We strive for unique yet usable designs, and our portfolio is no exception.

I’m going to discuss intentions, and one of the unique features of the portfolio, but nothing can replace browsing it for yourself.

Now serving skimmers and readers

A lot goes into a web project. So naturally we have a lot to say about each project that we highlight in our portfolio.

The design needed to give a quick overview for skimmers, while allowing more curious readers the opportunity to learn the details of each project.

A new take on the Modal Box

Each portfolio item has clear thumbnails of the website that can expand in our take on a modal box.

Modal boxes typically lock-down the whole website. Why should you lose your navigation because you are looking at an image?

We also aren’t big fans of having to close a modal box just to reopen a new one.

We solved these problems by lighting up the navigation, keeping the navigation active, and adding image changing functionality.

The result is a better, more usable modal window.

Feedback

Let us know what you think. Feedback is very important to us, and we gladly accept it in any flavor (good, not-so-good, or ugly).

info@localwisdom.com

Wrap-up

A lot of LWers put a ton of effort into improving this portfolio, and localwisdom.com in general. In particular, RJay and Melissa poured themselves into this project. I speak for everyone in the Local Wisdom family when I say, job well-done.

Now it’s time to start thinking about more improvements.

You also know we have the best talent in the great State of New Jersey.

Now you can help share us with the world.

I’m pleased to announce the Local Wisdom Referral Program (Sorry, no fancy acronym).

The Referral Program is pretty simple:

Tell people about Local Wisdom. For every qualified lead you give us, we will give you $100. A qualified lead is an opportunity that generates a Sales Discovery Meeting. A Sales Discovery Meeting is a chance for us to meet with the potential client to learn about their needs.

If we are able to close the deal you will receive a 2% commission of the of the total project budget. This commission will be given to the referrer upon receipt of final payment from the project.

As an added bonus, you will also receive our eternal love and gratitude.

For more information view our expertise or see some of our recent work.

If you have any questions, or would like to submit a lead you can contact me at dlarane@localwisdom.com.

The Challenge
Family owned and operated, West Coast Subs brings the fresh, surf style of California to Toms River, NJ. Residing next to the family’s fashion boutique, The Cali Way (http://thecaliway.com), the owners of West Coast Subs needed to focus their efforts on quickly opening two storefronts. They contacted Local Wisdom to design and develop a site boasting West Coast Subs’ fresh and healthy ingredients along with its Cali flair. Before beginning we sampled the food, and they are accurate; the food is great.

Design
Renowned for its surfing aficionados and health conscious residents, California is the true inspiration behind West Coast Subs. Our design experts were able to create a surf-style aesthetic that complements the shop’s healthy and fresh menu, while highlighting the owner’s passion for the ocean and all things surfing. We built the site using Jquery to provide users with a fun and compelling interface.

Development
Without sacrificing design quality, we were able to develop a site for West Coast Subs, which would deploy in two stages. We shared in the company’s urgency to have a web presence, deploying the first stage of the site to showcase their menu. This put West Coast Subs on the map allowing the site to begin impacting search results, maximizing its customer potential. Next, we tackled the full spectrum, rounding out the full content migration along with design nuances which speak to the shop’s surf-style atmosphere.

How did it go
Being nimble for a customer is core to our philosophy. We were able to share in the client’s urgency and launch the menu stage of WestCoastSubs.com within two weeks then complete the development of the larger site. The rapid deployment, professional design, and local buzz exceeded the client’s expectations.

LWers:
RJay (Design)
Melissa (Develop)
Derrick (Account & Project Management)

Learn more from the Plethora website or download from itunes.

We curate quite a few websites where we manage the use of photography. We work hard not to “slap on a photo”, but make it have some meaning and usefulness in the grand scheme of the website. Read the full article.

I’ve put the details in the images themselves to make it easy to print out.  Also I recently made 2 of these of a different width and a different purpose.  One was 30 inches wide so the shelving and corresponding silts had to be reduced in width also, but it’s easy to figure out how much to shorten them by.  The last unit I made has about 7 shelves and was made to replace a stereo rack.  Now the stereo is on the wall with all it’s cd’s, a record player and a small top shelf for pictures, but I’ll post pics later on.

If you have any questions, post a comment and I’ll respond asap

1.  Incase convertible book jacket – protects the IPad all the time and gives 3 viewing angles when you’re at a table.  It’s close to what Apple released, but from what I’m seeing in the reviews, it’s of much better quality and people like it.

2.  Macally Bookstand – Very similar to Apple case, but I like the color more and it fully exposes the edges of the ipad.  No reviews to speak of, so I’m hesitate to take on for the team and buy it.  The note that the IPad isn’t included is from the legal department

3.  Marware Eco-Vue -  This one is the most interesting of the 3 as it’s very slick looking, gives you the 2 bookstand options, but also throws in a hand-sleeve where you can hold the IPad like it’s a glove, check it out below:

I think the glove sleeve sells me on the Marware one, but I’m going to sleep on this on.  So these are the one’s I’m thinking about, let me know what you’ve found or what you’re using for the IPad protection dilemma.  I also found this article at PC World that discuss a bunch of companies that are creating cases/sleeve/ bookstands for the IPad, most of which I’ve never heard of.  The custom ones are pretty cool, and there’s one in there that does decals

Ben Fullerton-Designing for Solitude from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

Creative fan just posted 50 absolutely brilliant digital and computer generated artworks.

Amazing detail and expression.

This was shown to me by Tim Carter over at Pedrera as a way to streamline design into development and create efficiency between the two by using a simple system around both.  Here’s a short description:

“The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns, which can be used separately or in tandem.  The premise of the system is ideally suited to rapid prototyping, but it would work equally well when integrated into a production environment. There are printable sketch sheets, design layouts, and a CSS file that have identical measurements.”

When used by both the design and development teams, it will lead to much more accurate positioning of objects on the page which should lead to faster turnaround times.

To get the 960 Grid files click here