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The Williams McBride Group
Co-opped: Winter 2005, Winter 2006
INFO:
344 E Main St
Lexington, KY 40507
(859) 253-9319
www.williamsmcbride.com(external link)
IMAGE JUMP: Commerce Lexington | Ads/Testimonials/Factoids | Brooklawn | CHA Health
New Year's 2004 was when I embarked on a trip to Lexington, KY and Williams McBride Group (WMG). This was the first time I was truly on my own, without a roommate, and in an unknown city. I took to the city just as much as the city took to me. I loved my time in Lexington and hope to visit sometime soon.
Williams McBride is a small design firm, specializing in both graphic and digital design projects. I worked mostly with one other employee, Sarah, on interactive and presentation projects. At slow times during my first coop with WMG, I worked on graphic related projects.
The first project I worked on was a presentation for Commerce Lexington(external link), the local chamber of commerce for the city of Lexington. The chamber was having a dinner with 1,000 participants, and wanted to preview their new web site, designed by my co-worker, Sarah. The audience at the dinner was the largest group of people to see anything I had worked on. Unfortunately, we had very limited notice and design ideas changed, therefore there were a few late nights to insure everything was completed. Sarah setup the design, and the beginning and end portions, while I focused on the middle section.
The middle section starts out focusing on how all commerce web sites tend to blend together and look very similar. To counteract this problem, and not overwhelm the user, the homepage of the Commerce Lexington web site features photographs of Lexington, in a rotating manner. The presentation goes on to explain the different parts of the interior pages, such as news, event calendars, factoids and ads, all of which have been upgraded from the previous site.
In addition to working on the presentation for Commerce Lexington, I also worked on "factoids," ads and testimonials for the web site. I was given the copy and was required to make them appear in an interesting manner. Although this is more of a graphic design project, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed typography projects in college, and enjoyed working on this project as well.
The factoids highlight interesting facts about the area that would draw outside visitors to the city of Lexington. The ads highlight events that are sponsored by or put on by the Commerce. Finally, testimonials are exactly what they appear to be, quotes from area people positively responding to the commerce and their events. View all of these by clicking either of the screenshots below.
Brooklawn Child & Family Services(external link) assists in "...restoring hope to emotionally troubled children and families." Their campus needed an updgrade in signage, so I was enlisted for the job. This was the first and only time I have worked on signage, and I enjoyed the process. I used the different pieces of Brooklawn's logo (tree, stars, child, heart), and incorporated directions, all to make the different signs that were needed. To insure that the words and images would be recognizable at far distances, I printed out the signs at actual size, taped them together, and posted them all around the office. I then continuously walked away from the sign, seeing at what distance the sign became illegible. I compared these distances to the actual distances, and if need be I either increased or decreased the sizes.
At the end of the first quarter, I worked on a CHA Health(external link) presentation. To try and motivate the sales people that sell health insurance or other products, CHA awards prizes to their representatives. Each time they introduced new rewards, CHA has a big kick-off presentation to explain the new promotion and motivate their sales people.
The theme of "Let's Jet" was created and agreed upon by both Sarah and I. From there, I worked specifically on the interactive portion, with limited assistance from Sarah, while she worked specifically on the print portion. I worked through this project fully from pencil sketches to digital sketches to production, something I am very proud of. Again, there were some late nights, but we finished it without a hitch and with lots of success.
