Blue Ridge Metals Corp.

Blue Ridge Metals approached me for a website redesign. They wanted to update the look and feel of their website. I communicated with their Marketing Director and Controller to obtain the brand logo, brand colors, determine their target audience and their “pain points” they were encountering on their current website. 

Blue Ridge Metals approached me for a website redesign. They wanted to update the look and feel of their website. I communicated with their Marketing Director and Controller to obtain the brand logo, brand colors, determine their target audience and the “pain points” they were encountering on their current website. 

Taking all that into account, I began the design process. For this particular project, I designed offline: rather than design on their website itself, I first designed a wire-frame in Adobe Photoshop. That way, a developer of Blue Ridge Metals’ choosing could implement the designs I created. As I began to design the home page, the layout began to take on a different look and feel than the wireframe. I took special care in creating hexagonal shapes that would house some of the images. These shapes were meant to emulate the tools and metal processes the company utilizes. 

I used design elements that would not only enhance the visual experience, but they would allow for some uniqueness to show through while staying on brand. This included using a subtle “metallic” background, graphics that suggested working with tools and metals, as well as graphics that would convey 21st century innovation. 

I incorporated contact forms throughout the site, as well as designed a comprehensive footer to display essential information, no matter the web page. 

Once the home page was complete, I began the about page. I proudly created a timeline using metal rods and shapes that would echo the company’s theme of working with wire and cold processing. I repeated the same design elements throughout the about page, as well as subsequent pages.

About halfway through the project, I had an opportunity to visit Blue Ridge Metals (they are in a different locale than where I reside). I was able to meet the marketing director in person and get a personal tour of Blue Ridge Metals. I brought my professional DSLR (Sony a57) camera with me and shot a number of images that I also thought would enhance the images I could put on the website designs.

Indeed, I incorporated some of those images onto the careers page, as well as the quality certifications pages. 

Once I completed all the designs for desktop in Adobe Photoshop, I switched to Adobe XD to create the mobile version of these pages. Using Adobe XD allowed me to link the different pages and make buttons active to facilitate easier testing and visualization between pages. 

I also completed a brand handbook for BRM in Illustrator.

At the end of the project, I completed 12 pages on desktop and 12 separate pages for mobile in Photoshop and XD respectively. I shared the design files via Zeplin that also contained some CSS information that would allow for easier coding for the developer of their choosing.

Tools used for this project:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe XD
• Zeplin
• Sony a57 DSLR