Website Design : GamesPro Holiday Gift Guide
Client: GamePro/IDG Entertainment • 2006
First Draft: I was the designer for the GamePro 2006 Holiday Gift Guide. I wanted something that seemed to evoke warm holiday themes, while keeping the tech and game nature of the guide in mind. To start, I chose deep reds and golds with little pixelated snowflakes in the background. Later this would change to a sort of icy wintertime blue, but the pixelated snowflakes would remain. (Note: The T-Mobile ad in the right column was not of my creation, but was an example of the sponsorship's ads. I did, however, try to design how their sponsorship could integrate with our main header.
Originally the idea was that the gift guide would be a stand-alone microsite with a sponsor, and I had to make space for both GamePro branding and the potential sponsor. Ads from the microsite sponsor and holiday contests would take up the right side, while the main content would hug the left. This kept layouts consistent with what GamePro readers expect to see. You may see a larger version of this first iteration here.
As is usual with GamePro, one of their concerns in the design process was CSS and standards compliance. I had to keep in mind that this site would be created entirely without HTML tables and using only CSS. When I created this page, I kept in mind the limitations and abilities of web style sheets.
Final Version: Eventually HP came on board as the official sponsor of the Holiday Gift Guide, and several design changes were implemented. The cooler blue colours were chosen, as they seemed to evoke the winter in general, as opposed to a particular holiday. Furthermore, it was decided to bring the Gift Guide under the GamePro umbrella more officially and integrate it with the GamePro design at the time. This decision changed our header area, and bounded the content on the sides. It was my task to take my first design and come up with an implementation that would closer match the GamePro site. You may view the Holiday Guide here or visit the actual site here. The header and the contest ad were both created in Flash and Illustrator by me as well.
|| Main Gallery ||
|
