DeCiantis Ice Cream
- Category: Web design
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Responsibilities: Design, XHTML and CSS page builds, copy contributions
- Launched: September 22, 2010
- View This Project: www.icecreamisawesome.com
Project Summary
There are some projects that you just want to work on. When DeCiantis Ice Cream came to Envision Technology Advisors looking for some guidance on getting their business online, I instantly knew this was a project that I wanted to be involved with!
Located in West Warwick, Rhode Island, this family-run ice cream parlor (which features homemade products, all of which are made at their RI location) had recently come under new ownership and the new owners had planned for a number of changes. One of their ideas was to use the Web to drive awareness to not only their in-store menu (including 40+ flavors of homemade, hard-serve ice cream), but also to their other services, like ice cream parties for both children and corporate environments. They also offer wholesale ordering for local RI-area businesses, and the site would allow them to promote that service and detail the various menu items that they can supply local businesses with.
I don't often get to do ‘fun’ work, since many of my clients tend to be more of the corporate variety, and one of my goals is to find ways to do more projects that have a sense of whimsy and joy to them. What's more ‘fun’ than ice cream, right?
Right from the start, I knew I would enjoy this project. John and his family at DeCiantis were great in allowing me full creative freedom on this project, so the final version is pretty much exactly what I put together for this site. My inspiration for the design was pretty basic, I looked to 1950's style ice cream parlors and a warm, small town feel - evident in the background pattern the site uses or the ‘wooden sign’ logo, which was another item I designed for the company. From top to bottom, I tried to add lots of little details into the site, using some CSS3 transitions where appropriate for some nice, subtle effects for the user experience.
In addition to the design work, I also wrote or edited much of the copy on the site and built out the pages with XHTML and CSS.
You can see the delicious new site (which boasts my most favorite URL of any of my clients) at www.IceCreamIsAwesome.com.