Web Design

Talking Friends Official Store – Website Concepts

By Brand Shepherd | Published April 18th, 2012

Brand Shepherd was recently hired to think through a few iterations of what an e-commerce store might look like for the wildly popular Talking Friends® brand. If you’re a parent of young kids, and have an iPad® or iPhone®, you likely know all about Talking Friends. They are the animal characters found on Apple’s App Store® that get into all kinds of stuff, and most notably repeat everything said to them. Brand Shepherd’s job was to create an e-commerce home page for standard and mobile browsers that would look and feel like a common home for all of the Talking Friends characters.

Below are the concepts we designed for Talking Friends. We are happy that some of our work lived on into the final implementation of their store. You can find it and buy some cool looking Talking Friends gear here.

247inktoner.com User Interface Design

By Brand Shepherd | Published April 5th, 2012

247inktoner.com likes to keep it real simple: Their goal is to save consumers money on the purchase of ink and toner for printers. There are, of course, more details as to how they accomplish this, but the point is just that simple.

Simplicity is also what they wanted in a change to their home page user interface (UI). Over time the messaging had become cluttered, and a clear call to action was lost in all the helpful things they need to communicate to their customers. Brand Shepherd was approached with a challenge: Make the home page UI much simpler and streamlined with the goal of increasing conversions. Challenge accepted.

We set out to prioritize what was most-to-least important on the page, and we had a ton of help from 217inktoner.com’s owner, Calvin. With Calvin’s direction, and our design savvy, we honed our attention on two things: The finder tool, and the value propositions. From there we simply set out to design a solution to visually communicate to folks who come to the website, “Here’s what we want you to do (find ink or toner fast and with simple ease), and here’s what you need to know about us.”

Boom. Done.

For your viewing pleasure, and ours, below is the After and Before because the best comes first.

AFTER

BEFORE

RecycleStream Website

By Brand Shepherd | Published July 21st, 2011

RecycleStream.com has a pretty basic premise: It matches your waste with those who want it (paraphrase of tag line). Digging a hole in your yard for a new pool? Log on to find the property owner who needs fill. Municipality manager in need of land owners who want your fill from projects? Find them here. The concept is brilliant because it falls right in line with the times we live in: We no longer want to waste anything! Brand Shepherd journeyed through the creation process on this project with Snow Commerce’s client to mainly focus on the user interface design (UI) so as to make it as intuitive as possible.  The website project began as DumpsitesNow.com, but later in the process a new name – RecycleStream.com – was chosen because it more accurately described the myriad services that the business model can accommodate.

Below are 2 images: What the site looks like now, and also the first concept we designed for DumpSitesNow.com, a concept that everyone really liked, though it was heavily evolved into what we now see at RecycleStream’s website.

e-Commerce Site for Dept 229

By Brand Shepherd | Published November 30th, 2010

Some projects have a back story worth telling; this is one of those projects.

O’Brien Group

By Brand Shepherd | Published November 20th, 2010

obriengroup.us

They sum it up best on the What We Do page we created:  ”We (O’Brien Group) work with and coach healthcare CEOs and their teams to help them improve team dynamics, better manage conflict, have more powerful executive conversations and manage through the upsets and breakdowns that comes with periods of rapid change. We help them become great leaders.” Brand Shepherd was brought in to totally redesign the O’Brien Group web site while also doing so on a content management system (CMS). We did exactly that: The redesign process took us through several iterations where Brand Shepherd explored what the site could look like, and once a design direction was chosen we built the new site in WordPress. After design and development were wrapped up Dan from Brand Shepherd spent several hours with the O’Brien Group team training them how to use their new site. As the team learned how to create, write, and edit new pages for the site Brand Shepherd was available for continual training, updated graphics, and ideas. By building the new site on WordPress, O’Brien Group is now positioned to post information for their clients much quicker than the old days when they had to rely on a web developer to update the site. Brand Shepherd listened to the goals, made a plan, executed it, and has put O’Brien Group in a favorable position to expand their business.

From Tony Collins, marketing/project manager for the O’Brien Group web site redesign:

“Brand Shepherd recently finished designing a website for my client and the final design and the process that got us there was superlative. Brand Shepherd’s approach was patient during times when we repeatedly asked uninformed questions, they over delivered on promises and dealt with the preverbal hiccups quickly and professionally. They made the sometimes painful aspects of redesigning a website actually enjoyable. If you are looking for a design project and want the quality but not the expense and overhead of a large agency, Brand Shepherd is the firm for you.”

3 Big Picture Phases of a Web Site

By Brand Shepherd | Published June 19th, 2010
We get 3 questions about web design more than any other: What is the process? How is a site maintained? and When is it time for a redesign? These questions sum up the 3 Big Picture phases of a web site’s life.

Klimick Acupuncture

By Brand Shepherd | Published May 31st, 2010

KlimickAcupuncture.com

Klimick Acupuncture is Cincinnati’s premier Five Element acupuncture clinic. When we began the project we only had a logo to work with, but from the logo, the feel of the clinic space, and owner Gigi’s personalities we created a web site that has received high praise. The site is the product of the perfect process where the business owner really got involved in the content, look, and feel of the site, and at the same time allowed us to freely create a web presence that is not only beautiful and informative but web search friendly as well.

Frankie’s Furry Friends Web Site

By Brand Shepherd | Published May 31st, 2010

Frankie’s Furry Friends is a small dog rescue. Each year Brand Shepherd donates our services to an organization that we believe in and support. Since our border collie, Jake, is a rescue dog and the inspiration behind the name of our business we thought Frankie’s Furry Friends would be a fitting recipient of our donation for 2010. Please visit their site now, and consider giving one of Frankie’s Furry Friends a forever home.

Please note:  Since launching this website Frankie’s Furry Friends decided to partner with a dog adoption service that offers stock web site layouts. The site that exists now is not Brand Shepherd work. We had no part in the design, direction, advice, art direction, etc. of the new site. The only thing that remains is the little cartoon dog. We still suggest that anyone looking to adopt a small dog consider adopting from FFF.

Half Day Cafe

By Brand Shepherd | Published May 31st, 2010

halfdaycafe.org

The Half Day Cafe is a wonderful place to eat (as we do often!), and they asked Brand Shepherd to refresh their existing web site. This was a case where the overall concept of the site was intact, but it had become stale over the years – neglected. We analyzed the site’s functionality and aesthetic details, and made a set of suggestions to enhance a viewer’s experience. The end result is a site that Half Day Cafe ownership is very happy with.