Greenlight Creative
Small Business Website Redesign
Visual Design, UX/UI Design
Greenlight Creative is a Portland based event lighting company that works with a broad audience. President and Creative Director Dwayne Thomas approached me in 2018 to redesign his Wordpress website, originally designed in 2008.
It was clunky by today’s standards and failed to showcase the amazing photography he had from the thousands of events Greenlight had worked over the years. The best way to display the photography became central to how we approached the redesign.
The Problem
Targeting clients big and small
Dwayne was juggling two distinct client bases: corporate clients looking to light large scale product launches or tradeshows and wedding clients seeking more intimate lighting experiences.
It was important that we show off their expertise for large corporate clients who already know the possibilities of event lighting without alienating the small wedding clients looking for inspiration for their big day.
With an extensive collection of images to share, we had to figure out how to make them accessible to a variety of clientele.
The Solution
Filters are everything
Dwayne envisioned a place on the site beyond the typical information pages where anyone could see a full spectrum of event lighting possibilities. There were three categories of images he wanted to feature:
Event images
Fixtures
Specific venues
We developed the concept of an Envision Center where users could filter images based on standard traits of various events. For example, users looking for ballroom weddings using blue lighting could narrow down their search with those traits.
Navigation & Icons
Helping users find the way
Each page uses a secondary navigation to move the user through the different areas of the site. The homepage lays out the various clients Greenlight serves and the nav makes it easy for the user to move between each client type. A similar system was used on the navigate the about page and envision page.
Because we were building a site with complex navigation, it became apparent a system of icons would need to be developed to guide users through the pages. Greenlight’s work is so niche, custom icons were essential to familiarizing users with the jargon of their industry.
Conclusion
Greenlight Creative’s website redesign focused around finding the best way to showcase their work while targeting several key audiences. Making the many images accessible to different demographics was crucial to the success of the site.
Visit the site to interact with the Envision Center
