Artefact Design
I co-founded Artefact Design back in 1995 with Chris Miller, who continues to operate the firm. The company site had gone through several interations, as we honed our skills as designers, programmers, and small business owners. This is the third (and final) iteration of the site I designed in 1999 before leaving Artefact to focus on my career at Simmons.
In this design, we wanted to engage site visitors with a slight air of mystery, without putting them off with an overly obtuse site that would seem less than practical. Our market, after all, were small business owners, who needed design and technology solutions that would benefit their bottom line.
The idea here, then, was to hit upon a couple of themes that would resonate with our target market, while showing off the quality and creativity we had on tap. We knew that, at that time in particular, the Web was pretty much a mystery to most of the clients we worked with, but that they knew they had to dive head in if their businesses were going to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the Web presented. Moreover, we felt that a principle component of our job was to educate our clients, and help bring clarity to their overall web strategy, which is reflected in a blur/sharp visual motif.
And, of course, we continued to hit upon the dual aspects of web design—art and science—that we brought to the table, and which was what really made us competitive with much larger firms. Our wide range of design and technical skills, as well as a clear and effective strategic definition process, were key elements of the firm's success, concepts interwoven throughout the site in both writing and design.
