If you haven’t heard by now you’ve definitely seen it by now: we’ve made some changes ’round here. Ordinarily that would mean adding a new feature to our website or a new member to the team but in this case we’ve done all that and so so so much more

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Back To Basics

So almost one year ago (after all new staff settled – myself included) we got busy with our marketing materials, replaced our 4 year-old website and pushed the old brand as far as possible – seen here at right. Chip and Bryan had been working (very successfully might I add) with the frog/red combo for years, and our new flash-heavy website (last year, mind you) was a necessary and huge improvement over it’s predecessor. It felt fresh, got a great response from clients/friends/family/competition and propelled us through the rest of 2007.

A few months ago we found ourselves in a curious position. With a permanent staff of 6 and new content management system we realized a few things:

1) We had evolved/outgrown from our existing brand and wanted something new to represent our current culture and future path.

2) We loved WebTree so much that we wanted it to power our own site

3) We deserved (and felt it necessary) to run ourselves through our own branding/website design process as we would with a client.

The big hurdle in beginning this process, or at least coming to the above realizations, was that we were very much aware of how little time we had to devote to ourselves. We take pride in how much time and effort we invest our client’s work, but that often leaves us with only a few minutes here or an hour there to design or conceptualize internal projects. So our first step was to reserve time to make this all happen, because it needed to happen…

So Now What

With hours to work with we started with two Discovery meetings (as we do with our clients) to assess our needs and creative goals. We laid out our issues with the current brand/website/marketing materials and addressed what the fresh designs should accomplish. We also talked about our feelings and other mushy stuff because as much as this was going to be a visual and technical endeavor, it ultimately would become an extension of the shop personality.

But we couldn’t let that weigh us down. We’re not heavy people. If you’ve come into our shop or talked to us at an outreach event you’ll notice that we’re a fun, easy-going group. And that was something we wanted our brand to communicate.

So the frog was to stay, but what kind of frog. We all agreed that a simpler, more iconic and personable frog was ideal. I sketched for days and days during my daily commute (don’t worry, I ride the TCAT bus). It wasn’t long until these ideas made their way into vector format where we thoroughly dissected out frog (har har har) until we settled on a “top 10″ list of sorts (variations on similar logo treatments). It then took us a week and a half to finalize every detail (from eye shape to color) but we came out satisfied and convinced that we had something representative of the shop and very very lovable. It was during this time that we also realized that as much as we identify with Ancient Wisdom Productions, we had been referring to the shop (internally and externally) as AWP for a long time. It felt very natural to transition the primary usage of our name to the shortened version, using the full Ancient Wisdom Productions as necessary.

Time for Fun

I wish we could say that we labored over the rest of the materials, but the new identity and momentum from the creative process were so strong that our work soon felt very natural (thus, easy). New business cards and marketing materials were necessary and quick to produce, but the website became a bit more involved.

As mentioned above, the real excitement in a new website was the fact that it could be powered by WebTree. Not that we can’t wrangle our own code, but when time is limited a Content Management System (CMS for short) is key. We also knew that using our system on a day-to-day basis would keep us striving to improve our already powerful engine.

Visually we wanted something that we hadn’t seen before. There are obvious design trends that we intentionally steered away from and since we snap photos in our office every day we really wanted to make images a large part of the design. Technically we wanted to move away from Flash completely – not that we don’t love it, but so much can be accomplished with Javascript – and make our content more accessible. With that criteria in place we designed what you’re currently looking at! There was a bit of back and forth initially but the fundamental layout and structure was achieved on the first attempt. Luckily each member of the team brought their own unique perspective to the design process, and the end result (for everything really) couldn’t have been accomplished without the entire team.

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I’m going to dive into further details about the new site by the end of the month but we’re incredibly excited about all the new changes that have taken place and appreciate all the kind feedback we’ve received so far. Feel free to comment if you have specific questions or comments regarding the transition here at AWP.

Anna (left) & Katy (right) at Showcase Tompkins 2008