Web

Dolan Yacht Services

So, earlier this month, I pushed live a project I have been working on over the past couple of months – http://www.dolanyachtservices.com . The website is a small site for a boat and yacht repair service company based in Savannah, GA. And I have to say, its been a pleasure working with them and getting to know them as we progressed through the design. I had met Phil, the owner, through his wife. We both attended SCAD and had class together. They are probably the nicest people I have met. I mean from the get-go, Phil just said, “Do whatever you think would look good.” What? Creative Freedom? And throughout the process, everything went pretty smoothly, the kind of client that makes you love freelance.

As far as design was concerned, I wanted to make this site have a more professional feel. With a small company like this, its important for the viewer to trust and feel comfortable with the company before they ever meet the guys. Consumers are sort of scared of local businesses, thinking they won’t do as quality of a job as the big guys.

Thats just not the case.  With a local business’ website, it must feel and be professional and clean to reinforce the fact that this is an honest business. From talking with them, we were pretty much on the same page. We brainstormed a few ideas like updating weather and some of the products they offer. One key thing his company had established was their red and black colors. This was something I had to incorporate that into the design. They had already purchased a domain and had been sitting on it for like two years or something just paying the monthly fees. So I threw up a bright red coming soon page and got to work on a design in Photoshop.

I created a few designs, messing with the idea of the bright red being cut into a wave. Making the water match with their logos without making it insanely obvious. For the background I wanted it to be light and have a corporate feel. The gradient gray gives the website a hint of depth while staying on the lighter side. We tried a dark version of the site, but it just didn’t seem right. I was afraid that if I went too dark, the website would lose the clean ocean feeling I felt while sitting at the marina when I met Phil. I mean there he is, right on the water of the Atlantic ocean. Its not dark, it bright and freaking amazing. Even though the company’s colors were red and black, I wanted to make sure to sparingly use black and focus more on the bright surrounding that he and his clients are used to seeing.

For me, the place was an amazing experience. All around are amazing boats and incredible views. Taking pictures for this project was a blast ( not every day your work for the day is out on a boat in the Atlantic ocean.) Since there wasn’t much content for the site, it was designed to be simple and easy to use. The pages mostly consist of the bits of copy with a few images. A ‘Here is what we do, and this is what we look like.’ The frontpage is the same way, consisting of contained areas with most of the content broken down on the front page in mini featurette sections. Keeping it simple and honest. With the site’s simplicty, I designed it so that it could grow in the future. Easy additions to the menu and you have a whole new section to work with. Its a basic website design, but I feel it works and looks good. I am happy with the way it turned out and the entire process. Only thing I wish was that I could have stayed around to take a few more pictures (always could use more pictures). During the end of this project I actually accepted my full time job at Protect America Inc. as a Graphic Designer (I found out I got the job while taking pictures at the marina actually). So as the site was almost ready to go live, I was packing my bags and heading to Austin. I had gotten alot of the pictures I was looking for and would have to complete the writing of the copy when I had settled in. Well, I hope everyone enjoys the site, if you haven’t already checked it out, you should defintely do so now, http://www.dolanyachtservices.com