Launch - Heal Massage
Update: The client chose to let the original domain name expire, but I have archived the site. Obviously, the contact form is no longer functional.
This is a project I have been working on for awhile. I did it for free, to help out some friends from church that are in my small group. They're expecting their first baby, after which she will be venturing into the brave new world of self employment. Knowing that a good business image could make or break that endeavor, I volunteered to do this site: Heal Massage Therapy.
It was a fun project to take on, because she already had all the content ready to go. I cannot tell you how important that is when doing a site, to the point that I enjoy more working for free on a site which someone cares about, rather than get paid for a project that drags on and on because of a client with no message. Having the content up front lets me focus more on creativity.
Since this is just a single page website, I wanted to add in a few bells and whistles to keep it interesting. Each time someone visits the page, 2 of 50 random images will load. These are a mix of spa / massage photos I got from iStockPhoto.com, SXC.hu and Veer.com. I must say thanks to Nate Logan who initially showed me how to do a PHP random array in Textpattern.
Another cool feature is the table columns are sortable, by massage type, duration of session, and pricing. It even re-stripes the table rows after being sorted. For this, I used an extremely versatile script by Brian McAllister, which he generously makes available at his site Frequency Decoder.
Throughout the page, I have attempted to add little touches of elegance, without overdoing it. The logo type is done in the font aptly named Adorable, which I found to be a good balance between a script and serif style. This is probably the design aspect I stewed over the most. It is fanciful yet sturdy, and is quite readable unlike many script fonts. Plus, it's free.
The smaller tagline in the logo is written in Fonce Sans Pro, which was done by my friend Ryan Ford. He is one of those guys whose sheer talent leaves me dumbfounded. Not only is he a talented Flash designer with big clients like Yahoo, but he also manages to do print design and fonts in his spare time.
The florulents were inspired by Cameron Moll and are from the typeface combo of Nat Vignette 1 + 2. The color scheme was inspired by Kevin Cornell's Bear Skin Rug, whose cartoons are absolutely hillarious. The strong horizontal page divisions were inspired by the amazing The City Church website, which was designed by Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain.
Though I do know how and love to draw icons myself, I am using a single icon from FamFamFam, to indicate that an email has been sent successfully. I have attempted to keep a consistent, friendly style between the form error and confirmation messages. You can check those screenshots below…
Well, I think that about sums it up. Hopefully this has been a good glimpse into my method (or lack) of creative thinking, and will help you when planning your next project. Also, I would encourage you to take time every now and then to design something for the sheer fun of it, and let the money concerns wait for another day. Life is too short, so be mindful what you do with it.