http://184.154.109.90/~pumpkin/index.php en jeremy_girard@yahoo.com Copyright 2013 2013-03-29T12:45:42+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/honey-dew-donuts http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/honey-dew-donuts#When:12:45:42Z Honey Dew Donuts® Category: Web Design Industry: Food service Responsibilities: Website design, Strategy, Project Management Launched: March 29th, 2013 View This Project: www.honeydewdonuts.com Project Summary There are few things I like as much as coffee and donuts, so I was understandably excited when Envision began working with Honey Dew Donuts® in late 2012 on a complete redesign/redevelopment of the company's website and intranet. My role in this project was largely overall strategy and project management, but I also contributed the bulk of the design work to the project - including the visual design and layout of the site's homepage and key subpages. With the design work approved and ready to go, I passed the development aspects of the project onto the rest of the team at Envision. This development including using the ExpressionEngine CMS to power both the website and the intranet and EE's multi-site manager tool to connect the two deployments so that they could easily share content (menu item, store locations, etc.). Other exciting features that were added during development included the use of HTML5 geolocation to locate the nearest Honey Dew location to you, as well as a fully responsive site build to ensure that the new Honey Dew site would respond to, and work well on, the widest range of devices possible. All in all, this was one of the most enjoyable projects I have had the pleasure to work on in quite some time. Great people to work with, a fun and exciting brand and product, and challenges that we were able to meet through the use of innovative solutions and tools - this project really did have it all! Plus, it had donuts. You can't go wrong with donuts. You can see the new site at www.honeydewdonuts.com. 2013-03-29T12:45:42+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/envision-technology-advisors1 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/envision-technology-advisors1#When:13:14:34Z Envision Technology Advisors Category: Web Design Industry: Technology Consulting - Virtualization, Cloud Services, Web Design Responsibilities: Website design, HTML5/CSS page builds, ExpressionEngine integration, responsive web design, Copywriting Launched: August 15th, 2012 View This Project: www.envisionsuccess.net Project Summary I have worked at Envision, first as the Creative Director and now as the Director of Web Development, since 2008. One of the first projects I led when I came to the company was a redesign of the organization's website as part of our 10-year anniversary. This year, another big milestone in Envision's history prompted us to redesign once again. The company's move to a new office space, tripling the size of our office to help accommodate the consistently growing company, was the catalyst for this redesign, but really, we had been due for an overhaul for some time. The previous version of the site was new and cutting edge when it was released in 2008, and a number of changes had been made to it over the years - including a move to HTML5/CSS3 and a rebuild on the ExpressionEngine platform, but despite these changes, the core of the site was pretty much consistent with its release from 4 years ago. This included a Flash animation on the homepage's billboard section and no real support for mobile devices. With so much of our work at Envision being focused on responsive design these days, the fact that our own site was not responsive was a bit of an embarrassment. Time to change that. When I began designing Envision's new site, I knew I wanted to address these technical issues (the use of Flash, mobile support, etc.), but I also wanted to overhaul the tone and approach of the site. Our old site was all about what we did. I wanted our new site to not only show the services we offer, but to also focus heavily on who we are as a company. We have long been recognized for the quality of our people and the uniqueness of our culture at Envision, so the new site put a spotlight on both of these aspects of our company. I also wanted the design itself to be different than your typical IT company. So many IT websites are very precise and "techy looking", lots of shiny buttons and techy looking backgrounds. For our site, I went the opposite route, using a watercolor background in place of a more technology-centric approach. I liked the handcrafted, personal feel of the watercolors and wanted to bring that aspect to our design as a way to reflect the personal approach of the services we offer. From a technical standpoint, there is a lot I am quite proud of on the site. It uses a mobile-first, fully responsive design to deliver a layout optimized for different screen sizes, but I also wanted to take it a step further. Since so often, responsive design is about turning things on or off with media queries, sometimes delivering content to mobile devices only to then turn them off, I wanted to find a better way. The site started with a mobile first approach and we made sure that pretty much all the content we added was relevant for all audiences, regardless of their device. Now, since the site was built on ExpressionEngine, we were also able to use variables to detect the device accessing the site and deliver different source order or elements based on the device. Elements like thumbnail photos to help highlight an article were nice to have items, but not critical - so for mobile devices, our variable would detect that device and the image wouldn't even be delivered in the source code. Similarly, we deliver 2 teasers for most our our feeds (news, blog, etc.) on our homepage, but the mobile detection helps us trim that down to just one. In this way, we were able to have a responsive site, but still deliver only the content we want displayed to select devices.This approach helped us realize the best of responsive design and mobile-only versions. When I began playing with this approach, my concern was what would happen if our device detection failed. This is where our mobile first, responsive approach really helped us bulletproof the experience. if detection fails, mobile users get the source of the "normal" display, but since it is responsive, that display is still optimized for small screens, and the only real difference is that they get a few extra images and teasers for our feeds. Even if our detection fails, our site experience succeeds. You can see the new site at www.envisionsuccess.net. 2012-08-09T13:14:34+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/brown-family-seafood http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/brown-family-seafood#When:16:01:45Z Brown Family Seafood Category: Web design, logo Industry: Fishing, retail Responsibilities: Logo design, Website design, HTML5/CSS page builds, Responsive web design, ExpressionEngine integration, Copywriting Launched: March 1st, 2013 View This Project: www.brownfamilyseafood.com Project Summary I first met the Brown family back in 2011 and did some work with them for a previous company they were a part of. As they eventually broke away from that organization and decided to start their own family run company, they once again turned to Envision and me to design and develop an identity and website to fit their businesses needs. Brown Family Seafood is headquartered in Rhode Island, where they fish off of Point Judith. I am always find of working with companies that have a strong RI connection, so I was excited contribute to this project. It also gave me a chance to work with the passionate and dedicated team at Brown Family Seafood to help realize their vision. That vision started with the new logo. The company wanted a look that reflected the family-run, gritty feel of their business. To accomplish this, I turned to the company's main fishing vessel as my inspiration - incorporating the Proud Mary into the logo design. A slab-serif typeface (Chunk Five) paired with an elegant script for the word "Seafood" rounded out the design, which I later turned over to other designers at Envision to flesh out and finalize with vector illustrations. With the logo in place, I turned to the website design next. Old, weathered wood textures and fishing nets brought a gritty, real world feel into the design and the slab-serif typeface from the logo was used for headers throughout the site. I have to admit, I loved working on this design. I enjoy working with textures and a "lived in" feeling for website designs, and this project gave me the perfect opportunity to use this style. The design approved, I next worked with the principals at Brown Family Seafood to gather or develop content for the site to convey their message and mission. I also began developing, along with others at Envision, some of the HTML and CSS framework for the site, including a responsive design approach, and helped integrate it into the ExpressionEngine CMS. You can see the new site at www.brownfamilyseafood.com. 2012-08-08T16:01:45+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/ribgh http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/ribgh#When:12:31:02Z RIBGH Category: Web Design Industry: Non-profit, healthcare Responsibilities: Website design, responsive design, HTML/CSS templates, creative direction, overall strategy consulting Launched: August 31st, 2012 View This Project: www.ribgh.org Project Summary The Rhode Island Business Group on Health, or RIBGH, is a non-profit organization whose goal is to "help RI's employers get the most from their health care investment through education, collaboration and advocacy." When they came to Envision in early 2012, they were looking for a complete overall of the organization's brand - from their logo and printed materials, to their website and online marketing efforts, including email, social media, and more. This project started with a redesign of the organization's logo. A number of options were shown and a few rounds of revisions presented before the final design was approved. This final logo, which was created by fellow Envision designer, Sarah O'Donnell, embodied the clean, strong feel we were looking for - also tying into the "ocean state" aspect of Rhode Island and the healthy lifestyle element that is so important to RIBGH's mission With the new logo in place, we next began work on the website's design. The final, approved layout was one that I designed and I also created the HTML/CSS templates for the site, including the responsive design of the site so that it supports a variety of devices and screen sizes, before turning the project over to Envision's Lead Front-end Developer, Jeremy Spurr. Jeremy then built out the rest of the site and integrated it with the ExpressionEngine content management system. This entire project was a very consultative engagement from start to finish and RIBGH were a great organization to work with on this project. Routine strategy meetings and phone calls helped shape all aspects of this project to give RIBGH the online presence, and platform for growth, that was important for their continued success. You can see the new website at www.ribgh.org. 2012-08-03T12:31:02+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/af-technology-solutions http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/af-technology-solutions#When:13:00:44Z AF Technology Solutions Category: Web Design, logo Industry: Technology consulting Responsibilities: Website design, responsive design, HTML5/CSS, ExpressionEngine integration, logo design Launched: September 15th, 2012 View This Project: www.af-techsolutions.com Project Summary AF Technology Solutions is a Tiverton, RI based company that offer technology services to small businesses. One of the principals of this new company, Douglas Fingliss, is someone I have known and worked with on various projects for many years. When he came to me to be with new of his latest business venture, I was thrilled to be involved. Like many of my projects with Doug, he gave me full creative freedom for this entire engagement - starting with the company's new logo. For that logo, as well as the rest of the design, I wanted a high end, classy feel. AF Technology Solutions are somewhat of a "boutique style" company. Their focus is not on acquiring lots of customers, but rather on finding a smaller amount of organizations that they can work with in a very long term, consultative way to help them maximize their investments in technology. They are looking for quality over quantity in terms of finding the right fit for their business. I wanted that exclusive, high quality approach to be reflected in the company's brand. The logo used a typeface called Matchbook as it's starting point for the large "AF" letters. Additional pieces were added to connect the two letterforms into a unified mark. Quicksand was chosen for the rest of the logo's type. With the logo in place, the rest of the site's design began to take shape. I went with a very minimalistic approach to the design. Visuals were limited to a few photos of puzzles, further reinforcing the theme of "the right fit" and a few screenshots fo client web projects. The site was built using a responsive approach and integrated into the ExpressionEngine content management system. You can see the new website at www.af-techsolutions.com. 2012-07-11T13:00:44+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/university-medical-group http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/university-medical-group#When:21:31:17Z University Medical Group Category: Web Design Industry: Healthcare Responsibilities: Website design, responsive design, creative direction, overall strategy consulting Launched: February 6th, 2013 View This Project: www.ribgh.org Project Summary University Medical Group, or UMG, is a not for profit corporation comprised of over 35 academic physicians in Medicine, Medicine subspecialties and Dermatology. UMG has worked with Envision on a number of IT projects, so when they were looking for someone to design and develop a new website for the organization, the Web Team at Envision were a perfect choice. 2012-05-16T21:31:17+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/mfclaw http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/mfclaw#When:13:49:37Z The Law Offices of Michael F. Campopiano Category: Web design Industry: Personal injury law, criminal law Responsibilities: Website design, HTML5/CSS page builds, Responsive web design, Copywriting Launched: August 4th, 2012 View This Project: www.mfclaw.com Project Summary Based in Providence, The Law Offices of Michael F. Campopiano focus on personal injury law for Rhode Island, including automobile accidents, motorcycle accidents, workers' compensations, medical malpractice, and more. They also offer criminal law litigation services. When I met Michael, he had an outdated website that wasn't really driving any traffic to his practice. An obvious goal of this project was to build a site that would introduce clients to the practice, but I also had other goals for this design. I personally hate the over-the-top, ambulance chasing feel of many law websites, commercials, or advertisements. For this site, I wanted a design and tone that would show Michael's dedication and passion, but in a very professional way. I wanted it to be the polar opposite, in terms of that tone, from those ridiculous lawyer designs that I so despise. In addition to the professional tone and feel, I also wanted the site to work well across a variety of devices - from desktops, to tablets, to phones, etc. Knowing that many times a potential client is searching for a lawyer shortly after, or even at the scene of, an accident, I knew that the site needed to have an experience optimized for smartphones. To meet this need, the site was built to be fully responsive, giving all users quick access to the information they need on the device they are using at that time. You can see the new site at www.mfclaw.com. 2012-05-15T13:49:37+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/the-shops-at-diagon-alley http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/the-shops-at-diagon-alley#When:16:58:37Z The Shops at Diagon Alley Category: Web design Industry: Education, Entertainment Responsibilities: Website design, HTML5/CSS page builds, Responsive web design, Copywriting Launched: March 26th, 2012 View This Project: www.diagonalleyshops.com Project Summary So much has changed since the last time I taught an "advanced" section of the website design course that I teach at the University of Rhode Island that the set of lessons and the demo site that I used for the last course felt sorely outdated to me. Recent advances in web design/development, such as responsive design, weren't covered in those lessons. When I had written those labs, CSS3 was brand new and I had merely mentioned it during those labs. Too much had changed to use that lesson again - it was time for a new demo site and a fresh set of lessons. Sticking within the Harry Potter universe (which provided the theme I used for the last demo site), I created The Shops at Diagon Alley. Based off the historic shopping center from the popular books and movies, I wanted the site to have a very gritty, textured feel to it. The choice of typefaces (Aqualine and Leander) reflect that feel, as does the textures used throughout. I also, however, wanted the site to share traits like those you would see in a website for a large shopping center - with sales and promotions and the like. I took inspiration from the website for the Mall of America, combining the experience and needs of a site like that with the visuals that would be appropriate for a true website for Diagon Alley. The site itself, and the lessons based off the site, features a fully responsive design to allow the site's layout to reflow based on screen size. It is built with HTML5 and CSS3 plus a dose of jQuery for the homepage's billboard area. All of these elements were done as part of the larger lesson plan for the University of Rhode Island course. You can see the new site at www.diagonalleyshops.com. 2012-03-26T16:58:37+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/mg-commercial http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/mg-commercial#When:18:42:33Z MG Commercial Category: Web design Industry: Commercial Real Estate Responsibilities: Design, HTML5 and CSS page builds, ExpressionEngine integration Launched: May 10, 2012 View This Project: www.mgcommercial.com Project Summary Back in 2008, MG Commercial Real Estate was the first client project I was able to complete from start to finish as part of Envision Technology Advisors. When I had to chance to update the website with a design realignment and a move into ExpressonEngine in 2012, I jumped at the chance. Similar to the 2008 redesign I did, MG Commercial wanted something classy and sleek – a very upscale look for their website. Rather than do a complete redesign and start from scratch, I allowed this update to really build on the previous design as a logical progression in the site's history. The black and white scheme was left intact, with red used as an accent and hover color. The biggest change on the site was the move to the ExpressionEngine content management system to allow them to have more control over their site's updates. Like the previous version of the site, the property listings section is powered by a third party company called LoopLink. You can visit the new MG Commercial site at www.mgcommercial.com. 2012-03-14T18:42:33+00:00 http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/enow-logo http://www.pumpkin-king.com/index.php/site/enow-logo#When:23:17:35Z eNow Logo Category: Logo Industry: Transportation, clean energy, manufacturing Responsibilities: Logo design Launched: July, 2012 View This Project: See this logo Project Summary eNow is a company that puts solar panels on tractor trailers and other trucks, using the energy harnessed from the sun to power a host of systems in the truck, from cooling and lighting to lift gates to many other auxiliary systems. As a young start-up company, eNow came to Envision Technology Advisors looking for a total brand design - from their logo and brand standards, to corporate stationary, and eventually to their website. This process started with the company's logo. The final logo the company decide upon combined elements of two designs they were initially presented with. I contributed the typography for the logo design, choosing a typeface for my base that has smooth, fluid curves (Spin Cycle) and then altering the letterforms to turn the "e" at the start of the logo into an element that represented an on-ramp, a tie into the company's connection to transportation. The "o" was also tweaked to symbolize a sun, yet another aspect of the company's offerings. The tagline of the logo is set in Capsula. The "panels" above the letterforms was initially from another logo design - used to illustrate the solar panels that are part of the company's products. Combining those panels with the letters from my initial design pulled this all together for the final logo. With the logo set, we turned next to the website, which was designed and developed by the rest of the team at Envision. You can see the final website design at www.enowenergy.com. 2012-03-02T23:17:35+00:00