Project Scope

This design project has been a long time coming. While we can’t divulge intimate details on the actual project, the nature of the soon-to-be-launched company, or what it is FrogLaunch does, we can finally unveil the company name and logo design. We can also simply state that FrogLaunch is awesome..

We love graphic design, branding, and all that it entails. The creative process of brand development is fascinating to be a part of, and always challenges us. Project: FrogLaunch was no exception.

Now, the details of the company FrogLaunch need to be kept a little vague at this point as a few of the final details of the branding are ironed out, but we are now in a position to start rolling out the name, the logo, and a hint at the brand being created.

FrogLaunch Logo

Armed with a sketchpad and some pencils, we looked at the answers to a few of the questions we ask when approaching a logo design project:

1. Is this a company logo or product logo?
   Company Logo – great!
2. What is the company culture? Nerdy? Old-fashioned? Hip?
   A little crazy, a little fun, professional, but not taking ourselves too seriously. Cool and Hip.
3. Do you envision something techy or more organic?
   Organic
4. Any colors you have in mind?
   Given the name, green would make sense, but we’re open to current colors and designs. Trendy, but we don’t want our logo design to look outdated in 6 months.
5. What are the demographics of your customers?
   Startups and small businesses.
6. What is the purpose of the logo? Where will it be seen?
   Web, letterhead, clothing, social media, newsletters.

So that got us started. Simple, fun, light-hearted, and signifying another the purpose of FrogLaunch’s business – helping new businesses start an online presence.

The FrogLaunch logo was designed to be minimalist, and similar in feel to the organic flowing Rugged Moose “moose” logo. A simple design that causes the viewer to look a little more closely, not spelling out exactly what it is upon first glance. Forcing you to use a little imagination to envision the “frog” in the design.

In addition to the logo work and corporate branding, Rugged Moose is also developing the website for FrogLaunch, and are very near to going live with it. Stay tuned for upcoming details, as we’ll be announcing the website “Launch” (sorry, couldn’t help ourselves) here on the Rugged Moose site.

Project Scope

Every once in a while, a unique website design project comes along. Some design projects are very large scale. Some are very technical. Others have challenging user requirements.. This particular web design build encapsulated all of these.

With Ridge Point’s old website, we were basically looking at a very outdated Joomla! install that, for the most part, had been abandoned by its developer. The admins of the site were left cobbling the pages and content together and were continuing to try to make it work, but it was a total mess. It was broken, and we had to fix it..

Enter the Rugged Moose team

Like most creative projects, we started the web design build from scratch. We created a few mock-up concept sites and, with constant input from the creative team at Ridge Point, started building. Complex calendars were needed, well over a hundred pages were necessary, and many different admins needed to have access to the backend in order to create content on an ongoing basis. A minimalist design was requested, and ease of use from an end-user standpoint was essential. What were we to do..?

So long Joomla! Heeelllllooooooo WordPress!

First, we dumped Joomla. Joomla has its strengths (although most would argue very few), and SEO – search engine optimization – isn’t one of them. Ease of use isn’t one of them. Simple multi-user administration at a novice level isn’t necessarily one of them. To us, the choice to use WordPress was as easy one.

Website Design

So, with a CMS (content management system) decided on, next came the design. Simple, clean, uncluttered, easy to use – all the things that Rugged Moose concentrates on with everything we build. But with a site of this scale, and all the requested bells and whistles, while keeping it clean how…?

We started by keeping the main navigation area clean. We didn’t want a visitor to feel too overwhelmed with an overly-complex nav menu. Clean. Sub-navigation items, sure, they’re there if needed, but all pages are available via sub-navigation menu’s within the main pages of the site. Accessible.

Homepage

The home page design was a bit of a departure from Rugged Moose’s typical style. Most sites we build are image-heavy, with the slider extending the width of the page. Ridge Point had a couple different requirements. They wanted to see a live social media feed, on the main page, above ”the fold”. So, to accommodate this, we shrunk the slider down just a tad, and moved it to the left. This allowed us to  incorporate the live social media feed to the right, displaying the latest posts from their Twitter and Facebook pages. Boooyah!

Making a large website feel less intimidating

The goal with this layout was to create a site, despite its size, to feel less overwhelming to the visitor. Less intimidating. To accomplish this and maintain a clean minimalist feel while making the site a bit more mobile friendly, we created a color-coded bottom navigation menu of the most often used pages. This navigation menu is found above the footer, and displays toward the bottom on all pages of the website. This bottom navigation menu serves three purposes:

1. It gives quick access to visitors to the main pages of the website on every page.
2. It better serves mobile users (sub-navigation menus can be a bit sloppy for mobile browsers)
3. Creates a visual cue through the use of colors to be used throughout the site for different uses (family ministry- blue; adults- green; care and support- pink, etc.)

Web design – final results

What we created, with great input and coordination from Ridge Point, is a church website that we truly hope will serve their community well. The website may be packed to the gills with features, but the end product is clean, minimalist and most importantly usable- not only to visitors who use the site, but by the many collaborators who will be using the website on an ongoing basis.

Ridge Point Church Staff & Creative Team

One thing we feel we need to mention is regarding the Ridge Point staff. The creative team and communications department at Ridge Point that took on this design project were phenomenal to work with. In fact, whether we were there for meetings or to train the staff in all things WordPress, every single person we dealt with from the beginning was absolutely awesome. On top of having a great team in place, Ridge Point is doing some amazing things in Holland, Western Michigan, and on a global scale. This church is no joke, and we consider it an honor to have had the opportunity to work for them.

Ridgepoint.org

So, do me a favor, head on over to Ridgepoint.org and check out our latest creation. And don’t be shy, feel free to let us know what you think! Visit Ridgepoint.org HERE.

Web Design project that was special..

So, the crew here at Rugged Moose took on a special design project a year and a half ago. It was going to be fun, it was going to be different, and we weren’t going to get paid..

Wait, what?? For free…?

Now, just to be clear, our team at Rugged Moose loves to give back. We take on projects for charities and churches and at times do them for no charge. We love giving back to our community, and that’s just one way we do it.

This website build was unique. It was for Rugged Moose Design owner Ryan and his wife, and was for their (at the time) yet-to-be-born son, Rogue. You see, Ryan’s wife Aaron (yes, she spells it like a boy) is from South Dakota and most of her family live there. We thought, what better way for them to keep her family updated with photos and videos of the baby then a website? After all, that is pretty much what we do around here..

So, we put together a great site for the little guy. And now, a year and a half later, it was time time for a site refresh. Something yet again a little different. We wanted to make it easier for Ryan and Aaron to update, and easier for visitors like Grandpa Jerry to browse through.

Design

Taking advantage of some great new design techniques, we started from scratch. Full website makeover. As most of our web design projects over the last couple years, we used WordPress. We won’t go into great detail here why we use WordPress, we’ll only say that it is easy for the end user to use, performs very well, and is phenominal from an SEO standpoint.

Caution: lots of design-nerd lingo coming up..

Getting away from the traditional pagination, we opted to give the site infinite scrolling, allowing the visitor to simply “add more” posts to display at the bottom of the page.

We also designed the site to be lightning fast, for a better user experience. Not only did we optimize the heck outa each page of the website, we used a CDN (content delivery network) to further speed things up.

SEO? You’d better believe it sister..!

Sure, we packed it full of SEO goodness, even though Ryan and Aaron are probably less concerned about that. But, again, that’s what we do, and we never cut corners on any project.

Final result

We think we’ve put together a really clean site, that’s easy to use and easy to navigate. Now, if they could just teach Rogue to post his own photos, they’d be all set..

Head on over to RuggedRogue.com and check it out. We believe you’ll like it.

To be frank.. Yes.. They did..

To their credit, the guys running the show at Hanging Gardens were not going to settle for run-of-the-mill web design.. They wanted something a little bit different. Something that shows off their creative side. Something unique. Something more visually stimulating that a “standard website”.. So, we got to work.

As we mentioned in our previous writeup about the Hanging Gardens logo redesign and branding, they specialize in Stormwater Mitigation and Green Roofs. We created a new logo mark that accurately shows who they are, and what they do. Now, how do we do the same in regards to the website?

Big, Bold Images

We started with creating something more visually driven, with large strong photos of several of their projects. We then crafted an easy to use navigation system, then finished up by making the site clean, polished and fast.

Hanging Gardens wanted something a little different, and we applaud them for challenging us here at Rugged Moose. Head on over and check out their new site at hanging-gardens.com for more information about them, the work they do, and the great group of professionals they are!

Located down toward Chicago in Berrien Michigan, Eco-Roofs specialize in green roof design and implementation.

Eco-Roof has been in business a long time, are highly respected and are a big-time player in the Green Roof industry. They maintain their own greenhouse operation, which grows the seedums and other varieties of succulents used in green roofs. They had a good operation going, but their website needed a little “Rugged Moose love”. It was time for a website redesign.

The team over at Eco-Roof certainly know what they are doing when it comes to Green Roofs. Lucky for us, we have quite a lot of experience with Green Roof web design.

We kept to the Rugged Moose Design philosophy of “Less is More” and designed a clean site that’s easy to use, easy to navigate and just simply works. The site loads quickly, and ranks well in Google and other search engines, in part from our finely-honed rockstar SEO skills.

We’ll save you the nerdy details and just say that the website turned out great and has gotten tremendous praise. Eco-Roofs.com continues to perform well in search engines, and is what we feel is an excellent example of Green Roof web design.

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to Eco-Roofs.com and check it out!

This is a follow-up review to a write-up we did on Grand Rapids’ 2012 Artprize. The original review can be found here. Again, we will stress clearly from the start, we are web developers, graphic designers, business branding consultants, photographers and artists. We are deeply and truly passionate about art, and we love Artprize.

Web & Graphic Designers we are. Art critics we are not..

After reading, and re-reading our original review of Artprize 2012, we thought perhaps we could clarify a few things. We do stand by our original thoughts, in that overall, there were less “oooohh” and aaaaah” moments this year than in previous years. However, after giving much thought, and revisiting some of the venues across the downtown Grand Rapids area, we had additional thoughts, and wanted to comment on a few of the entries, our picks, and the winners of Artprize 2012.

Worlds Largest Art Competition

For the last 4 years, Grand Rapids has been home to Artprize – the worlds largest Art competition. Visiting downtown Grand Rapids during Artprize is incredible. Our already creative and art-rich city comes even more alive with sculptures, paintings, drawings, artists, critics, and tons and tons of people. Nearly half a million people made their way to Grand Rapids during this years Artprize – how awesome is THAT?

In addition to our original review, detailed information on Artprize can be found here on Wikipedia as well as the official Artprize website.

Our original review of Artprize may have come across as Overly Critical

So, we realize what we wrote in our review, and perhaps it sounded overly critical. Perhaps even negative. We did not intend to criticize Artprize, its venues, artists or artwork. As we mentioned, Artprize 2012 had some good things to see, some great things, and, well, some non-so-great things to see. The beauty of Artprize (and art in general) is that it is indeed subjective. What one person finds moving, the next may find hideous. And that is just the nature of art. That being said, there was surely something for everyone at this years Artprize.

A few Rugged Moose picks from this years Artprize

Overall, Artprize 2012 had a lot going for it with some amazing art. A few of the Rugged Moose picks (not swayed by the now well-known outcome and announcement of this years winners.)

“Elephants”, by Adonna Khare - Absolutely phenominal pencil drawing. And the scale of it – 13 feet tall and 40 feet long. Are you kidding me?

The voters got it absolutely right on this one, and we’re thrilled to see this entry win this years Artprize. It is incredible and needs to be seen in person to fully appreciate. The depth, detail and meaning in this drawing is mind-blowing. Congratulations Adonna Khare! We’re huge fans.

Another Artprize entry that has to been seen in person to appreciate is “The Chase” by Artistry of Wildlife. Wow. We mean WOW..

Being Rugged Moose, how could we NOT be pulling for a full sized Moose entry. This was huge. While this picture doesn’t do the entry justice, the whole Moose, and the full size wolves are all suspended by one anchor point – one foot of the Moose. And did we mention the artist is a Michigan native? Sweet..

The detail is incredible, and certainly worthy of a top ten finish. As a side note – personally, we’d like to imagine that somehow, some way, the Moose managed to escape the claws and teeth of the wolves.

“City Band”, by Grand Rapids native Chris LaPorte.

Another pencil on paper entry that we were very impressed by. In fact, we’re a bit surprised it didn’t place higher than the 10th place it took.

As you can see by the photo, the drawing is monumental in size and detail. An absolute must-see when heading downtown Grand Rapids. Bravo Chris.. Amazing work..

So, were we REALLY disappointed in Artprize?

Like we stated in our original review of Artprize 2012, overall, there did in fact seem to be a bit of a lack of originallity in a lot of the artwork this year. I sense that lot of the artists thought to themselves, “Hmmm… well, this and this did really well last year and got a lot of votes, I’m going to do something similar, but just change it up a little.”

As an example, there was a TON of artwork using recycled material. Don’t get us wrong, we love recycling and as a collective group all recycle anything and everything we can. BUT, using recycled material just for the sake of using recycled material? No.. We love and care for our environment, but the whole “recycled material Artprize entry” has pretty much been beat to death and totally overdone..

So, after going back several times and revisiting a LOT of the Artprize venues, spending time with friends and family admiring all the artwork, are we still disappointed?

No, we are not disappointed. Artprize is a very special time of year in Grand Rapids. Artprize means fall is right around the corner. Artprize means it’s time to grab your lightweight windbreaker or risk being a bit chilly. Artprize is the primary reason nearly half a million people made their way into the heart of Grand Rapids in the timeframe of just 19 days. In a way, Artprize is Grand Rapids.

Collectively, this small Web Development & Graphic Design company loves Grand Rapids.. How could we not love Artprize?

First, we need to make this very clear from the start, we are web developers, graphic designers, business branding consultants, photographers and artists. We are deeply and truly passionate about art, and we love Artprize.

We are not, however, art critics.

This quick review of Artprize 2012 is just our collective thoughts after spending a few days in our beloved downtown Grand Rapids, pouring over the seemingly endless artwork which, for a few weeks a year, covers our wonderful city.

For those that may be unfamiliar, Artprize is an international art competition that takes place every year in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Artprize is a bit different from most art competitions in that instead of being critiqued by judges, the public decides the winners by casting online votes via the Artprize website (which, sorry developers, but the website is a joke – but that’s a whole other discussion) and by the Artprize smartphone apps on iphone and android.

Oh, and did we mention that Artprize is the world’s largest art contest? Yup, it sure is! That’s how we roll in Grand Rapids…

2012 is the 4th year Grand Rapids has been host to Artprize.

So, being the creative types we are, and with offices in downtown Grand Rapids, we naturally love Artprize. We headed downtown, cameras in hand, in search of inspiration..  In search of some great new ideas.. In search of creativity.. Did we find it?

In a word, no. Not even close..

This year, at least to us, seemed to be perhaps the least inspiring Artprize to date.

Is there good art to be seen? Yes, without question. Is there great art to be viewed? Absolutely. Is it worth heading downtown to check out? You’d better believe it!

Downtown Grand Rapids really comes alive during Artprize. Grand Rapids is a great place to work, and for many a great place to live, but there are certain times a year that Grand Rapids is something really special.

Artprize is one of those times.

For the sake of speaking our mind the way the crew here at Rugged Moose are known for, we need to say that overall, the general consensus is that we were a little disappointed in this years entries. There just weren’t nearly as many “wow” moments as there has been in years past. There were some good entries, yes. There were even a few entries we’d consider great. There just didn’t seem to be as many of them as the last few years.

Was Artprize 2012 disappointing? To us, maybe a little. There seemed to be a collective lack of originality. Creativity.. But hey, maybe that’s just us.

Which brings us to perhaps the most important and wonderful aspect of art.. Art truly is subjective.

A quick word of thanks to Rick Devos and all the organizers of Artprize. We love Grand Rapids, and we love what Artprize brings to it. Our city is grateful for all the work you do. Us here at Rugged Moose, although slightly disappointed after last years killer Artprize, is grateful..

Follow-Up Review

We decided to revisit Artprize. Our follow-up review including a few of the winners and our picks can be found here.

Our incredible client base spans the globe. Cape Town, South Africa. Ontario, Canada. California, USA. New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, would you like us to keep on going..?

We’re constantly amazed at the diversity of our clients, and the locations of the companies around the world that we get to work with.  We’re beyond grateful for every one of our clients, and appreciate working with each of them.

Late one afternoon last week, our crew here started talking about the wonderful web design projects we’ve had the opportunity to tackle. The graphic design projects we’ve done. We discussed the design projects we’ve completed, and those we’re currently working on. And we dreamed about the location for future projects (along with valid reasons we’d have to travel there “for business”).

We got out an old-school map of the world, and after we pointed out all the country names that were no longer correct, we started placing pins. We pinned the many design projects here in our home state of Michigan. We pinned projects in the many different states here in the U.S. We then started placing pins on the International design projects that we’re currently working on, and in business discussions with.

It was like a light bulb suddenly went on!

A Project Map! A cool project map of our most recent design projects, and those that are coming soon! Perfect!

So, we set out to make something a little different than most website maps. We wanted the map to be “swipeable” and easily “pinched and zoomed” for mobile users, be it iPhone, iPad, or Android OS.

While we work with companies of all types and sizes, Rugged Moose has quickly become the “go-to” team for web design in the Green Roof industry, as well as for Law Firms. With this in mind, we decided to limit our “Projects Map” to concentrate primarily on the Green Roof Industry, and Law Firms. Sure, there may be a church or two in there, and a few other websites from other industries, but the Green Roof industry and Law firms are the two areas we wanted to specifically highlight.

We’ll be changing up the map from week to week as new design projects launch, and will constantly be rotating through our clients list, but in the mean time, head on over and check out the “Project Map”, and let us know what you think!

Adopting a child is a monumental thing, and we hold adoptive parents and families in our highest respect. Raising money and keeping family & friends updated on the process should be simple.

Rodney and Christine came to us and said, “Hey, should we set up a Facebook page or a Blogspot blog to keep family and friends updated on the design process?” It took us approximately 1.739 seconds to talk them out of both.. A full website made much more sense..

Clean, simple blog-style web design

Web Design for AdditionByAdoption.com

What we did was put together a very simple “blog style” WordPress website for them, with the latest blog posts visible on the main page, newest posts on top. The site is a very simple design, and puts concentration on content, and their adoption story, allowing them to post updates on the adoption process, upcoming fund-raising events, and anything else relevant to their adoption.

The web design aspect of this project was very straight forward. Christine and Rodney both had a few ideas, which we incorporated, and the site came together quickly and easily. Clean, simple, blog-style web design.

Head on over to AdditionByAdoption.com to get involved with their adoption process, or just to check out the site!

Hanging Gardens, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin came to us a while back and said, “Let’s talk”. And talk we did..

What was decided was that they desperately needed a site redesign, and some assistance with corporate branding. They gave us a few ideas, and we sharpened up our pencils and went to work.

ORIGINAL LOGO

The Original Logo

The old Hanging Gardens corporate logo wasn’t something we’d put into the “ultra-crappy” category, but it definitely needed some work. The logo mark was dated and too busy, trying to incorporate way too many elements. The logo also suffered from scalability issues (think social media icons and web avatars for instance). Large scale, the elements were recognizable, if only barely. Shrunk down, you couldn’t make sense of it. Basically, we decided their logo needed a bit of a tweak, a little Rugged Moose love..

NEW LOGO

The New Logo

Rebranding a company and messing around with existing logos can be a little tricky, and something we don’t take lightly. How do we accurately communicate the brand and simplify the logo mark without loosing their identity completely, and rendering the brand unrecognizable?

Clean, simple, and modern. Scalable, slightly abstract with an organic feel. These were our objectives.

We got out our paper and pencils, as most of our design projects begin, and started sketching a simple, clean logo mark. We wanted to give them something a lot less busy, and a lot more modern. More organic.

Here was our thinking: Green Roof, Green. Stormwater Mitigation, Blue. Keep the logo mark the somewhat recognizable, water droplet shape. Incorporate the businesses initials withing the logo mark, the “H” and the “G”. Keep It simple.. After a few concepts, we settled in on a design, then fine tuned it.

What we came up with was a simple, clean logo with an earthy and organic feel. A logo that clearly captures who Hanging Gardens is as a corporate entity. The new brand identity is clean, modern, and organic.

BUSINESS CARDS

Business Card Design

Along with the logo redesign, corporate identity, and website redesign – Hanging Gardens needed business cards that reflected who they are along with the newly updated logo and look.

We integrated the new logo and kept the cards earthy and relevant to their business. Brown, earthy background with a very subtle gradient. The new logo front and center, and bold clean text.

Our approach to the business card design was the same as our approach to all our projects – “Include what you need and nothing you don’t” – just simple and clean..

The New Website

In addition to the branding project, Hanging Gardens asked us to rework their company website, which was desperately in need of an update.

We’re currently putting the final touches on the completely rebranded website, and expect to launch within the next few weeks. We’ll be sure to let you know when the new site launches, so stay tuned!