Design + Code + Identity

nclud.

Challengers of the status quo.

How do you rebrand and redesign an agency that's been an industry leader for almost twenty years? At nclud, we started from the ground up, going back to our roots as a company: the convergence of design and technology. Taking inspiration from everything from neo-grotesque type design to old computer terminals to the neon lights of Blade Runner, we built a brand designed to push the limits and make people nervous.

As part of the revamp, we needed the new website to be bold, unique, and different — a site that could stand head and shoulders above the competition. On the design side, we incorporated bright ultraviolet purple and cathode greens to make the site feel electric on screen, as well as laying everything out with strong type and imagery in Massimo Vignelli's Swiss three-column grid. In development, we incorporated WebGL headers to create stunning real-time image effects that react to mouse movement and device orientation, glitch transitions between pages to replicate the effect of a flickering terminal screen, and built out a static template and integration structure (to avoid tying ourselves to an unwieldy content management system). The final component was the copy — creating a tone of voice that was plain but strong, speaking with a purpose and cutting through the buzzwords. We wrote long-form case studies in order to tell the full stories behind our work and results, not just to show off pretty screens.

The site was nominated for a 2016 Webby Award in the Website / Professional Services category and was awarded CSS Design Awards Website of the Day

Agency: nclud. Additional Identity Design: Brooke Hollabaugh, Courtney Leonard, John Salmon. User Experience: Joe Chrisman. Copywriting: Kwame DeRoché. Additional Development: Ramsay Lanier.

Rebrand and identity design work was done with Illustrator and InDesign. The fully responsive static site was built using JavaScript, Three.js, Seriously.js, WebGL, Velocity.js, Gulp, and Sass.

The nclud site displayed on a computer, tablet, and phone

Early brand & identity explorations. A large number of logos, iconography, imagery, and typefaces were worked through and presented before landing on the final version.

Brand explorations for the nclud rebrand and redesign
Homepage design on the nclud site
Work page design on the nclud site
Rosetta Stone case study design on the nclud site
Discovery Education case study design on the nclud site
A photo of the nclud team in the office, with dramatic green and purple lighting mirroring the rebrand
About

I fell in love with design and code in 7th grade when I built a webpage in Microsoft Word.

Hosted on GeoCities, it was a middle schooler’s dream of Star Wars: lightsabers, starfields, hyperspace, character profiles, and, of course, the Mos Eisley cantina band song playing in a MIDI loop in the background. Since then, I’ve grown up alongside the web — the introduction of CSS, the explosion of JavaScript, the death of animated GIFs, the birth of Flash, the death of Flash, the rebirth of animated GIFs, Web 2.0, and too many search engines to mention (along the way, I taught myself how to make websites a little bit better than that first one). Now I'm a designer for Taco Bell — your favorite place to grab a delicious taco at 3AM on the way home from an unforgettable night out with friends.

I live in Richmond, Virginia. I have a border collie named Logan (yes, after the X-Man). I’m a sneakerhead and font nerd. I organize my closet by color. I was born on a Friday. I’ve been to the emergency room in every place I’ve ever lived.

Do you have an awesome project that needs design, code, or identity? I’m available for very limited freelance work, so reach out.

Additional Clients: African Wildlife Foundation, AOL, Audi Financial Services, Clyde's Restaurant Group, Comcast, Custom Ink, Doubletree by Hilton, EVERFI, Habitat for Humanity, jQuery Foundation, Neustar, RAINN, Renaissance Hotels by Marriott, Sweetgreen, Volkswagen Financial Services.