We specialize in attractive Web sites that are straight-forward in the delivery of their message. They're also easy for busy online visitors to use. Here's a sample of some recent creations, illustrating the diversity of our ideas. Click any graphic below to visit the site.
Cabell-Huntington Convention & Visitors Bureau. Here was a great site to work on, a revamping of the site meant to capture some of the excitement of Huntington, W.Va., and the entire Tri-State Area as a destination for recreation, conferences and conventions, vacations, entertainment and more. The challenge was to create a front page with a built facility for change. We answered that challenge with a system of "placards" that announce upcoming events in the city, local performances and activities as well as travelling shows at the civic arena, Marshall University and other venues.
MacKenzie-Dow. Huntington, W.Va., furniture maker MacKenzie-Dow LLC (formerly National Wood Products), home of the classic English Pub Line, wanted a site that would be viewed primarily by potential distributors and manufacturers. The site also needed to feature furniture of different styles and designs from other Appalachian craftsmen. Graphically, the site uses a variety of photographs and seeks very clean, simple lines to capture the elegance of these products.
Guyan Golf and Country Club. The site we've created for this beautiful facility has both public and member-only sections. In the public areas, we wanted to show the gorgeous landscape and buildings and provide contact information for reaching officials with the organization. In the larger private area of the site -- accessible only by user name and password -- is information useful to members, such as events schedules, bylaws and rules, fees and membership rosters. The site is designed to grow in a number of interesting directions as members suggest additions.
Angie's Cake & Candy Supplies. In business for more than 25 years, this Proctorville, Ohio, supplier asked us to bring them online with a full-fledged searchable catalog of products. It was an extensive database project that also required linking to the electronic shopping resources of PayPal. For a color scheme, we selected bright reds, offset by tall, angular typefaces for a friendly, businesslike look.
KissKits.com. The name stands for "Keep It Simple, Scrapper!" and it's an exciting new online business for scrapbook enthusiasts. Barty Ferguson has operated The Scrapbook Page in Huntington, W.Va., for a number of years and introduced hundreds of local folks to the joys of scrapbook-making. Through products, classes and answers to customers' questions, Barty has shared her expansive knowledge of the subject as well as her artistic vision. Now she's brought her scrapbooking expertise to the Internet with KissKits.com, a site devoted to unique, original kits for scrapbookers. Our job was to create a site that reflected the colorful, imaginative world of Barty Ferguson.
NuFace Laser & Medispa LLC. When Dr. Arvind Viradia, a well-established physician in Cross Lanes, W.Va., was preparing to launch his new facility for anti-aging and medispa treatments, he came to us to create a unique look on the Web. Our design decisions revolved around soothing colors -- greens and blues to symbolize "newness" -- and refreshing images. The result is a site that sets him apart from others entering this exciting new field of medicine.
Proposed Huntington Vintage Trolley. Sam St. Clair and the members of the Huntington Electric Trolley Association are proposing creating of a vintage trolley car system in downtown Huntington, W.Va., using this Web site to help spread the word. The site includings the HETA's entire feasibility study, complete with illustrations and charts. The study was presented to Huntington Mayor David Felinton.
Delegate Kevin Craig. This is a sample of our customized political sites. Kevin Craig, a Cabell County, W.Va., House of Delegates member running for re-election, hired us to create a sites that could initially serve as part of his campaigns, then be easily converted to general sites after the election. We are particularly happy with the clean, simple lines of this home page and the dramatic results of the reds and blues on the bright white background.
Appalachian Film Festival. We were thrilled when we were invited to re-design the site for this exciting new independent film festival based in Huntington, W.Va. Our our take on the festival's Web presence, we decided to harken back to those classic cinematic themes -- black background, negative images, film leader and test patterns and typewriter typefaces. The end resulting was pleasing mix of colors and Flash images built into a site intended to grow with the festival itself.
James E. Casto. Author/editor/speaker Jim Casto brought us on board to create a business site that represents his assorted freelance activities. From a design perspective, the site needed to be sophisticated without losing warmth. Bright colors for headlines and related graphics are used to off-set reds and browns of the main text and the basic black background. We also created an "I-man" blue stick figure as an editing mark on the front that is carried throughout the site for effect.
White Way Laundry & Dry Cleaning. This long-time Huntington, W.Va., business is new to the Web and needed a site that emphasized both its long tradition in the region and its forward-looking ideas. We decided that, instead on focusing on the mechanics of dry cleaning, as many similar sites do, we would concentrate on the end result: Fresh, fashionable clothing and attractive people who wear them. This gives us a site that has a the "with-it" look of a upscale fashion magazine.
Huntington Museum of Art. We were extremely honored to be asked by the wonderful museum of art in our hometown of Huntington, W.Va., to revamp its existing Web site. Our approach was to design a sophisticated, deceptively simple home page that could combine standing elements -- such as details on assorted art collections -- with news of new exhibits, events and other activities at the busy, important local institution. The introductory uses a lot of flashy Web tools, like image swapping and hidden layers of text, but does so very subtly so that the emphasis is always on the artwork and the text.
Third Annual Glenville State College Bluegrass Festival. This imaginative and energetic young music festival needed a Web site that reflected their own unique approach. We called on Flash technology for a front that emphasized the variety of entertainment they would offer on the Sept. 17-18, 2004, event, from "An Evening in Mayberry" with original members of The Dillards (who played the The Darlings on the 1960s Andy Griffith Show) to performances by bluegrass legends Jesse McReynolds and Melvin Goins.
An American Lawyer: Jim St. Clair. Huntington attorney James St. Clair works on the international front assisting lawyers in a number of developing countries. He worked in the post-war Bosnia in 2003, and 2004 found him in South Africa, working with the officials of the Black Lawyers Association. Online, Jim's site provides an overview of his work and, when specific projects are under way, schedules, backgrounders and actual course material for the international studies.
Huntington Symphony Orchestra. We were quite honored to be asked to give a new look to the Web site of this beloved Huntington institution. The orchestra has two distinctly different seasons -- the fall and winter classical season and the summertime "Pops" season -- and the new site needed to be designed in such a way to accommodate both. Also, the orchestra has traditional colors -- shades of purple -- that it has been long associated with, and so the design also needed to take these into account. And, in terms of functionality, the site needed to introduce online forms for ticket-ordering and other online communcations with the orchestra offices.
Delegate Jim Morgan Online. Representing Cabell County in the West Virginia House of Delegate, Jim Morgan asked us to convert the campaign site we did for him in 2002 into a general legislative site. For the new design, we started with Jim's signature colors -- three different shades of green, highlighted by white. These are the same colors identified with his long-standing Huntington business, Stadium Bookstore, and of course, with nearby Marshall University. We then created a demure, businesslike site that will grow with Jim as he continues legislative career.
Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Huntington, W.Va., wanted a site with sharp, clean lines and fresh colors. The design discussions with the officials there led to the creation of a site that is a model of simple elegance -- with just a touch of Flash. The site covers a wide variety of topics -- from the church's long history to its beautiful buildings and grounds and its legendary music program -- and also has plenty of growing room. The site also has section dedicated to on-going projects, events coverage and electronic distribution of the church's detailed newsletter.
Lavalette Nursery. The idea for this classy Huntington, W.Va., garden center was to create a Web site with an opening screen that looked like the cover to a garden magazine. We used original photos and PhotoShop to create distinctive headlines and titles. The plan is that the site will be regularly updated -- just like a magazine -- reflecting the changing seasons, the new challenges in the garden and the latest products available in the garden center itself. The site also will be a storehouse of planting and growing wisdom from local garden guru Mark Springer. The magazine cover concept is original with Design by Bowen, and while it was created specifically for Lavalette Nursery, we look forward to experimenting with variations on the theme with other clients in the near future.
The 1937 Flood. The first challenge in designing a site for this most eclectic string band was selecting a distinctive typeface for its name, which then would be used in its logo. We settled on Broadway because it adds a cool 1930s-look to the numbers in the group's unusual name. We also wanted to create the feeling of a press kit with the total online display. And it was important to the guys that the site capture the humor of the group, so the text is filled with jokes and light-hearted put-downs. We used a variation on the cover of the group's latest CD for the overall design of the front. We also linked audio and built in online purchasing options so fans can buy the albums through the Web.
Tri-State Eye Care of Huntington. Despite being a very high-tech local eye care center, Tri-State was slow to come to the Web. A challenge, then, was to help Doctors Chris and Bill Ratcliff catch up quickly. They also wanted a Web that's literally "easy on the eyes," with an effective use of colors, graphics and especially readable typefaces. To that end, we created special collages for each page in the site, used black on white for all the text displays and chose soothing borders to off-set the type.
Landers and Landers. CPAs John and Cassie Landers use their new Web site, not only to spread the word about their well-established Huntington, W.Va., accounting firm, but also to tell their customers, friends, family and other visitors about all the great financial tools and links they find on the Web. And they are expert financial Web surfers. From a design perspective, the challenge here was to create a Web that capture the warmth and friendliness of John and Cassie. We always wanted the site to illustrate the beauty of their office and closeness of their staff and family. It was an exercise in letting cheerful colors carry the day to create a simple, functional site that should stand up well to time.
Boyd County, Ky., Public Library. When we were invited in to revamp the site for this major Eastern Kentucky library, the challenge was to create a clean, simple display that loaded quickly and used the institution's existing graphics, especially its unique logo. Locally, the facility is known simply as "The Library," so the site plays on that by attaching an @ sign to make the online identity "@ The Library." The site features a cool, "hand-drawn" look, facilitated by distinctive line art and by a choice of a unique typeface for the options in the navigation bar. To keep the site fresh, we also built in a system of flash cards on the home page to highlight upcoming events.
Cabell County Public Library.This attractive, easy-to-use site is a happy marriage of consistency and freshness. To that end, we designed the site to have many standing elements, like the jumbo navigation bar and the attractive green green logo. We then built into the mix and plan for regularly changing backgrounds to give a splash of color on pages throughout the site. These backgrounds also reflect the changing seasons, such as colorful leaves in the autumn, budding dogwoods in the spring, pretty ornaments in the winter holiday season and so on. We also sought to capture on the computer screen the look and feel of a printed page, using typefaces that are favored by our brothers and sisters in the print world.
Huntington Realty Corp. Since 1934, Huntington Realty Corp. has been in the business of acquiring, developing, and leasing all types of real estate throughout the United States. The company's primary focus is in working with businesses, franchisees, land owners, and institutional investors to identify, acquire, and oversee all aspects of development, construction, and land or building management activity. James St. Clair and his son, Sam, apply their asset management skills to serving the needs of clients and shareholders.
Mama's Got a Brand New Bag. Kimberly Wilson has created a line of flirty, unique handbags designed with fun in mind, from The Tux Bag to The Boa Bag and The Pink Palm Bag. In designing the Web site that would debut this exciting line of products, we sought to capture Kim's own joy and enthusiasm and to reflect the fun and originality of her work. We went with a bold, continental look, emphasizing her great signature typeface with with a little flirtiness of our own in the form of Flash on the logo.
Coin Harvey House Restoration. Here's a site we created for those involved in saving and restoring the historic Huntington, W.Va., home of 19th century writer/economist William Hope "Coin" Harvey. Residence at 1305 3rd Avenue is one of Huntington's loveliest houses. The cement stucco home is designed along classical lines with Italianate details. The house was placed on The National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The site has pictures of the house, details of the project and what visitors can do to help in the effort.
Escape to Jupiter (Florida, That is!). Dave and Yvonne Ball, owners/operators of Bon Appetit catering, wanted a site to advertise for renters for their Jupiter, Fla., retirement home (when they're not using it themselves, of course!) This site enables them to use the Web to provides pictures of the house, details of the region and entertainment opportunities afforded by the Atlantic seacoast community. The site also, of course, offers prospective renters an easy option for contacting them.
Collis P. Huntington. Huntington, W.Va., writer Jim Casto regularly costumes himself in the 19th Century apparel of railroad tycoon Collis P. Huntington for historical presentations to schools, civic group, trian enthusiasts and visitors to the city. For his effort, Jim asked us to create a Web site that illustrated his presentations. We decided for a design to create a site that looked like the jacket of a book, with Jim, in costume, on the cover. The site is a companion to Jim's other site, jimcasto.com.
Great Escapes Travel.Headquartered in Florida, this brand new travel agency was established by some of the leading, most experienced travel planners in the Sunshine State. We were honored to be invited in on the ground floor of this exciting new operation, to design the company's look in cyberspace. The project called for a sophisticated use of Flash and other leading edge technologies, but also to capture the warmth and charm of the people who are behind this major new company. Great Escapes will be with us for a long time!
The Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet. As the name implies, this Charleston, W.Va., organization is a fun and imaginative vocal group that turns heads every time it performs. A three-person "quartet" (hence the "missing person" part of the name), Soup Kitchen is an a capella folk group with a wide range of material -- religious, secular, serious and silly. For the revamping of the group's Web site, we went with bright colors and a "handmade" look to reflect the members' own interests in the arts and artists. The site is built to grow with the group as word of Soup Kitchen spreads!
Ellison Associates. Writer/researcher/editor Carol Ellison invited us in to create the Web site for her New Jersey-based Ellison Associates organization. A veteran journalist with long-time ties with computer and business publications, Carol is using the Web to explain to prospective clients the variety services her organization offers. From a design prospective, our challenge was to create a site that reflected the high-tech nature of Ellison's work while also emphasizing the ever-present connection to basic, old-fashioned communications skills and fundamental writing and editing.
Bon Appetit! catering. When Dave and Yvonne Ball launched their new catering business, one of their first stops was Design by Bowen, where they requested a unique look for their brand new Web site. Since catering is perhaps the ultimate HAND-icraft, we decided to give their site the look and feel of a simple, elegant drawing, complete with a canvas-like background texture on the front page. We then went with simple, bright colors that would compliment, rather than distract from the message. And the site was designed to grow with the business. We're pleased with the tasty results.
Jazzou Jones began playing piano at age 5 and has played professionally since he was 13. In addition to extensive classical music training, he was greatly influenced by the ragtime piano style played by his grandparents. Since 1978, Jazzou has thrilled many a river traveler performing aboard steamboats and riverboats cruising America's great inland waterways. To design this site, we sought to capture some of the fun and adventure of Jazzou's playing, while creating a visibly exciting package built on strongly contrasting colors -- black, white, and reds. The site is intended to help sell his CDs and sheet music and to promote his upcoming performances and other activities. The site also is a companion to his High Water Music site.
Phyllis Dale Travel. Phyllis Dale is known to untold thousands of worldwide steamboaters as the sweetheart of the legendary Delta Queen, the last of the red-hot mamas. For almost a decade, Phyllis was the songbird of the Texas Lounge, singing and playing piano on all of America's inland waterways, from Louisville to Pittsburgh, from New Orleans to Minnesota and all the ports in between. A few years ago, Phyllis began a new chapter of her life as one of the nation's premiere travel agents, working from offices in Winter Springs, Florida. Today she personally leads legions of friends and admirers on tours from Africa to Russia, from Canada to New Zealand. And yet, she has never forsaken her river roots. In fact, during the Delta Queen Steamboat Co's "late unpleasantness," it was Phyllis who was first to rise and form the important "Save Our Queens" committee of volunteers to help rescue the grand old riverboats from bankruptcy. We are pleased and honored to have been asked by Phyllis to create her new Web site and to strive to capture if only a little of the boundless energy of this remarkable lady.
City of Huntington Foundation. For almost 20 years, this non-profit foundation has worked at the beautification of Huntington, W.Va., tackling such monumental projects as the renovation of the historic city auditorium, the remodelling of the near-century-old City Hall and the creation of the city's popular Wall of Fame. It also has become home for the city's own theater group, the 5th Avenue Theatre Company. Our goal was to create a Web site that reflected the taste, style and grace with which the foundation has taken on all its projects.
High Water Music. Based in Carmel, Maine, High Water Music is the home of pianist/composer Thomas Jones, better known to hundreds of thousands of fans who have ridden the riverboats of the Delta Queen Streamboat Co. as Jazzou Jones. Jazzou/Thomas is cruise director of the legendary Delta Queen and has been the beloved steamboat's resident ragtimer for decades. We have also designed the Jazzou.com site to promote his ragtime persona. But there's much more to Mister Jones than just ragtime. His latest recording -- "Of the Heart" -- is planned as the beginning of a series of inspirational instrumental CDs and cassette, mixing unique renderings of traditional selections with original compositions. We were invited to create this Web site that shares the news and works and to help promote and market the recordings.
Advantage Valley Ultimate Dining Guide. This valuable publication covers restaurants and specialty shops throughout south-central West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio, especially in the heavily populated metro area known as "the Advantage Valley." We were asked to give the magazine's online extension a bright new look. In our design, we decided to create the look and feel of magazine, complete with flashy cover and a table of contents. We used lots of randomized graphics of food and dining both on the cover and with the inside pages to convey to users that this is a frequently changing site and they ought to plan to return often.
Fret 'n Fiddle. Invited to give a new look to the Web site of this internationally known music store headquartered in St. Albans, W.Va., we created a look that combines the messages of class and a love for fine craftsmanship. The site's front page uses a collection of collages, randomly chooses a different ne each time the home page is visited. Inside the site, the page structure intentionally echoes the design we created earlier for Joe Dobbs, the business's founder, since Joe's site is now linked from the Fret 'n Fiddle site.
Fiddletunes.com. This is the premiereonline distribution spot for a wonderful collection of new and vintage recordings by Appalachian musicians. Working with David O'Dell of Logan County, W.Va., we are creating a site that will celebrate the performers and their CDs. From a design perspective, the challenge has been to counter stereotypical images often associated with "mountain music." We photographed Appalachian instruments in classy garden settings, for instance, and created unique painting-like illustrations to accompany the biographies of the artists.
The Phantom Phiddler. West Virginia fiddle great Buddy Griffin invited us in for this wonderful charity project to help the children. The Phantom Phiddler is an old-time radio adventure series starring Spencer Weston, renowned concert violinist and wealthy, respected instrument collector, who regularly morphs into the two-fisted guardian of artistic justice and with his flaming bow becomes The Phantom Phiddler! Our site, patterned after the old superhero comic books, offers the backstory on the series and the characters, along with audio and ordering for CDs and related services.
Joe Dobbs On the Net. Legendary Appalachian fiddler/radio personality Joe Dobbs wanted a site that would be easy on the eyes and equally easy to navigate. We settled on a simple introductory page using an attractive semi-cirle of rollover icons in the lower screen. The icons can be clicked to reach major parts of the site, including On Radio, On Stage, On Disc and Online. Inside pages accommodate lots of text and pictures in a nicely packaged space so that the user doesn't feel overwhelmed by the volumn of data. The site also is built to be easily expanded and it is structured to fit within the existing Web site created for Joe's music store, Fret 'n' Fiddle of St. Albans, WV.
Where Would Jesus Live? Here's is the online home of a unique West Virginia-based promotion. Even before John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" told the rest of the world, West Virginians already knew that their home was almost heaven. (In fact, most would have been quibbled with the "almost" part.) So, the question arises, where WOULD Jesus live other than in the heavenly hills and hollows of West Virginia? And now comes W.W.J.L. to let you join the ranks of the convinced, the confirmed and the committed West Virginians, natives, adopted and wannabe's. The site has opened to sell assorted products bearing W.W.J.L.'s logo and slogan.
Heart 2 Heart Stories. Bex Hall is a writer with a mission. She is using her new Web site to reach out to stepmothers, stepfathers and stepchildren to tell their stories. Bex has plans for a series of books that will share the real stories of real people. Our challenge in designing her site was first to come up with an attractive logo that could not only be a nice connecting element on all the Web pages, but also could be used in the future on book jackets, business cards, even tee-shirts. The result was the "hand-drawn" heart seen at the left. The painting motif is then carried on throughout the site.
