In late November 2008 I was lucky enough to be honored as one of San Diego’s most admired CEO’s by the San Diego Business Journal and attended a rather large event in downtown San Diego. One of my peers, Bella Heule was also being honored and I caught her walking by (we had never met) and flashed her my award (yes…only my award!). We began to speak and it seemed as if my timing was impeccable. They were moving locations and while they weren’t really considering a full re-brand, it was the right time to go for it if they could be convinced. Well, I convinced Bella and her full team to hire JTCG to handle the entire job. To be honest, and she would be the first to admit it, the San Diego World Trade Center logo, Web site, and collateral were terrible. There was no consistency to the look and feel, the site was completely unorganized and unusable, and they had no real strategy to set the world on fire in 2009. That’s where we come in.

Our first meeting in early December led to the launch of the new identity and World Trade Center San Diego Web Design. Here’s the catch, they were moving into their new facility and needed everything delivered and live by February 25th for the planned open house at their new location. That gave us 2 months to deliver a new logo, corporate collateral, brand and marketing strategy, and roughly 500 page Web site with a full content management system. Ummmm…what was I thinking?!?!? Okay…so I put a little stress on the staff and we pushed forward. Thank GOD the team at WTCSD was amazing to work with and extremely helpful in following through with requests and approvals. Anyway, we made our deadline and launched the site just in time.

The Web strategy JTCG established moving forward for WTCSD is to sell services and to build and retain membership. FIrst we had to create a new base site with enough functionality to get members using the Web site (Phase 1). We completed changed the logo and look and feel to create a “green” image and allow for site exploration. As well, we used the “rule of 5″ for main navigation to considerably consolidate and organize the site. Minimal uses of flash and video engage visitors and drive them to the most important sections of the site. Phase 2 will be completed by creating a social media platform that will enable members to get the most out of networking opportunities and to generate on-site content through the member base.

We are wrapping this up by adding on-site SEO this week and will continue to optimize moving forward. Anyway… we are extremely happy with the outcome and will make sure it’s a HUGE success. Check it out at http://www.wtcsd.org

COVERPLAY, the first slip cover designed for play yards, came to JTCG with an amazing product and a Web site that really didn’t tell the story. Furthermore, it wasn’t very user friendly and certainly didn’t resonate with their target market…moms. At first, the client requested just a face lift their current Web design. After close review and some market research, JTCG requested to do a full re-brand in order to make the most of the new Web site and marketing strategy.

The first site was very cluttered and flooded with a blue spotted background that took focus off the actual product. As well, there was no company logo and no clear message as to what the product was and its benefits. JTCG tackled the project by starting with the COVERPLAY logo design. It seemed clear that the logo could be more fun, colorful, and friendly. Also, we wanted something that would really catch a potential customers eye when walking down the aisle at target, kmart, or sears, where the item is currently being sold. JTCG designed a logo with a soft look and feel, a pastel color palette, and a visual of a baby peeking his or her head over the top of the letters, much like a child would do in a play yard.

For the site, JTCG wanted to keep the overall look very clean… for the same reason that COVERPLAY makes the slip cover product… to keep a baby clean and germ free. We used flash sparingly, but always as a form of interactive function. For example, the virtual room was created using flash to enable potential customers to see how the product would look in their very own room. We enabled the user to choose patterns while changing the color of their wall and floor or even to upload a photo of their room and place the play yard with slipcover inside it. Also, we use nomenclature that is more friendly to the market. For example, we changed “Testimonials” to “Mommy Reviews” and rather than showing the testimonial, we show the child photo that the parents sent in associated with each review.

We are very pleased with the outcome of the site and now all we have to do is finish the instruction video. I’ll post here again when we get it done. Check out the site at http://www.coverplayard.com.

Jacob Tyler has designed and re-designed Web sites for over 9 years now. Most often, we are tasked to re-brand a company and create a new Web site and corporate identity. At this point, I would say we have done this for well over 50 companies and unfortunately we have never saved the original version of the logo and site. Thinking about it, this is a disservice to potential clients and a bigger disservice to our team because the sites we create for our clients are such a huge improvement based on the original version and we should really show off the difference. Well…here you go.

Digital Dimensions hired Jacob Tyler to re-design their Web site. After initial review, we suggested that their logo was not a good representation of the brand and requested (actually more like “forced”) permission to re-design their corporate identity prior to designing a new site. The result of the re-design can be seen now at www.ddicad.com

A couple of quick notes about the re-design and our methodology. DDI is a Solidworks (CAD software) reseller with stiff competition in California and Arizona. As well, they offer full service training and support for the Solidworks line of products. The problem with the initial Web site is that it lacked appropriate messaging that would quickly engage a site visitor. Thus, their “bounce” rate (meaning how many users went to the home page and left without clicking on any links) was very high. The site was difficult to navigate and some of the sections lacked a cohesive look and feel with the rest of the site.

JTCG re-designed the identity with an added tagline “Forward Engineering Solutions” to quickly communicate the breadth of their services. Along with the new logo and color scheme, JTCG created a Web 2.0 site with interactive functionality to create a “sticky” environment for visitors, including Web casts, Pod Casts, Blogs and more. From customer research, we had determined that site visitors wanted to feel that once the technology and software was purchased, that they would fully be supported and constantly updated with tips and tricks. Also, we determined that many potential customers really didn’t know what software was right for their needs. With that in mind, we created a section called “Solutions for You” that is database driven and asks the user very specific questions about their business and directs the user to the correct product choice. DDI edits the site daily with content and specifically requested that the site be built using the Joomla platform as they had experience using that content management system.

Please visit www.ddicad.com to see the new site. Come back here often as we are going to keep adding more before and after case studies.