Designing a site worthy of their name.
Utopia NYC is a top creative artist agency with a deep roster of photographers, hair, makeup, prop stylists, and more.
In 2017 they were ready to update their site.
I partnered with Utopia to modernize their website, expand across screen sizes, increase their branding presence, and above all make it easy to use.
• Nested navigation was frustrating to use on desktop and near impossible on mobile.
• About, Contact, and Social could consolidate and be accessible from more than the homepage alone.
• Multi-edge navigation was antithesis of Utopia’s ‘simple to use’ desire.
• Gallery scrolling was locked until all the thumbnails (slowly) loaded.
• No information to be seen about the artist.
A simplified and streamlined navigation cut out the previous site's dead ends, no use of the color black (Halloween and Oregon State vibes were out of the question), and a clean white canvas for the Utopia talent's fantastic imagery.
While redesigning the site, especial care was placed on UX and design decisions that affected mobile. It was paramount to increase the visitability of the site and bring parity across platforms.
Utopia wanted a site focusing on the work of their roster, purely a way to showcase work and be immediately easy to use. There are no flashy navigation tricks, just strong branding with a clear sense of where you are and where to go next.
