Rebrand & Website Redesign
Skills:
A fresh young video production company, Harris Makers, was looking to rebrand, and came to me asking how they could have a more modern, sophisticated aesthetic that set them apart from the local competition and helped them attract bigger companies. What we created together was pure magic.
We held a six-hour brand summit to identify target audiences, mission, tone of voice, and more — the rest flowed naturally. A lot of the language that's on the website came out of the summit — especially my favorite line, "The world deserves better videos." It was a throw away comment, but it resonated with me and helped define the tone of voice for the revitalized brand.
We wanted "video" to be a visual inspiration throughout the site. There are subtle gradients throughout that spotlight important content, adding drama and drawing the reader's eye in. When a modal is opened, the background blurs — giving depth-of-field. The hover states in the navigation give an impression of physical space. We even did a custom photo shoot of actual Harris Makers equipment with dramatic lighting for the hero section on the homepage — and a fun surprise awaits those rare users who resize the window on a large screen (the drone moves). All the illustrations are in the process of being animated to add further visual interest. The reel flies in to attract more attention to it, and the client logos are in a perpetually moving carousel.
As a new business, networking is a big aspect of building up new clients. People often get a stack of cards at networking events and wait to do anything with them, so they need to be memorable and instantly remind people, "Yeah, this is the video guy."
A compelling identity is about more than just good icons or a nice logo — the content is key. We created messaging that tapped into our audiences' needs and desires first, and only then did we think about the visuals. The work we did together has transformed how Harris Makers sells themselves with more confidence, joy, and polish.