Working under a tight deadline while striving for unanimous acceptance from a room full of discerning visual artists and designers is no easy task. The new design is a radical departure from the previous, which was introduced in the fall of 2006 along with a shift to the Drupal content management system.

Our goal for the redesign was to reflect the caliber of talent at Emily Carr University by drawing focus to the work of students and faculty. The new site succeeds in this by providing a subtle framework that brings content to the foreground.

The scope of the Grad Show Redesign did not extend to the site’s information structure or navigation system, and as such, were not addressed during this stage. We believe the Grad Show 2009 iteration of the site is the first step towards a new strategy of expressing the work and dialogue that fuels the Emily Carr community. Congratulations, Emily Carr University.

We’d like to thank the Emily Carr University web committee for their hard work and understanding. We really enjoyed working the the team on this project.

Check out the redesigned Emily Carr site »

To say that the Obakki brand is minimalist would virtually be an understatement, and this made the design phase of this project somewhat challenging. Throughout the design phase we constantly fought to simplify the interface and strip out much of the visual clutter which is so common amongst e-commerce sites. In the end LiFT was able to achieve simplicity both visually and technically, spending much of our time looking for simple technical and visual solutions to create a clean, elegant e-commerce site. The neutral color scheme and large product visuals keep the focus on the clothing and helps eliminate visual clutter. Ultimately the design and technical treatments of the site help to streamline the site and make for a simple and efficient browsing experience.

Technically our team was challenged from the outset by our choice to use Magento, the new kid on the block when it comes to e-commerce. The first few days were frustrating, as is any first encounter with a new technology, but after pushing through the initial phase of development, the technical side of development went smoothly. Beyond the first week of cursing, we found that Magento was a robust and easy to use solution to virtually all e-commerce requirements. In the end we discovered that Magento is a top-notch e-commerce solution, and we have since begun moving forward with new e-commerce sites using the same technology (Thanks Varien!).

What makes the site something special is it’s direct connection to the inventory tracking and management software already in place at Obakki. One of LiFT’s primary focuses on this project was creating a solution which a) tracks inventory in a granular fashion (ie. for each size and color option of a product) and b) requires very little administrative time to manage and create product catalogs. Lift Accomplished this by creating a direct tunnel between the two applications and we were able to produce a system which automatically feeds and tracks inventory from both the e-commerce and brick and mortar Obakki Stores.

Overall the project has been extremely successful, we were able to build on our knowledge of e-commerce solutions, while providing our client with a top-notch e-commerce solution. A huge thanks goes out to all who were involved in this project, Steve at Hole in the Wall, for his database expertise. Weston at netSIGN for hooking us up with a blazing fast web host. Most importantly though we need to thank Lisa at Obakki, without her vision and leadership the project would not have gone far.

Visit Obakki’s online store »

Check out BookRiff »

Since 2002 Haig has been working with Thomas Anselmi on MIRROR – a truly multimedia experience with no set home in images or sound. Instead it is a combination of the visual and the aural, images set to music and music set to images. A non-linear exercise in collaboration, Haig has been a composer and arranger, helping Tom shape his songs and find instrumentation.

The result transcends the linearity of a traditional album. Haig’s early experiments with fullscreen video and integration with WordPress marries the web, instrumentation, visuals and lyrics in harmony without overwhelming the landscape or creating clutter. Lyrics ticker tape across the bottom of the screen, accompanied by the generated audio and video, and not a pixel of space or layer of meaning is lost or under utilized. MIRROR is slick, polished and no experience is like any previous.

Every experience of MIRROR is unique, as the site automatically generates a new playlist of video and audio. Built on WordPress, MIRROR is a predecessor of LiFT 2.0, using ecommerce functionality to sell the album online, which has lead to success in terms of sales. This is also LiFT’s first time working with Amazon’s s3 as a storage solution, and the successes of MIRROR can be seen developed further here on LiFT 2.0.

Check out Mirror »

We created a design strategy that communicates the feeling of the “printed word.” This developed into a simple yet elegant typographic treatment that perfectly expresses the beauty of print media.

An important feature is that the site can grow organically in ways that change with the client’s needs. This new framework allows the site to expand and still present the recent and most relevant content to its visitors.

Check out CCSP »

Check out Derik Giner’s site »

Check out the Caroline + Gislason »

Visit VitaminDaily »

A quote on the top of Vince’s resume was one of the design inspirations

“I was born in the late sixties in Kettering England and moved to Canada in the mid seventies. When I heard Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars I was sold…it was going to be a life of music for me.”

After reading it I uploaded a Bowie album to the Adobe Kuler website and pulled the colour pallet from there.

We were also inspired by the simplicity of muxtape.

The site was a real team effort, Jodi and Haig worked on the aesthetics and Cameron and Myke worked on the coding. The end result is a site that is simple and clear in its intention yet elegant and a pleasure to use. Thanks Vince for asking us to help you with your website. Say hello to Morrisey for us.

Check out Vincent Jones »

The new RespectED site will be aimed at the youth market and will feature lively dynamic polls and quizzes, aimed at building a new youth community around this immensely successful program. LiFT recognized early on that in Canada the youth market is one that is especially tech-savvy and also very discerning with their online activities. As such, we have made every effort to keep the design away from the slick, contrived look and feel that many “youth” sites offer these days. Overall it looks like the initial design phase has been successful and we look forward to continuing our dialog with the Red Cross design team.

Checkout RespectED

Today we’re happy to be launching a site for Ruth and David, two East Vancouver realtors who approached us to redesign their website. The intention was to have the site present Ruth and David as friendly, approachable professionals. This same brand is what has gained them a great reputation and the number one spot in the East Van Realty market over the past 10 years. We expressed their personable attitude visually on their new site by using a quirky illustration of the typical East Vancouver residential neighbourhood and a warmer colour palette. The Ruth and David’s redesign was also intended to starkly contrast all the competitor realtor’s very formal and unrefined template websites.

Cam was the lead on the design and did a great job of visually balancing a professional attitude with a playful and friendly illustration style. He also built some nice light little flash modules (all AS 3.0 — but if you know Cam you probably already knew that) that subtly enhance the usability of the site.

The site was developed using Wordpress — one of our favourite CMS systems to design on. There are multiple conditional statements to bring in various different functionality around the site and the use of custom fields to hook up with some Flash widgets for the realty listings. We are really happy with our work on the site and feel it achieves it’s goals in a unique way.

Check out the live site at ruthanddavid.com and why not buy a house while you’re at it …