POSTED BY stefan Mar 09, 2007
did someone say earthy?
For those of you who’ve been here before, you’ve probably noticed some changes around here. A new logo and a new, earthier site being the primary differences. We’re pretty excited about the changes and we hope you are too. I thought I’d take a moment to run through some of the thoughts we had when we decided to approach this process. First, we’ll start with the logo, which was the impetus for the whole redesign.
The new logo.
Here at EP, we’ve got a long and storied history of making tweaks to our logo over time. Most of those changes were relatively subtle. A font change here, a color change there, removing some borders, etc. This newest implementation takes our old ‘ep’ block and expands it out to include the full company name. This works well for us because we’re often tempted to use just the block for our identity, but we always wondered if people knew what an ‘ep’ was. While we’re not going to pretend like our new logo tells the whole story (We build websites.), we are at least getting the company name out there.
We’ve also changed the font to Trade Gothic, a true classic, but with a bit of tweaking (custom kerning, angled ascenders and decenders, etc.). This means the end of the road for the tired Zurich font family that I got free on my first Mac 10 years ago. Good bye Zurich. We’ll miss you. Actually, that’s a lie. We won’t miss you at all.
As for the 2-3 of you pining over the abrupt dismissal of the classic ‘ep’ block – no worries. It’ll be back soon. We’ve actually got 3 versions of the logo that will be used in different instances, and we’re cool with that. Ok, that’s probably enough about the logo. On to the site.
The new site.
This was a bit of a frightening change, to be honest. Our previous site garnered us a lot of attention and brought in bigger, better inquiries from around the globe. But that being said, the old site was fully doused in the Web 2.0 look, and while we enjoy a shiny icon and bright colors as much as anybody else, it just seemed like it was time for a change.
There’s a lot of talk in online design circles about the benefits of realigning instead of redesigning. I’m normally a huge proponent of that (assuming you have a decent site to begin with). In this case, we needed to make some pretty drastic changes in order to have the flexibility to get really creative without being subconsciously influenced by the success of the previous version. The old site was good, and we were shooting for great.
The structure.
Our work, which has always brought us our new projects, was relatively buried on the old site. We wanted to change that, so we threw out the old structure and started over. The new site is entirely based around our work. The primary content on the front of the page is our work, for the most part, with a few leadins to the other sections of the site as well. Once you get into the work section, there it is, big and bold.
We also changed the ‘about us’ section to team. We’re extremely proud of the pulpsters that we have, and we wanted to highlight them. The team section will change a bit as we continue to work on the site, but it’s much improved already.
The layout.
I’ve been intrigued by the grid layout concept and decided to try my hand, basically locking everything into columns or into blocks of content that encompass two or more columns. It was a new way of looking at layout and it worked exceptionally well for integrating some of the other interface ideas that we’ve been discussing around the water cooler. And no, we don’t have a water cooler, but we do have a fridge that we occasionally talk in front of.
The summary.
I don’t want to bore you with the details, so I’ll wrap it up. It’s been a very fun project to work on and we’re excited about where it ended up. It focuses on what we care about the most and what we’re the most proud of. But all that being said, we’d love to hear what you think of the changes, so let us know if you spot anything that’s a bit off and we’ll see what we can do. Now, off to get packed for SXSW. If you’re going, perhaps we’ll see you there.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:16 am
[...] has commentary here. If anybody has feedback, we’d love to get a hold of it. Tags: electric pulp [...]
March 9th, 2007 at 8:31 am
love the new site!
everything looks great! i love the team section.
March 9th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I dig it! I enjoy how the work is featured and absolutely love the team section. It’s hard to see the old one go, but this guy makes for a pretty sweet replacement. Oh, and the shaking of required fields on the inquiries section is an awesome touch! Good work [ep]. Have fun at SXSW!
March 11th, 2007 at 9:44 am
You’ve really managed to pull off the “earthly” theme well, and I have to say, that your new design looks great. I’d though take the effects away from the inquiries form.
March 11th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Great work on the redesign, Stefan. This is really one of the best, most engaging designs that I have seen come out in a while. It sort of reminds me of a lot of designs that were coming out write before the whole Web 2.0 thing, except with a nice, unique, indie-type style.
Keep up the good work.
March 12th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Hey everybody, thanks for the comments! It’s always nice to hear what you think (good or bad).
Henry: we’ll look into the form and make sure we’re up to snuff. I like the shaking of the form (for validation reasons) but I agree that the fade might be overkill.
Jeremy: what is that script font you’re using on your site? I like it!
Thanks again everyone.
March 12th, 2007 at 6:17 am
thanks for the insight, great design!
March 12th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Stefan: Its a font from Underware fonts called “Bello.” You can find it here: http://www.underware.nl/site2/index.php3?id1=bello&id2=overview
March 13th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Thanks Jeremy! i’ll check it out.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I have to say, I really really like the presentation of this site. Both from the bold yet subtle intricacies to the awesomely friendly yet professional touch! All in all, it works very well!
March 14th, 2007 at 2:47 am
Guys you are doing a great work! New site is cool.
Best regards, Dmitry.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I think the new site looks amazing… much more interesting and less ridgid than the old. It has a tactile, human quality. I want to push the subtle blue links with my finger, but I know better.
Great job.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Thanks again everybody for the great feedback! We’re blushing a bit.
March 17th, 2007 at 9:08 am
The site looks cool….
March 21st, 2007 at 9:26 am
Amazing redesign. You can almost smell the freshness.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Very good design, you inspired me a lot …
March 28th, 2007 at 10:36 am
[...] to their redesign, Electric Pulp’s website was in an identity crisis. It looked like every other website that [...]
March 28th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Somebody spilled something on your masthead!
Looks great! Good job.
April 26th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Your redesign is excellent. It shows that a ton of thought has been put into every aspect of this masterpiece from the texture through to the layout and usability etc etc. It’s inspiring and is so distinct that ripping it off would be a bad idea for anyone who has any sense. I love the texture of it most of all, if there’s one thing which stands out for me it’s that. The outbursts of “web 2.0 style” with all their shininess is really starting to get annoying even for me with my own site. Great job guys. I would want to work with you guys just by looking at your site without having read anything yet.
April 29th, 2007 at 4:33 am
ok, i can’t believe no one has mentioned this yet, but my absolute favourite detail from your homepage is the trees. i wouldn’t have liked the design half as much as i do (which is a lot) if it weren’t for those trees.
awesome work (: