obie — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:25:07 +0000

The End of the Rainbow

obie — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:42:13 +0000

Recently a colleague presented the idea that Rainbow Sandals was in dire need of a site overhaul. In the case of business development it is sometimes necessary to carve out some time to do spec work (read ‘free work’) for the sake of the greater good, and the hope that you may land an account that you’d really like to work on. Rainbow Sandals was most definitely one of those accounts. Being that we’re all located on the coast, albeit the opposite coast to the coveted client we hoped to catch the eye of, at the end of the day we thought we had a lot in common so it was time to get the spec work under way. We went ahead with a very loose approach. Given that we just wanted to get something on their desk that would show the potential of what we could do for them, all we put together was a scrollable home page and a mobile version of the user interface. Leveraging some of the copy of their then current website, we repurposed and updated it into a stylish, vibrant, clear representation of how we envisioned Rainbow Sandals. After hammering out the comps, creating a cover letter and sending to the powers that be in San Clemente, CA, we noticed within two days that Rainbow had taken their new site live. Now the immediate reaction would be to cue up the wah-wah-wahhhhhh music and say “that was a huge waste of time,” but the reality is that it’s a great way to approach a design outside the confines of an actual client. It’s an awesome exercise, a way to let your mind run wild on things you may not tackle in your day to day. For me this was my first time laying out an online retail space. I got to work with a brand that I’ve loved for years, and that I admire from afar. Let’s say you do this nine times with no results. Eventually you’ll land a fish that may have been a bit bigger than the boat you paddled out in, and on that tenth attempt the previous nine will seem all the more worthwhile. The point is, you’ll never land a coveted account if you don’t try, and sometimes that means laying out comps that may only stand to benefit your own personal growth.

Here is a look at the Rainbow site at the time I began laying out the spec comps:

Here is the home page we presented:

Home page with Shopping cart open:

Mobile Version:

Last but not least, Rainbow’s revamped home page:

This morning with the HDG Mascot

obie — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:44:39 +0000

Welcome to the revamped Holt Design!

obie — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:26:37 +0000

Greetings,

Thank you so much for stopping by our completely revamped site. We’re vigorously working to get everything up to date, and will be continuously adding logo, print, and web samples as well as working to get our new retail space online. Please stop by again soon!