Design | Fully Illustrated - The Portfolio of Michael Heald

Client: Slick Entertainment

Project: Website Design & Build

Project specifics:

Website Design
Website Build

Awards won:

Client location: USA

Link: http://slickentertainment.com

Slick Entertainment

The brief:

Slick Entertainment, the guys behind the Xbox 360 version of the classic N+ and the new, and rather awesome looking Scrap Metal, knocked on my virtual door and asked if I’d be interested in working with them on their new site...silly question really. The really enjoyable creative challenge with this project was that I had to find a way for them to launch a new site, that showed their corporate side, but at the same time made a VERY distinct split when it got over to the games pages, essentially allowing the site to morph into individual microsites for each game. Awesome challenge, one that I couldn’t wait to tackle. Great challenge!

The solution:

As I always mention in just about every new project posting, I can’t get enough of the games industry and just grab a hold of almost every games project that I’m lucky enough to have come my way, so Slick Entertainment was a rather exciting opportunity! Needless to say, the site can now don a very snazzy skin for each new game, so if you wander over to the site and go from through the different games pages, you’ll notice a totally different look adorns each page. Great fun.

Client: Klei Entertainment

Project: The Shank Blog

Project specifics:

Site design
Full site build
Wordpress integration

Awards won:

WB4D - Web 4 Designers

Client location: Canada

Link: http://shankgame.com

Shank

The brief:

As they have gone for a very stylised look with Shank, it was imperative that I designed the site in a way to perfectly reflect the rich atmosphere of the game.

The solution:

YEY, website number two for the guys over at Klei Entertainment, and this time it was for the dev blog of their new game, Shank! Once again I got to work with the amazing artwork of Jeff Agala, which let’s face it, is totally awesome!! As they have gone for a very stylised look with Shank, it was imperative that I designed the site in a way to perfectly reflect the rich atmosphere of the game. Pop over and take a look, there is some jaw dropping concept art on there all ready to get your mouths watering for the new game. I love games sites :) Can anyone tell?

Client: Yazsoft

Project: Yazsoft

Project specifics:

Site design
App Branding
Full site build
CMS integration

Awards won:

Client location: Canada

Link: http://yazsoft.com

Yazsoft

The brief:

Yazsoft are a dedicated team of Mac developers and create high quality Mac Apps for all kinds of uses, so it was a chance to create something that would feel slick enough to fit under the Mac umbrella, but also have a distinct look all of its own.

The solution:

This was a big project, as the site is pretty vast with many subsections, all of which needed that special design touch. On top of this their new app, Playback, needed its brand icon creating too, so it was great little creative task to create something that was crisp, slick and would stand out from all the other Mac icons when the user is browsing through their machine.

Client: Mac à Montréal

Project: Mac à Montréal

Project specifics:

Site design
Branding
Full multilingual site build
CMS integration

Awards won:

Client location: Canada

Link: http://macamontreal.com

Mac a Montreal

The brief:

This was a great opportunity to be involved with! Mac à Montréal are part of the official Apple Consultants network and thus needed a site that threw the user straight into Apple land! It had to be clean, slick and professional.

The solution:

This was a sizable project too, as it was not only a re-design, but, a re-brand and build...but not just a build, a multilingual build!! Once again, a big thanks to Adam for his hard work on the this, as the new Mac à Montréal website is presented in both French, English and is 100% CMS driven, superb! Thanks to Adam and everyone at Mac à Montréal for a fun project!!

Client: thatgamecompany

Project: thatgamecompany

Project specifics:

Site design
Full site build
CMS integration

Awards won:

Client location: USA

Link: http://thatgamecompany.com

thatgamecompany

The brief:

That Game Company, the makers of the award winning flOw and the highly anticipated Flower for the PS3 have just had the full make over. This was such an exciting one to work on as the brief was so different from the norm. That Game Company’s approach to games and gameplay is literally like no other, their games really do break the traditional mould of video games, which was rather exciting from a creative perspective as it meant that the site couldn’t look ordinary in any way and needed to reflect the calm, open and free feel of their games.

The solution:

Sticking close to their brand values was imperative as the people that follow their games have a close affinity to their thinking and ethos, so the site had to hold a mirror up to the essence of their games. Also a big thanks to Adam again on the build, top work Adam!! And if you havent ever played flOw or Flower, you need, to, they are just brilliant!! Awesome fun.

Client: Ciplex.com - Contract

Project: Von Dutch

Project specifics:

Site design
Flash design + Animation

Awards won:

Client location: USA

Link: http://vondutch.com

Von Dutch

The brief:

This was a cool one to work with as the brand is soooo funky. The overarching element that had to be maintained in this design was the feel of the old school USA flare, pin striping, motorcycles and amazing insignia. And on top of this, the driver was sales, to showcase the clothes in the best light possible and encourage people to buy!

The solution:

This was a cool one to work with as the brand is soooo funky. All that old school USA flare, pin striping, motorcycles and amazing insignia. I wanted to portray as much of this as possible in a really gritty, textured way to help pull out the key parts of the brand. Another fun part of this was the flash piece on the ‘Garage’ page, a nice opportunity to inject some movement into the page and introduce even more of the heritage. And to top off a fun project it also picked up a few awards and made it into a number of design features, nice!

Client: Flash Bang Studios

Project: BLURST

Project specifics:

Branding
Site design
Flyers
Business Cards
HTML Templates

Awards won:

Client location: USA

Link: http://blurst.com

BLURST

The brief:

Another awesome games job! The main reason Fully Illustrated was established was to allow me to work more with my favourite industry, the games industry. So every time another games job comes along I do a little jump for joy. The guys at BLURST personify passion and excitement, the WHOLE point of the site is that it’s a place for them to develop, launch and play experimental, fun and downright crazy games!

The solution:

How cool! So to be asked to create the brand, site, t-shirts and flyers was simply brilliant! The branding had to portray an explosion of fun and quirky playfulness, so it was immensely fun to work on. It was such fun to create this, anything that HAS to be fun is a damn great start point! I HIGHLY recommend playing through some of the games as they are bloody marvellous! My personal faves are Splume and Velociraptor Safari!! Go play!!!

Client: MAME - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

Project: MAME - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

Project specifics:

Homepage + Subpage design
HTML Homeapge + subpage template

Client location: USA

Link: http://mamedev.org

MAME – Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

The brief:

What more needs to be said...MAME, the one, the only, the original arcade machine emulator! This was a great challenge from a design perspective as it couldn’t be my usual full blown graphical explosion, it needed to be more toned down and streamlined as the site has an immensely functional role to play. The site is used by two pretty distinct groups of people, the developers (very important) and the players (equally as important) so a balance had to be found between appealing to the players/newcomers, and the developers that donate their time and efforts to the project.

The solution:

What this created was a site that has a strong visual impact on the homepage, then followed by a more reserved structure for the subpages, thus saying a big hello to the newcomers and then allowing the regulars to get to what they need to without too many graphics. Fun little job!

Client: Klei Entertainment

Project: Klei Entertainment

Project specifics:

Site design
Full site build
CMS integration

Awards won:

Client location: Canada

Link: http://kleientertainment.com

Klei Entertainment

The brief:

The brief was very clear from the outset, to showcase and promote the stunning work of Klei Entertainment! It was paramount that the killer artwork of Jeff Agala was shown to its fullest, as this is the key visual element that people know and love.

The solution:

Ooooh another dream client, Klei Entertainment! I was lucky enough to be contacted by Klei Entertainments Founder to see if I would be interested in re-designing their new site...I almost bit his arm off! I have been a big fan of Klei for a while, especially that of their artwork, pioneered by Jeff Agala , the director of Atomic Betty, so the chance to work with these guys was whole heartedly accepted!! The site had a very tight deadline and is testament to the teamwork of both Klei, Adam (my wonderfully talented developer and friend) and myself. I am also pleased to announce that the new site picked up a WDA too, awesome!!

Client: Black Jacket Studios

Project: Black Jacket Studios

Project specifics:

Site design
Branding
Full site build
CMS integration

Awards won:

Client location: USA

Link: http://blackjacketstudios.com

Black Jacket Studios

The brief:

The brief for this project was quite tough! As Black Jacket Studios are a pretty new company and needed not only the site, but also a new brand, it was a great challenge from the get go. I was provided with a great collection of inspiration that the guys wanted to influence their new brand and image, so with those in hand I set to work.

The solution:

I know that me sounding off saying ‘Oh my god, I loved this project’ is starting be a rather regular thing, so sorry to say it again, but this was a storming project to have been involved with! The guys at Black Jacket Studio’s are awesome, great fun to work with and boy do they have one HELLUVA game on the way! I was lucky enough to play an ‘in-development’ version of Metal Drift (a kind of kick ass mix between Unreal Tournament and Speedball) and can honestly say that it is brilliant! Anyway I’m getting carried away. So all I’ll say is that this was great to work on and involved the whole process, branding, design, site build and integration (Adam'd done a great job on the build here, great work!). Keep your eyes peeled for the launch of Metal Drift as it is aaaaaaaaawesome!

Client: Ciplex.com - Contract

Project: DJ Tendaji Lathan

Project specifics:

Site Design

Client location: USA

Link: http://djtendajilathan.com

DJ Tendaji Lathan

The brief:

DJ Tendaji is LA’s DJ to the stars, with one helluva client list including huge names such as Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Ludacris and Def Jam but to name a few. The brief for this one was fairly light in detail, with the simple request that the site was clean, slick and had a fresh design to match the nature of his mixes.

The solution:

This was an ace project to work on, it really was. This was my first DJ site, and what a joy! With his awesome mixes and killer client list, I was pretty clear in my direction. Crisp, clean and fresh. Nice.

Client: .NET Magazine

Project: .NET Magazine 182 Build Off Article

Project specifics:

Concept Design

Client location: UK

Link: http://netmag.co.uk

GEN – .NET Magazine

The brief:

This was great fun once again. It’s been a while since the last build off for .NET mag, so I was overjoyed to be presented with the chance of doing another one. This time it was for an energy provider.

The solution:

As this is a rather stale subject, I wanted to inject a little politics and passion into the equation, so rather than take the usual approach I created a fictitious company called GEN (Or Green Energy in full) toward the earthy folk of the world and show how a design could house some real personality and appeal to people on a level higher than simply ‘being the cheapest’. I already had a few emails from people regarding the article (thanks everyone...and no its not been to complain about my stupid photo ;) so it looks as though its struck a really positive chord, which is ace, just what I wanted. I always enjoy these projects for .NET Magazine!!

Client: Ciplex.com - Concept Contract

Project: The Palms Hotel

Project specifics:

Homepage Concept
Subpage Concepts
Interactive 3D Flash Feature

Client location: USA

The Palms Hotel

The brief:

Oh yeah, now this was great, a big glossy casino in Vegas, I mean come on, it doesn't get a whole lot cooler than that! This place is all about partying, glitz, Playboy Bunnies, money and bright lights.

The solution:

I wanted to make this as visually stimulating as possible, to try and convey the 24/7 party atmosphere of the casino. The top area was a 3D/flash piece, where as you selected a thumbnail from the right, the whole thing collapsed and revealed hundreds of images below whizzing past (further showing the none stop, all action nature of this casino and its buzzing night life) and then suddenly, the one you chose comes flying into focus and fills the space. Great fun!!!!

Client: Quantus Interactive - Contract

Project: Israel Idonije - Station 71

Project specifics:

Branding
Flash Site Design
Flash Animation

Client location: USA

Link: http://israelidonije.com

Israel Idonije – Station 71

The brief:

Man, this was one awesome project, the official site of Israel Idonije, The I-Train, the Chicago Bears defensive lineman. My motto, is to keep it varied, and boy was this a step away from the norm. I'm not the worlds biggest sportsman, but the idea of working on a site for a player from the NFL seemed so cool...and how right I was. As the brief went, well, you can imagine, Israel wanted something gritty, raw and that had impact!

The solution:

This was more than just the usual site design too, it was a branding exercise, as Israel needed a new brand for the site. Station 71. It was great to work on something so fresh, something that had no existing brand, or current style guide associated to it, allowing me to create something new, from a completely blank canvas. Israel wanted something gritty, raw and that had impact, this was the outcome.

Client: Ciplex.com - Concept Contract

Project: Ferrari

Project specifics:

Concept Design
Flash Animation

Client location: USA

Ferrari

The brief:

I think anyone can sum up what a brief for this baby would be...sexy! Bring the sexy, that's it, as lets face it, if you need to ask what this client would want, then you can pretty much pack up right there and then.

The solution:

What can I say here, this was a dream concept to work on!! Ferrari, Ferrari, really, what else can I say? It was immense fun to have such beautiful photos to work with and then to create a design that could make those cars do the talking. This concept was a slick hybrid, using a silky flash piece to navigate the new car range and good old HTML, CSS, to build in the rest of the site, keeping up the SEO requirement. This actual concept for was a Ferrari dealer in LA. Niiiiiiiiice.

FI-Faves...

Gratuitous Space Battles

Its all in the name, Gratuitous Space Battles! Awesome. I was invited to re-design the homepage of this UK based killer Indie game!

Hunter Bob – He…Hunts

I have a few illustration jobs brewing right now, but as they are all either in production, or not yet live, I thought I’d try some more personal stuff...Say hello to Hunter Bob.

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