Design + Code

Star Wars Galaxy.

Explore a galaxy far, far away.

nclud was made up of some of the biggest Star Wars geeks around — from posters on the office walls (Darth Vader and stormtroopers, of course) to roaming LEGO R2-D2 droids. When the trailer for Episode VII: The Force Awakens came out, we all huddled around the office television to watch it over and over (and over). We immediately thought: what can we build to share our love of this with the world? With so many epic stories being told in a galaxy far, far away, we decided only something that truly immersed the visitor in the cinematic universe would do.

Starting with the Star Wars API, a comprehensive reference point for basically every planet, starship, and character from the movies (and extended universe), we started fleshing out the concept: a fully three-dimensional galactic playground, full of swooping camera motions and dramatic effects. For design, we avoided the cliché of sterile colors and techno fonts, instead turning to rich golds, beautiful serif typefaces, and the original 1977 slanted Star Wars logo and Hildebrandt concept paintings. At the same time, we also tackled something totally new for us: sound design. John Williams’s score for Star Wars is as iconic as Luke's lightsaber, so it only seemed right to incorporate that into the experience (as well as R2-D2’s lovable blips, beeps, and bloops).

Launching the same week as “Force Friday” (a marketing push from Disney and Lucasfilm), Star Wars Galaxy quickly saw over a hundred thousand visitors in addition to media coverage from Wired, io9, Gizmodo, The Mary Sue, ScreenCrush, and a slew of international newspapers and blogs. The site was an honoree for a 2016 Webby Award in the Advertising & Media category, was awarded CSS Design Awards Website of the Day, and landed on the front page of Product Hunt.

Agency: nclud.

All work was designed with Sketch and Illustrator. The fully responsive static site was built using JavaScript, Three.js, WebGL, Howler.js, GreenSock, Gulp, Sass, and integrated the Star Wars API.

The Star Wars Galaxy site displayed on a tablet and computer
The iconic "A long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away...." text on the Star Wars Galaxy site
The galaxy view on the Star Wars Galaxy site
Tatooine detail view on the Star Wars Galaxy site
The landing title design on the Star Wars Galaxy site
The menu view on the Star Wars Galaxy site
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.