This site was inspired by the wood grain patterns on some of the basses in the Bass Place’s shop. The store owner wanted something dark and rich that felt like a guitar store.
Since this store is unique, I wanted to give it the specialty shop feel to differentiate it from other online music retailers who have a more one-size-fits-all design. I am particularly proud of some of the little accents like the drop down menus and the fact that the background repeats seamlessly.

Measurable success

Since launching this site, The Bass Place has increased their overall site traffic by about 20%. This is primarily due to some optimization techniques that are possible with this new software, like automatic URL rewriting, google base integration, and better sitemap construction compared to their old ecommerce solution.

Under the hood

This site was built on Zen Cart ecommerce software. I like this solution because it is very configurable, it’s open source PHP/mySQL, and it has a good support community. It took a bit of wrangling to get it to work the way I wanted, but everyone involved is happy with the end result.

This is a site I created for Meredith Instruments, a lab laser and laser parts retailer.
The design was to be high-tech, but not flashy. Their logo has a strong horizontal red stripe in it, and I decided to use that as a starting point for this. To add a little modern flare without being “flashy” I used a subtle gradient in the background of the content area.

Under the hood

For the backend, I decided to use Zen Cart, since it has a very active support community, is open source, and it already supports Meredith Instruments’ payment gateway. It also has several helpful plugins and community-supported modifications that helped me get it to work the way I envisioned.

You can also download the brochure as a PDF.

The storage type icons are used on the storage section of UHaul.com to help our customers visualize the different types of storage spaces available at a given location.

The map icons are all for an internal application that helps executives determine where we have a concentration of location and where we may need to expand. They show the various different entity types at U-Haul. I won’t bore you with the details, but there are several different types of independent businesses that U-Haul has in its network.

You can see the large versions of the storage icons, though the largest they have ever been shown are on the web are 64 X 64, which is the size they were designed for.

Some images on this page are property of U-Haul International.

Some images on this page are property of U-Haul International and/or Moving Help.

For this, I wanted to try out Windows Movie Maker to see if I could get by with a non-professional editing suite. The only part I found totally lacking about Movie Maker was its title wizards. Mostly, what I needed was a way to outline the text so it could be more readable. Alas, I had to make do with what meager provisions it had.

This is my first foray into editing a full video piece. I learned a lot. And next time I’ll try some different software.

Full Original Cut

Shortened 2-Minute Cut

I used some elements, including the period-accurate lantern and the map from the actual graphic itself, as well as a weathered paper and arrow motif to tie it all together. Look for the Indiana Jones-esque moving arrows when you change pages!

I wanted to bring elements of the time period and the escape adventure into the site, so I did that using a simulated snapshot of the sky from that time (and facing North—can you find the North Star?). Also, the typography is similar to what appeared on signs, leaflets and posters back then.

Visit the live site

Some images on this page are property of U-Haul International.

I needed to make sure it would be readable from a distance, so it could be placed on campaign signs throughout Phoenix. He also wanted more traditional colors.

So, I created a logo for him using the traditional Red, White and Blue with a nice sans-serif font (Univers). The logo also incorporates the sunburst from the Arizona State Flag.

Watch this video on Vimeo