http://184.154.109.90/~pumpkin/index.php en jeremy_girard@yahoo.com Copyright 2011 2011-02-23T16:01:36+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/wild-rhody http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/wild-rhody#When:17:32:12Z Wild Rhody Category: Web design, logo Industry: Fishing, retail Responsibilities: Logo design, Website design, HTML5/CSS page builds, Responsive web design, ExpressionEngine integration, Copywriting Launched: December 29th, 2011 View This Project: www.wildrhodyseafood.com Project Summary When I first met the principals of Wild Rhody, they had an idea for their business that was generating a substantial amount of interest. Started by two fishermen from Point Judith, Rhode Island, Wild Rhody's mission was multi-faceted. First, they wanted to provide the freshest, cleanest seafood possible and they wanted to give the public unparalleled insight into where that seafood came from by using tracking IDs and QR codes to allows consumers to learn where and when the seafood was caught, who caught it, and much more. They also sought to improve conditions for fishermen and promote sustainable fishing methods to help preserve our ocean's natural resources. The unique nature of Wild Rhody's mission caught on fast and what was planned as a slow, measured roll-out for the company quickly became a race to meet demand. Because of this, marketing materials to help promote the company became a priority and Wild Rhody turned to Envision Technology Advisiors to help them meet this need. Knowing how much I love doing work for distinctly Rhode Island companies, I was very excited to begin work on this project - starting with a logo for the company. After a few rounds of revisions, one of the logo design that I had created was selected. Featuring an upscale feel that spoke to the high-end restaurants where Wild Rhody seafood is featured, it was a perfect fit for the company and their developing brand. With a logo in place, we then turned to the design of the company's website. The final look and feel was largely based on my initial design, but it incorporated multiple elements from Envision's other designers, Sarah O'Donnell and Jeremy Spurr. You can see my affection for textures and a look of use and wear in the design of the Wild Rhody site, such as in the torn paper effect at the top of the design. The final website was built using HTML5 and CSS3, including media queries to achieve a responsive design approach for the site, and was later integrated into the ExpressionEngine content management system. Finally, I played an important role in the content creation for the site's pages. Through interviews with Wild Rhody, I wrote all the copy on the site with the exception of the technical data on the fish species. This was a wonderful project to work on for me. Not only did it have a Rhode Island flavor to it, but I was able to be involved in every aspect of the project - from logo design, to page design and development, to the actual content for those pages. It's rare that I am this heavily involved in a project these days, so it really felt great to dive into this one and see it all the way through. You can see the new site at www.wildrhodyseafood.com. 2011-12-29T17:32:12+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/windrifter-resort http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/windrifter-resort#When:20:08:34Z The Windrifter Resort Category: Web design Industry: Hospitality Responsibilities: Design, HTML5 and CSS page builds, ExpressionEngine integration Launched: October 4, 2011 View This Project: www.windrifterresort.com Project Summary I love New Hampshire, so when the Windrifter Resort, which is one of the first timeshare resorts in America, came to Envision looking for a new website to better showcase their resort, I was instantly excited for the opportunity. Designing a resort website was something I had long wanted to take on, so this was my chance to finally do so - and since the resort in question was in New Hampshire, well, that was even better! After presenting the resort with a series of designs, they choose the general layout and feel of mine (the overall layout, typography, and wooden logo sign were all pieces of my original design), coupled with some elements from another Envision designer's comp (the mountainous background and general color palette). Working with the resort, I combined elements (making adjustments as necessary) to create a design that reflected the history and feel of their cherished resort and promoted the resort to both potential new owners as well as other timeshare owners looking to exchange their own timeshare and stay in Wolfeboro, NH at the Windfrifter's Main Campus or Yacht Club. The site itself was built with HTML5 and a generous helping of CSS3, including a variety of transition effects (such as the logo sign that swings on hover) in browsers that support those features. For a content management system, ExpressionEngine was used, taking advantage of many of the platform's features, such as channels for news and press releases, ease of management for the client and a secure area for resort owners to access content only meant for them. The site was deployed in early October, just in time for the area's foliage season and right before the winter season kicks in for skiing, snowboarding and more. You can visit the new site at www.windrifterresort.com. 2011-12-26T20:08:34+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/rhode-island-film-collaborative http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/rhode-island-film-collaborative#When:20:20:24Z The Rhode Island Film Collaborative Category: Web design Industry: Not-for-profit, entertainment Responsibilities: Design, build of HTML/CSS templates Launched: December, 2011 View This Project: rifcfilms.com Project Summary I had done some work with the Rhode Island Film Collaborative previously, having designed a logo for their 2010 "48 Hour Film Project", so when I was asked by the group in late 2010 to redesign their website, I was happy for the opportunity. As a not-for-profit organization, the RIFC was looking for an attractive new design and improved user experience that would better serve the local filmmakers that the group helps promote and support. They were also looking for a better way to keep the site current with the latest news on the organization, events they are hosting, classes they are offering and much more. A great design and an improved platform are exactly what they needed to help support their growth. For this project, I was responsible for the design of the new site, as well as the build of the HTML and CSS templates. I then turned the templates over to a developer who, along with the RIFC, finished up the website, building the updating platform that they would use going forward. You can visit the new site at rifcfilms.com. 2011-12-20T20:20:24+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/bacon-is-the-answer http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/bacon-is-the-answer#When:14:43:48Z Bacon is the Answer Category: Web design Industry: Personal project, Ecommerce Responsibilities: Design, HTML5 and CSS page builds, responsive design, copywriting Launched: October 1, 2011 View This Project: baconistheanswer.com Project Summary I take great pride in the fact that the projects I work on and the websites that I build are useful, and in some cases very important, to the organizations and audiences they serve. That being said, this project does not fall into the category of “useful”, “important”, or even “sensible”. It does, however, fall squarely into the category of “fun.”. Late one Friday afternoon, after a particularly challenging work week at Envision, myself and the other members of the Web team were amusing ourselves and unwinding from the week by creating a series of silly t-shirt designs. All of the designs praised the awesomeness of one of our particular co-workers (don't worry, it was all in good fun, and he gives it back to us ten-fold when it comes to good-natured ribbing), with one of the designs stating that our coworker was “the answer. What's the question?”. Laughing at the design, my colleague, whose name is also Jeremy, suggested that we replace the name of our coworker with “bacon” so the slogan would read “Bacon is the answer. What's the question?”. Just like that, an idea was born. Driving home that evening, I couldn't stop thinking about the design and I cooked up the idea to create a “search engine” that would return a result of “bacon” no matter what question was asked of it. Useful? Absolutely not. Funny? Hell yes! I began designing the site as soon as I got home. With a design ready for the site, as well as some t-shirts and an absolutely ludicrous “origin story” for the project/website, I decided to go forward with this idea with the help of Envision's other Jeremy. Which brings us to today - the launch of BaconIsTheAnswer.com. So what's the point of this website, other than to perhaps sell a few t-shirts? The point is to have some fun. That's it. Ask the site a question and you know exactly what it will return as an answer, but when you see that word “bacon” staring back at you and you crack a smile - that is the point. And if you decide to buy a t-shirt while you're there or “like” the site on Facebook or tweet it to your friends and support our silly little idea, well then we thank you for that support and hope we did, indeed, make you smile. Having fun and building something that makes us all laugh. You know, maybe this project wasn't so pointless after all? 2011-10-01T14:43:48+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/innovative-construction http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/innovative-construction#When:02:04:15Z Innovative Construction Category: Web design Industry: Construction Responsibilities: Responsive web design and development with HTML5, CSS3 and media queries Launched: September 16, 2011 View This Project: www.iciofamerica.com Project Summary I had designed Innovative Construction's first website over 5 years ago - so when I was asked to design and develop a fresh new site for them in mid-2011, I jumped at the chance. Innovative Construction specializes in high end, quality construction for hospitality, commercial, and residential properties. The primary goal of the new site was to find a way to really focus on their project galleries and display their work in a big, bold way. Right from the start of this project, I knew I wanted to go big with the images and backgrounds, but I also knew I wanted the site to work on smaller scale devices. It was a perfect excuse to use a “responsive web design” for the site, with fluid images and a fluid grid, along with a helping of Media Queries, to allow the site's layout to reflow and respond to different devices and browser sizes - from the large screen layout to a mobile friendly layout for handheld devices. I also opted to take a “mobile first” approach in many cases and do my best to deliver as little content to small screens, only turning on large background images for larger screens using CSS3 media queries. Of particular note on the site are the individual gallery pages, which use a Lightbox gallery for the images and a giant background photo that makes uses of the CSS3 “background-size” property to achieve the scaling-background type effect I was aiming for. The site is built with HTML5 and a generous helping of CSS3 to achieve some of the visual effects and transitions (as well as the media queries, of course). The new site can be seen at iciofamerica.com. Be sure to check it out on various devices or resize your CSS3-ready browser to see the site reflow and see the responsive styles take over. 2011-09-20T02:04:15+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/forgotten-presidents http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/forgotten-presidents#When:00:16:07Z Forgotten Presidents Category: Web design Industry: Personal project, demonstration Responsibilities: Design, logo design, HTML5 and CSS page builds, responsive design Launched: June 7, 2011 View This Project: www.forgottenpresidents.com Project Summary This website was created as part of a demonstration by Envision Technology Advisors to showcase Disaster Recovery for Virtualized Environments. Since attendees at the events where this demo would be shown would be using a variety of devices, from phones to tablets to laptops, etc., I decided that using a “Responsive Web Design” approach for this project made alot of sense. Besides, I was itching to try out this approach and this gave me the excuse I needed! Having previously experimented a little with Responsive Web Design and a Fluid Grid, I knew that to do this properly, you needed to design for this responsiveness from the very start. Trying to retro-fit a site and make it responsive is a great deal more difficult than if you plan for it from the earliest stages of a project. That early planning is what I did here. Since this was meant for demo purposes, I wanted to choose a subject matter that would play well with a variety of audiences - from fellow web designers and developers to CEOs and CTOs, etc. The concept of “Forgotten Presidents”, focusing on some of our country's lesser known Commanders in Chief, was what I ended up going with, in large part because I was excited for the visuals this direction opened up to me (historic feeling typefaces and textures) and the availability of content that I could use under a Creative Commons license (from the White House's website). I was also interested in this subject, using this as an excuse to not only play with a new web development technique, but to also learn a bit about some US Presidents that I had previously known little to nothing about. The website is built with HTML5 and a fair helping of CSS3, including the media queries that help make the responsive design possible. It also uses some jQuery on the homepage to randomize and rotate the “Forgotten Five” Presidents, a key requirement for the demos that this site was initially used for, as well as to scale the main titles. For this effect, a great plugin called FitText was used, courtesy of Paravel. You can see the little site at www.forgottenpresidents.com. Be sure to check it out on multiple devices to see the responsiveness of the layout. 2011-06-07T00:16:07+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/ri-temps http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/ri-temps#When:13:12:02Z RI Temps Category: Web design Industry: Staffing Agency Responsibilities: Design, logo design, HTML5 and CSS page builds, copy contributions Launched: May 25, 2011 View This Project: www.ritemps.com Project Summary When RI Temps came to Envision looking for a new website, they wanted something that would allow them to better communicate with their audience. RI Temps provides temporary and permanent placements for companies and candidates here in Rhode Island. Much of their competition comes from national or even global placement agencies, but since RI Temps was born and bred here in RI, there are advantages to working with a company that "knows Rhode Island." Their old site did not effectively highlight their roots or the benefits of working with a locally grown company, so that direction is really where this new design started. I am a lifelong Rhode Islander myself and I have a soft spot for any project that allows me to focus on my home state in some way. For this project, giving the design and overall art direction a very Rhode Island feel made perfect sense and you can see iconic Ocean State landscapes and images throughout the site's design, including the state flag as a background on the homepage's main billboard message where the words "We are your neighbors" sits. This message summarizes much of the site's focus, presenting the value to Rhode Island companies and candidates who are seeking to fill or find a position. Working with a company that is also a RI business run by RI workers just makes sense. Besides the site design, I also contributed a new logo to the project. The company's old logo was outdated and a bit unwieldy (you can see it in the site's footer), so I came up with a bolder logo that also had a touch of RI in it, using the anchor to separate the two aspects of the company in their logo (RI Temps for temporary staffing and RI Personnel for permanent placements). Finally, I added some copy contributions to the site, writing much of the content myself and editing others to ensure the tone of the site remained consistent and focused on the key messaging of the project. You can see the Rhode Island-themed design at www.ritemps.com. 2011-05-30T13:12:02+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/deciantis-ice-cream http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/deciantis-ice-cream#When:02:27:45Z 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. 2011-02-24T02:27:45+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/three-broomsticks-pub http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/three-broomsticks-pub#When:02:27:26Z Three Broomsticks Pub Category: Web design Industry: Education, Entertainment Responsibilities: Design, XHTML and CSS page builds, content creation Launched: February 1, 2010 View This Project: www.threebroomstickspub.com Project Summary This site was designed to be used as part of the ‘Advanced Website Design’ curriculum at the University of Rhode Island. For this course, I wanted to take the students through a series of web design/build exercises using a small business as the case study. I decided on using a bar/pub as my example for the project, but rather than design a site for some generic establishment, I wanted to have some fun with this, so I created a site for one of the noteworthy locations from the Harry Potter universe. One of my main motivations in this design and subject matter was the chance to use some very organic, real world textures and images. I have seen many sites that use wood-grains or paper as elements of the design itself and I've always really liked that style. Unfortunately, that look and feel is something that I never had a call for in my professional work - so I decided to use this project as an excuse to experiment with this style a bit. The entire design was created using stock elements and textures and manipulating them in Photoshop. Since this site is meant to be instructional, I wanted the end product to have been achievable using easily available elements and some Photoshop filters and effects. The ‘banner logo’, for instance, was created using a series of stock images (the banner, a broom icon) along with some type layers and working with them to create the final, stitched-banner looking logo. In addition to the design of the site, I created the pages using XHTML and CSS, including some fun CSS3 animations and transitions, which really add to the ‘magical’ aspects of the user experience by making items move, spin, rotate and grow (and which will be a nice vehcle for me to discuss the future of web design - and CSS3 - during the final parts of these classes). I also wrote all of the content for the site, which proved to be a fun project since it allowed me to play around a bit in Harry's magical world and draw upon some of the fun aspects of that universe for the site's content. The class will work with a slightly scaled back version of this design and will be taken through a step by step series of lessons to introduce them to using semantic markup and CSS to build a website. The lessons learned in these exercises will later be applied to a final project that each student will work on using a subject matter of their own choosing. As the disclaimers on the site state, this project is in no way affiliated with Harry Potter, JK Rowling or Warner Bros., but is meant only for educational and entertainment purposes. 2011-02-24T02:27:26+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/big-sandwich-day http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/big-sandwich-day#When:16:01:36Z Big Sandwich Day Category: Logo Industry: Personal project, “just for fun” Responsibilities: Logo design Launched: March, 2011 View This Project: See the logo Project Summary This logo design project was one I did for my own personal amusement. Every Wednesday, on my way home from our kids' swim lessons, my wife picks a few sandwiches up for our dinner from a local shop called J's Deli. These are some serious sandwiches and Wednesdays in our household were dubbed “Big Sandwich Day”. Yeah, Wednesdays are a tasty day at my house. While enjoying my sandwich one evening, I realized what “Big Sandwich Day” was missing - a logo! Thankfully, this is what I do for a living so I immediately set out to correct this lack of sandwich-inspired branding. I knew I wanted to the logo to be fun and I knew it needed to contain a large sandwich. I don't do much logo design, but I tend to really like logos that have a ‘badge-like’ quality to them, so I wanted to use that style for this logo as well. I illustrated the sandwich in Flash (which is oddly what I use for vector illustrating because I am uncomfortable in Illustrator) and then I colored the line art in Photoshop, where I also added the type treatments and finalized the design. Many thanks to Josh at Envision for his guidance on this design. After showing him a sketch of my initial layout ideas, I mentioned that I wasn't sure how I planned to get the word “sandwich” integrated. He suggested that the giant sandwich was fine on its own and that I didn't need to also spell out the word. Looking at the logo, you can see that was indeed the route I took! So enjoy my little just-for-fun logo project and if you're ever in Northern RI, be sure to swing by J's Deli and enjoy your own “Big Sandwich Day”. (thanks Greenbaum) 2011-02-23T16:01:36+00:00