ‘security consulting’ or a brightly lit bridge for ‘Web site design’). The only exception to the ‘New England’ pictures was on the main branding area of the home page, where the designer who contributed that piece decided to go with an organic theme consisting of plants and rocks and the like rather than the typical non-organic images you would expect to find.

Beside the visual design and template builds of the site, I have also started to contribute content to the site, specifically in the ‘blog’ section.

Visit the Envision Technology Advisors site at www.envisionsuccess.net to see this project and to learn more about the technology services offered.