Journal
Coolspotters and Garcia Media
It’s been a good while since I’ve talked about any work Mark Boulton Design has been up to. That’s mostly because the projects we’ve been working on have been under wraps. Until now that is. One project is now live, the other coming very, very soon.
Coolspotters: If it’s cool, they’ve seen it
Fanzter, Inc hired Mark Boulton Design last year to design their new web application, Coolspotters. Coolspotters is a consumer-focussed site that offers an experience that could shift the way people discover great products
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The design challenge was considerable—from the branding to designing the UX. We worked closely with Fanzter, drawing on our experience with working client-side, to hone the product over many iterations. I don’t mind saying, the result of this close collaboration is fantastic. But, you may have to wait a few weeks before getting to grips with the site as Fanzter are opening it up for beta applications now, before launching proper shortly.
Garcia Media
Garcia Media is one of the world’s leading news design studios. Designing publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald, Die Zeit and small community papers, they have unparalleled experience and an industry reputation to boot.
I had the pleasure of working with Dan and Alex Rubin on the design, as well as the in-house team at Garcia Media. Mario Garcia, Jr. has penned a blog post on the site that explains the background, design and implementation much better than I ever could.
Coming up…
We’re thrilled to be working on some incredibly exciting projects at the moment—from FTSE 100 corporate redesigns and web applications for TV networks. Through to small, simple websites for companies with a great idea. In addition to the web work, there are a few exciting things happening behind the scenes at Mark Boulton Design that hopefully I’ll be able to talk about really soon.
Share and Share alike
So, I’ve talked about my work. How about you talk about yours? What have you been up to? I’d love to hear. Feel free to link it up (although not too many as EE will spit your comment back at you!)
Most recent entries
- Coolspotters: Where people and products meet
- Alys Rose Boulton
- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
- From Poly to Pole
- Ten Crimes Against Web Typography (and how to avoid them)
- Start Your Own Business
- Coolspotters and Garcia Media
- Sir Edmund Hillary: 1919 - 2008
- Twitter didn’t eat my blogging, 2007 did
- BBC redesign: tellys have rounded corners, right?
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I'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.
I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.
Mark Boulton Design
If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.
Comments
Awesome work Mark! Garcia Media is so classy I wonder if I’m allowed to be there :)
Myself, getting ready to wrap up a project for Uwharrie Point, an exclusive golf club / home communities in North Carolina. Quite proud of this one…
About
Interactive Flash Map
Rex
Sat 19th Jan 2008
at 7:12 pm
And when is the next project expected to start?
Kevin
Sat 19th Jan 2008
at 7:47 pm
RexGood looking site, Rex. Especially like the look of the flash map.
Mark Boulton
Sat 19th Jan 2008
at 8:04 pm
I’m currently working on the design for ichoosr and Stake5.be. Two totally different projects that’ll probable launch by the end of March.
Thanks for the update Mark!
Tim Van Damme
Sat 19th Jan 2008
at 8:05 pm
I’m really digging the Garcia site. Simple and straight forward, but not empty or lacking any info.
We just launched a site for a new web development company Hashrocket and handed over files to Dave Shea for the Web Directions North conference bags. Busy few weeks!
Travis Schmeisser
Sat 19th Jan 2008
at 8:37 pm
Finally… a windowinto what’s been keeping you so quiet. Well, this and the more important April launch, if you know what I mean. Inspiring stuff as always, squire…
Colly
Sat 19th Jan 2008
at 11:49 pm
Loving Garcia Media Mark! Just lifted the wraps off Revolver Film and—a site for fellow Aussie designer—Mark Gowing. Looking forward to seeing more from MBD.
Andy Homan
Sun 20th Jan 2008
at 3:58 am
I really fancy the vibrant color scheme of the Coolspotters site, well done.
Projects can take a while before it’s finaly ‘out the door’, I can relate to that. Two of my designs is in the final prosess of going live, a yacht site.
Tor Løvskogen
Sun 20th Jan 2008
at 11:41 am
(had to split up the linkage)
...and a site for a plumming company (dont mind the dummy content images)
And I’m in the prosess of coding up a personal project of mine, MONUMENT.
Tor Løvskogen
Sun 20th Jan 2008
at 11:47 am
Hi Mark, I’ve not commented before thought it was about time I got involved instead of just reading.
Both projects look great, coolspotters looks interesting looking forward to seeing the site when it goes live.
We’ve been working on http://www.lovechips.co.uk (we don’t do the design - just the build).
Mark Slocock
Sun 20th Jan 2008
at 1:06 pm
Hi Mark, I like your work quite a lot. I’m working on a website called Zelena hvezda (design and XHTML/CSS).
Filosof
Sun 20th Jan 2008
at 5:22 pm
Always nice to see your work, Mark. Especially the typography. :) *ahem* since you asked...I was working on the design/ui part of an online comics creating & sharing site and now it’s newly launched for beta as well – Comiqs, and my own typography-led personal site.
Winnie
Mon 21st Jan 2008
at 3:08 am
I hate these posts - because I’m working under an NDA and can never link to any work… :(
Matthew Pennell
Mon 21st Jan 2008
at 9:32 am
I hate these posts too. It’s only six months later I can talk about these projects. The projects I’m working on at the moment won’t be available for public consumption for at least six months. Kind of depressing.
Mark Boulton
Mon 21st Jan 2008
at 9:50 am
Nice work, great to see some examples of what you’ve been working on.
New ideas at: [url=http://www.garybristow.co.uk]http://www.garybristow.co.uk[/url]
Gary Bristow
Mon 21st Jan 2008
at 3:18 pm
Coolspotters looks pretty interesting. I like the Garcia Media site - like Travis Schmeisser said - you’ve created something simple without it feeling empty or underdone. I find it hard to strike that balance.
It seems like we all work on such cool stuff. The most interesting project I’ve recently finished working on is Vent London.
Alex Bobin
Mon 21st Jan 2008
at 4:53 pm
Beautiful work on the Garcia Media site. I noticed the Happy Cog-inspired navigation on the homepage and thought that it was a perfect style for the company. Well done.
Joshua Brewer
Mon 21st Jan 2008
at 5:25 pm
Thank you for sharing your work. I was just looking at Garcia and noticed that the content shifts a few pixels left/right when you click between the online and mobile tabs. Saying that is is a much better site than I could build.
We’ve just been busy re-branding and re-launching Rackspace http://www.rackspace.co.uk, and just for fun http://www.theoldtimersmachine.com just in time to head off for some well earned snowboarding.
Caspian Ievers
Wed 23rd Jan 2008
at 1:28 pm
All the work looks great mark! : )
As I’m looking to start doing a bit of freelance work, I gave my site a redesign last week. I need to pad it out with more content and illustrations which is on my schedule next week. I’m also working on the design and front end development of a site for some friends to promote artists in the local area. The latter isn’t live yet unfortunately as there are a few bits and pieces left to add.
Sam Hardacre
Thu 24th Jan 2008
at 4:39 pm
Oh wow. Really nice designs. Elegante!
Smosh
Fri 25th Jan 2008
at 8:57 pm
I like to work and feel myself like fish in the water!
Elemis
Fri 25th Jan 2008
at 9:19 pm
Any news about Flow??
Efrain
Tue 29th Jan 2008
at 8:22 pm
I also really like the colors of the Coolspotters site, good job!
NFS
Fri 1st Feb 2008
at 12:26 pm
Just been on the coolspotters homepage and yeah looksreally nice.
@Caspian Ievers
I also have a few rackspace servers and have been aware of their rebrand of their website, very nice. I am a keen rackspace fanatical support lover !
Chloe Stroller
Mon 4th Feb 2008
at 8:48 pm
The CoolSpotter stuff looks interesting, I like the logo design on it too, nice work. We are finding a lot of people like that white/crazy colour contrast atm.
I suppose it is just well in line with web 2.0 but I hope it doesn’t become too over used :(
Craig - Web Design
Wed 6th Feb 2008
at 3:20 pm
I am working in the network marketing - like my job very much!
Antony
Thu 7th Feb 2008
at 6:50 am
I like clean and visual attractive straight forward designs, without unnessacery bagage..good work
edwin p.
Thu 7th Feb 2008
at 7:05 am