Flourish: Illustration
In web design there’s nothing more I personally enjoy than a site designed around a theme. I love it because I love doing it myself (when allowed). It gives a website more personality, depth, attitude and many other aspects that makes the design stand out. Flourish is such a site and exemplifies this on a grand scale.
Impressions
At first the site loads and you think – I’ve seen this style of design before, that is, cloud, ground and underground elements. However I strongly disagree with anyone who says this is like any other design because it’s unique in its own right.
The designer manages to create atmosphere and speak to potential clients visually and logically so they can understand web design at a basic level. More importantly rather than using the entire concept just for the sake of being visually appealing, they tell a story.
Their opening line is brilliant and perfect for the times we’re in. If I were a client, I’d immediately be interested because they are proposing to make me money in these hard times. I’m interested in how they can help me sell. Brilliant copy and perfect timing for such copy.
Flourish: Flexibility
Illustration
The biggest problems with some clients is making them understand the importance of a website in their business. With Flourish’s design they explain that from the beginning, by illustrating to the potential clients the 4 areas of web design they cover: visibility, flexibility, usability and aesthetics. By explaining these 4 areas of web design the client gets an idea of where their hard earn money is being spent.
I love the symmetrical design above the fold in the illustration and part of me wishes that it was consistent in the mid section. It gives a great sense of balance. The illustration is gorgeous and brilliantly reinforces the copy. It’s a perfect match of copy and illustration.
Flourish: Layout
Layout & Navigation
The navigation as in most design is easy, simple and obvious. The call to action button that says ‘request quote’ is well executed to grab attention. The layout is well organized and the ‘featured projects’ area is perfectly integrated into the design.
I enjoy how the tree and featured project are presented because it ties into their growth theme. I interpret it as them saying, “hey, this design is flourishing and we did it”. This shows there is a reason for every choice.
Internal pages get boring and difficult to make attractive because there isn’t much to talk about – or at least that’s usually the problem I face. In Flourish the layout is consistent and as equally attractive as the main page.
Flourish: Footer
The footer layout is great, there’s hardly anything negative to say. It uses texture and icons to make it attractive and the type has good leading making it easy to read.
The icons are a little redundant — there are 2 pertaining to water. One of them could be an icon of the sun because that contributes to growth of a plant so it makes sense since we’re using that as analogy.
I do feel their content organization could be different in this section. For example it should go in the following order: About the Design Team > Learn Something New Today > Amazing Web Resources. This order seems best to me because the content is being presented in order of importance, that is, my perception of it.
In Closing
The design is no doubt a great one. The only negative I have to say is the lack of portfolio pieces and design content in their blog. I have no doubt this will change over a short period of time. What are your thoughts?
