Industrial company website

[Benjamin]

Trying to come up with some ideas for a company that does some kind of communications/IT solution for industrial machines. My idea with the net and the dots was to get a sense of the 'profinet' (the product) bringing order from chaos - i.e. the dots get more ordered accross the screen. Not sure how well it works though. Also, don't know that the photos really suit the company.

I've also have done a couple of page sketches.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

By the way, the logo is not mine.

>>Some banner sketches (http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/designs/profinet/samples.html)
>>Sample page 1 (http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/designs/profinet/samplepage1.html)
>>Sample page 2 (http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/designs/profinet/samplepage2.html)

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

Post Edited (Benjamin) : 6/20/2004 10:35:55 PM GMT

I'm just not liking your color pallet it looks to soft kind of like something for a babies store not Telecom.

[Benjamin]

OK I see what you mean. How about this?

New sample page 1 (http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/designs/profinet/samplepage5.html)
New sample page 2 (http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/designs/profinet/samplepage5a.html)

They want to stick with the green of the logo as the main colour.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

Post Edited (Benjamin) : 6/21/2004 5:43:22 PM GMT

[Benjamin]

Well they want it to be 'green' mainly I think. So I need to think of something good that goes with that green.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[Cathy]

I think your design looks good, but I agree the color combination could be altered a bit. I hope you don't mind, but I pulled it off your site and played around with it on my lunch. Just a few ideas I came up with... see attached.

My main concern was how desaturated all the colors seemed. The company logo seemed to get lost as a result. On one version I tried kicking up the green a bit, adding a slight drop shadow and a .5 outline of green (just a hair darker than logo) to try and get it to pop more. BTW - I edited these quickly so the quality isn't the best.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[Benjamin]

Wow! I wasn't expecting someone to do the work for me!!!!!

I see what you mean about making the logo a bit darker/more saturated. I initially thought they would want to keep it as is (they're already using it) but this may not be the case. Actually it's not the best colour for a logo.

I quite like the yellow.

Here's the sort of thing they already have, by the way:

www.profibus.com/imperia/md/images/pisc/marketingpages/profinet/PN_ProductNews.jpg (http://www.profibus.com/imperia/md/images/pisc/marketingpages/profinet/PN_ProductNews.jpg)

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[Benjamin]

Revised version:

New sample page 3 (http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/designs/profinet/samplepage5b.html)

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[Cathy]

Looking better. I think that the logo has greatly improved. I personally like the color combo you now have, though it may be too much of a change for them. If they won’t swing for a more ‘lighter, fruity’ color, you might try darkening certain greens to make aspects of the site layout come alive and revert back to the previous green for the logo if they are insistent.

Much better the layout it fine and the colors are comming along. They were just to soft before.

[Benjamin]

OK I've completely redesigned it.

I think it's much better.

Any comments or ideas welcome ...

Thanks.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[uncle carbunkle]

i see that their print materials has a lot of white space, so the logo colour, (while not ideal), stands out more on it's own. could you try designing a 'cleaner' looking site, to match their print materials? i understand your dilemma, but i think rather than changing their logo, why not just give everything space to breathe? maybe don't hem everything in with blocks of colour.... i would spend time looking at their print materials and going from there.

luck!

greetings, earthlings. take me to your dealer.

[3howards]

great suggestion unc, very valid points. a good approach to implementing the printing aspect online.

in regards to the last concepts, they just don't strike me as industrial. the colors are too toned down. when i think industrial i think more in your face and powerful. the color scheme doesn't depict that. these colors are more subtle and toned down which present a more feminine quality. i would definitely do something that will work in conjunction with their print material to keep the company's image consistent.

[Benjamin]

Thanks for your comments. I really value them. Designing is really hard!
I'm working on some more which I will post soon.

I'm finding that my design process consists of a very vauge or fleeting impression or idea, and then I spend hours drawing in Illustrator, moving things around. Almost like my strategy is to try so many combinations that one is bound to be good. Do you guys have a more directed approach to design?

Perhaps I need to do more time thinking and less time drawing but I'm undisciplined.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[3howards]

grab a sketchbook and get drawing ... then surf around a bit ....

[Benjamin]

OK I've tried to give it more space and also worked with a grid. What do you think?

The other one here I've tried to borrow more heavily from their print material. I'm not too keen on the slope though.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[Benjamin]

OK I'm not sure if anyone's looking at this anymore but incase, here's my latest attempt ;)
Also a v.rough design by someone else - is it more on target? Thing is, they haven't really designed it the right size for a browser window so it doesn't scale very well.
Bear in mind on the 'feminine colours' that it's more of an IT/Industrial company than a straight industrial company.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[uncle carbunkle]

for me, it's not that the colours are masc. or fem, it's that they're dated. and unless you can wrangle a logo redesign into your contract, there's not much you can do about that - AND it makes your job harder. i would like to see the 'clean-style3....' and the 'slope' designs amalgemated somehow.

and keep brainstorming about those colours...

keep it up!

greetings, earthlings. take me to your dealer.

[Keyare]

You need a dark solid contrast colour.
It'll make it look a lot more serious.

[Cathy]

I agree on the color contrast. It will definitely grab the viewer’s attention more. If you end up using the image in the 'clean-style3' version, I would recommend doing away with all of the tech. script on the wiring. It's kinda distracting.

I also like the look of your 'slope' version, but I think that it is not working so well with the aligned text to the right of it. The negative space just doesn't flow quite right. I do think this design has some good contrast going on, though. And, one last thing, I like in your 'page 4' sample - how you are using their logo in your design of the header. Perhaps you could put your navigation bar to the right of your logo, just under the horizontal bar that aligns with the logo. Then you could also use the left side, under the logo, as an additional place for navigation ?? (Similar to how you did with the 'slope' version, only more simple)

Just some suggestions. :)

[Benjamin]

OK thanks for the comments. I've done some more work which I'm much happier with now, and these are the ones I sent off. Took all the photos myself.

You guys helped keep me working longer until I found something good.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[Cathy]

I've just one comment, or question rather. Did you flip the image of the keyboard? The only reason why I ask is that they keys are backwards - reversed from what I'm used to anyway.

Hope all goes well and that they like your final. I enjoyed seeing your progression - great work.