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Florida.com Re-Design

Thread title: Florida.com Re-Design
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07-28-2011, 10:36 PM
#1
Elegant Banners is offline Elegant Banners
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  Old  Florida.com Re-Design

Hey guys.

It's been a while since I've been here and made a post.

I've recently been working on a re-design of Florida.com (as you can tell, it's in much need of a re-design). I decided to get the design community involved and have been posting incremental updates of how the design has been coming along (you can follow it on Forrst, here, here and here).

This is where I'm at right now with the design:
http://forrst-production.s3.amazonaw...png?1311886865

It's very far from finished yet, I'll be posting constant update via Forrst (and maybe here if I remember).

I started it from scratch and all graphics are custom.

Seeing as I started designing and showcasing my work here in the early days, I thought I'd give it a go again so many years later, and see what kind of feedback I can get.

Appreciate all comments/feedback.

Thanks.

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07-29-2011, 03:56 AM
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derek lapp is offline derek lapp
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aesthetically, it's pleasing, don't get me wrong there, but imo the brand is off. a little brief context may be necessary, but in a nutshell, when i think florida, i think oranges, orlando magic, florida panthers, tampa bay lightening, retirement, disney world (or land, whichever one is over there)... i understand i'm not from florida, have never been there so there will be culltural aspects i don't recognize/understand, but i bring that up because if someone on the outside thinks it's missing its 'floridaness', how will the people on the inside react?

when i think florida, i automatically go to the tropicana colour palette - which may be bad, but i think you've been type cast with orange and green (go gators?). if it didn't say florida.com on the design, culturally, i would never guess florida. i would shoot for all the carribean and any other tropical destination before florida - i think because of the lack of orange.

you may want to play up the celebrity of florida a bit, no? especially if the goal is to encourage toursm? you've got a large amount of high profile activity - like i said, numerous sports teams, disney world, etc. i just got back from a vacation, and one of my friends had a 12 hour layover in miami on the way home. i said, "man, that sucks". he replied "no it doesn't, it's 12 hours in miami! imagine what i could do". i think it would help very much if you summed up florida as a huge mecca that everyone travels to instead of a deserted island with 1 tree where people go to die unless a genie rescues them.

i'm a designer too, so i completely understand it if your aim was to specifically break out of that green/orange florida gators stereotype palette, but my initial reaction was it's pretty, but doesn't say "florida" to me, and after typing all that out, i still stand by it, even though i'd probably be doing the same thing in your shoes.

07-29-2011, 10:23 AM
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  Old

Originally Posted by derek lapp View Post
aesthetically, it's pleasing, don't get me wrong there, but imo the brand is off. a little brief context may be necessary, but in a nutshell, when i think florida, i think oranges, orlando magic, florida panthers, tampa bay lightening, retirement, disney world (or land, whichever one is over there)... i understand i'm not from florida, have never been there so there will be culltural aspects i don't recognize/understand, but i bring that up because if someone on the outside thinks it's missing its 'floridaness', how will the people on the inside react?

when i think florida, i automatically go to the tropicana colour palette - which may be bad, but i think you've been type cast with orange and green (go gators?). if it didn't say florida.com on the design, culturally, i would never guess florida. i would shoot for all the carribean and any other tropical destination before florida - i think because of the lack of orange.

you may want to play up the celebrity of florida a bit, no? especially if the goal is to encourage toursm? you've got a large amount of high profile activity - like i said, numerous sports teams, disney world, etc. i just got back from a vacation, and one of my friends had a 12 hour layover in miami on the way home. i said, "man, that sucks". he replied "no it doesn't, it's 12 hours in miami! imagine what i could do". i think it would help very much if you summed up florida as a huge mecca that everyone travels to instead of a deserted island with 1 tree where people go to die unless a genie rescues them.

i'm a designer too, so i completely understand it if your aim was to specifically break out of that green/orange florida gators stereotype palette, but my initial reaction was it's pretty, but doesn't say "florida" to me, and after typing all that out, i still stand by it, even though i'd probably be doing the same thing in your shoes.
I need to set a bit of context first I suppose you can get to grips with how it's evolved and ended up like this.

First off, I didn't have 100% absolute creative freedom with this one, there were a set of color palettes to use that were provided by the client.

That led to numerous things that had to be put in on the client's request by sticking to the brief.

Another point is that the illustration side of things isn't actually finished yet (this is still heavy WIP). There are going to be numerous additions to make it seem like there's much more to do in Florida and it's just some lonely island in the middle of nowhere (the reason it seems like that now is I decided not to add all the other stuff until I've got the main bulk of the content in there, and then work around that).

Appreciate your input though, very helpful.

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08-04-2011, 08:50 PM
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I love the way the vector elements are presented here, but I have to agree that it doesn't accurately take into account the cultural and true Florida feel. Although it may look like an Expedia Florida tourist page, it doesn't make as much sense as a state's site.

I would shoot for a more elegant feel, but still keeping it within the boundaries of the laid back beaches, oranges and surf shop atmosphere.

The components themselves would have to be more professional or business-class oriented, but tying in the fun aspect and sandy beaches with a great stock photo incorporated into the design. Maybe even your vector background, but not so Disney on the eyes.

Great overall design though. I really like it.

08-04-2011, 09:15 PM
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  Old

I agree with everyone else, you should try out a color palette similar to this.

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08-04-2011, 10:03 PM
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Ahh, I had another comment to make countering my feedback a little, but my Mac turned over and died in the middle of it.

In a nutshell, it fits well for the audience if it's purely for tourism and vacation/entertainment. You could slap a random vacation search engine logo on it and the design would be perfect, but when I think of the classic Florida and business trips, convention centers and Disney World, this doesn't make as much sense.

If the client had this vision and wants to run with it, then it's a win.

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