Blend Lab

Clean lines and a focus on their project portfolio were driving factors behind this project. Genesis needed a lightweight content management system so we leveraged WordPress.

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After almost 700 pieces of ancient and modern Asian art and textiles were donated to the University of Alberta Museum the University needed a site to diplay these magnificent pieces online.

With so many outstanding pieces of art to draw from I have to admit it was tough not to get carried away with ‘ornamentation’. In the end I thought it best to let the work speak for itself and developed an interface with rich and warm tones.

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Bringing the American Revolution to life one pixel at a time!

Designed as part of a grant submission for Colonial Williamsburg this site I wanted a definite earthy and authentic feel. With that in mind, where better to start than the U.S. flag? Aged textures and deep reds and blues helped solidify this image.

With a helpful nudge here and there from the boys at the Aten Design group I think we developped a winner.

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Why search for style when StyleFeeder brings it to you? A socially driven way to shop, StyleFeeder allows users to profile their great finds and leverage a network of other users to find those with similar tastes.

Streamlining the current design was paramount — reducing clutter, maximizing the utility, and increasing the appeal of the homepage were all important tasks. Ensuring the new design paralleled the youthful, vibrant audience to which it was targetted was also key. To that end, we created unique, welcoming, and fun illustrations to help guide first time users.

If you’re interested I’ve written an article profiling the design of this project here.

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When Emery Jamieson approached Hotrocket, they weren’t looking for the typical ‘gavel and text book’ feel for their law firm’s website. Instead they wanted to ’soften’ the appearance of their firm and make their site a little more approachable.

To maintain a clean and professional feeling, I sourced a selection of ‘30-40 something’ open, approachable looking business professionals and highlighted the photography with a sleek interface.

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Sweet, romantic, sensuous, luxurious. Though more commonly used as a means for others to describe me, I used these words as inspiration when developing this site for a small confectionary based in Edmonton.

Originally contracted to handle the branding, once orders started rolling in I was quickly recruited to handle additional collateral (including banners, business cards, labels, and stickers) and help them develop a web presence.

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HIP Architects wanted to maximize the power of their portfolio. After evaluating HIP’s extensive pool of resources we decided to leverage 3D renderings, project photographs, exploratory locations, and narrative voice overs to give visitors the most immersive experience possible.

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The Paydirt Kids site was developed as a vehicle to for kids to learn about Alberta’s exploding oil industry — with an important emphasis on having fun. When pondering ideas for this project the Hotrocket crew thought, “what’s more fun than video games?”

Heavy Haulers, Bitumen Blast, and Oil Sands Trivia were three mini-games that we developed to help kids understand a little bit more about what happens in the Alberta oil patch. With additional step-by-step descriptions and documentary video clips I know I ended up learning a lot more about the industry!

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Sylvan Lake was looking for a method to set themselves apart. Hotrocket helped their Economic Development efforts by developing an interactive CD that allowed users to experience the fun, lake-town atmosphere of Sylvan Lake while maintaining a professional tool that provided easily accessible details about the town and defined Sylvan Lake as a realistic location for business.

In addition to having a fair amount of creative freedom on this project, I also made my first foray into the realm of voice talent… When I showed up at the sound studio I discovered our sourced talent had unfortunately come down with a cold. The recording actually turned out to be a lot of fun, and it didn’t end up turn out that badly either!

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The Alberta Motor Association approached Hotrocket looking to develop a series of mini-games promoting street safety. After evaluating the project we decided to take things one step further and develop an immersive single player on-line world for the children to explore. All the mini-games where then placed within the world for the players uncover.

Concepts like respect, kindness, and trustworthiness were reinforced and measured using a ‘StreetWise’ rating, and points the players received were calculated using ‘StreetCents.’ As their StreetWise ratings and StreetCent amounts increased, players were able to collect more items and unlock new players.

After completing this project one major lesson we learned was that it is much easier coming up with concepts for non-saftey related games… Maybe we’re just to used to blowing things up and shooting things.

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Developed to complement a coordinating print effort for the University of Alberta International, these two Flash pieces act as an online introduction for out of country students to the U of A.

Though neither piece is incredibly ‘deep’ functionality-wise, it was a fun creative project with lots of great photography to serve as the focal point.

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Inviting Designs needed an outlet to highlight their high quality, custom, hand-made invitations. Although I wanted the design to accent the ‘wedding’ slant of the content, I needed to ensure that the interface took a second seat to the content. Using light grays and blues along with lots of whitespace allowed the content and images to really pop and help users focus on the invitations.

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