Who doesn’t love a good before and after? Let’s give it a go with web design.

This is a project for Tactical Electronics.

The Before

Below is a “wayback” image of the Tactical Electronics website. This is where they were:

As you might be able to see, tactical has an amazing art director/designer on staff. You can see that the images are of great quality and consistent composition. Also all the design elements and lock ups are nice and on point!

Tactical wanted a fresh website that would showcase their products in a more accessable and approachable way. So I set out to get things looking fresh and organized.

The After

Below is the new site design:

The Process

The Mark

First things first is the mark. I typically simplify the logo first. I need this mark to be recognizable at the smallest 5px size. I also need it to hold it’s shape and tell its story at any size.

BEFORE

Although it is a slight change, this simplification of the logo allows this mark to live and move in digital spaces. Below is an example of the small size. The mark can now spin and roll, the possibilities are opened up for animation.

The Flow

It took some thought to get this many products sorted in a way that made sense and was easy to navigate. I referenced Nike.com and Ikea.com for this subnav. It reveals one column at a time.

Then there is the reveal of each product imagery.

Here is more of the nav for the mobile site, digging through many products.

The Layout

Here are a couple more shots showing the grid layouts for each page given the different category needs.

Overall, I think it was a great improvement and has been a site that has served them well for years Here is the live site. The animations are pretty fun. https://www.tacticalelectronics.com/

Clean and orderly design can be fun.

I learned that while working with a health tech start-up, Orderly Health.

Bringing Your Team Along

However, changing the logo for a company is a psychological experience, to say the least. As a designer, I am learning the great benefit in becoming more patient when changing things up.

Even when I can see the 45 places this logo will live, move, and work, it takes some patient care to bring everyone along. It is helpful for me to remember how thankful I am for the brave ones who put themselves out there to create a new business. If CEOs didn’t go first, I wouldn’t have a logo to create or improve on.

Explaining my work is still and practice I am working on, but for Orderly, I started by telling a story. We walked through the evolution of logos out there in the world like Instagram and Slack.

**The evolution of the Instagram mark.**

A Simplified Mark

After this, I showed how we could move away from the gradients and overlays to make this mark bulletproof. I want this logo to work at 5px as a favicon and then, at the same time, on a large sign outside a building. I want to play with the shapes in the mark to build brand elements. I see it moving as things load, and embroidered on all the swag concepts we can think up.

Color Scheme

Because Orderly has vibrant, cool people, why not have colors that reflect who they are?

Brand and ADA Compliance

Once we get our minds around the dos and don’ts of the brand and the kind way we will communicate with all ADA requirements, the sky is the limit.

Building From A Good Foundation

Persona, voice, tone, and lots of marketing materials can come from and influence a well-established brand. I’m super happy with where we got at Orderly. Thankfully the refreshed logo settled well with the Orderly team and is now a mark they are proud of.

“We universally received positive feedback from everyone who interacted with you, and we've loved what you were able to deliver. “
Kevin Krauth - CEO, Orderly Health

“If you are looking for a contract designer/CD/turner-of-nebulous-ideas-into-beautiful-and-functional designs, I cannot recommend brittany bowden more. She delivers consistent, expert level work. And is just such an easy to partner with professional. Give her a shout!”
Megan Hart - Design Director, Orderly Health

Orderly Health

Here is some of the brand work I got to do for Orderly Health. They are a health tech startup with lots of spunk and a grand vision!

Here is the online brand guide

And the live site