Much to the delight of our entire team, we were hired to complete the functional build of the new, English language site for the Adventures of Tintin – the informational and commercial arm of Moulinsart’s international family of sites devoted to the intrepid detective stories.

The website design was provided for us by the artists at Euro RSCG San Francisco (one of the world’s most highly respected and active design, web development and marketing firms), and we were tasked with creating an elegant, functional representation of their design vision with a few specific moving parts and a minor API connection to their Amazon store component. Unlike most of our websites, this has been one of the few site build-only projects that we’ve managed here at ZDCA. It was fantastic to work with such a professional firm and receive top-notch designs with unparalleled project management.

Euro RSCG found ZDCA via Zack’s remarkable network and engaged us via a message to us in LinkedIn (thanks social networking!). We were elated to be a viable vendor for a project such as this and are deeply humbled by how well it’s been received internationally.

The Tintin Website Build

Getting to work within the world of Tintin was particularly thrilling for us as we all grew up reading Tintin. Though it had been something like 15 years for some of us since picking up one of the iconic volumes, the giddy school kids in all of us came to life at the prospect of adding our talent to this endeavor.

“The Adventures of Tintin series was created in 1929 by a Belgian artist who called himself Hergé. Clever and ever-curious, Tintin is a reporter-turned-detective whose pursuit of villains, criminals, treasure and the occasional artifact takes him all over the world, along with a colorful cast of friends. Hergé based his stories on real-world events and cultures that had caught the Belgian national attention — from space exploration to Arab oil wars — and brought them to life for his readers in inspiring and exciting ways.”

Highlights of the site

Upon receiving the initial project scope, we decided to use WordPress as the platform in order to meet the per-page requirements with a mature back end already in place. WordPress has become such a robust platform and allows for framework flexibility and ease of upkeep via the remarkably user-friendly admin interface.

Maximizing our build output and minimizing application bloating was our philosophy and thusly we started with a spartan theme that included the base level functionality and built the skin around it adding only the components that we required to make the design come to life. In many cases, we hand built components rather than add new plug-ins to the application in order to control both security and optimization.

Using the now-standard CMS flavored independent menu model, WordPress gives developers the freedom to handle sections and pages independent of a typical blog-style automatic menu distribution paradigm. We constructed reusable page templates for the main sections and built in custom shortcodes and widgets to help build the add-on components and navigation elements requested while minimizing redundancy.

Here are some cool highlights of the build:

• Home page carousel of the complete Adventures of Tintin including modern, seamless graphic transitions to achieve a circular motion feel and zoom-level state change appearance upon user input;
• Adventure page moving carousel with page indicator;
• Extensive backwards compatibility adjustments to balance the requested effects available with HTML5/CSS3 in modern browsers and usability without aesthetic compromise in legacy browsers on older operating systems;
• Functionality on iOS systems (iPad, iPhone);
• API hooks to the Amazon store experience

Awesome team

Our impressive Creative Associates team for this project exceeded not only our own internal expectations, but received a host of accolades in the form of delightful praise and commendations from our client, Euro RSCG. We’re privileged to be a part of this project and are fans of Tintin and Hergé (and all forms of art in general).

The film, directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson, was released to critical acclaim in Europe in October and is scheduled for release in the US at the end of December. We’re crazy excited to be a part of it and hope that the success of the film opens up the world of Tintin to a broader audience of all ages.

ZDCA strategized a marketing approach that included a new book cover design, logo, and matching website for a complete package.

Like most restaurants, the menu changes often. The owners needed a simple CMS (Content Management System) website for easy and frequent access to content without the time and expense in hiring help each time.

Additionally, Jade Turgel was contracted for fine food photography and easy publishing of high resolution gallery images was integrated to best display the amazing dishes Goji Kitchen produces.

To accommodate, ZDCA designed a distinct logo to capture his style and work. The site design is visually striking yet simple to highlight the dramatic color and motion effects of Johnathan’s remarkable work.

Additionally, Johnathan as a working and traveling artist needs a site attuned to his limited schedule. A simple performance calendar is included that easily walks him through the info required to post upcoming shows. Flickr and Vimeo players are integrated so he can easily upload graphic assets from his phone or computer on the road while engaging a social network audience more easily.

Finally, Johnathan required a complete artist’s EPK for easy browsing and assets download. A custom-designed PDF in a matching style is included along with a complete site page offering full text amd individual assets downloads for promoters and journalists.

]]> http://www.zackdarling.com/2011/10/johnathan-singer-website-launch/feed/ 0 http://www.zackdarling.com/2011/10/double-d-bass-generation-logo-website-launch/ http://www.zackdarling.com/2011/10/double-d-bass-generation-logo-website-launch/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:30:07 +0000 Zack http://www.zackdarling.com/?p=2648 double D Productions was ready to step up their game and create a professional website to promote their popular events.

ZDCA designed a custom logo and skinned an events-optimized theme to capture both the look and feel of the double D style and keep content entry as simple as possible.

In addition to simplified events entry, the system manages large-scale image galleries and video archives with ease. Most importantly, ticket sales are handled quickly through the service they’ve been using so little changes for them and their established past workflow.

Of course, social network integration is essential for events promoters and their many social destinations are easily accessible from any page on a left side sliding tab that hides until the viewer needs it.

This adds up to one all-important feature: keeping the DJs and promoters doing what they do best which is staying on the dance floor meeting the people they love to connect and party with.

]]> http://www.zackdarling.com/2011/10/double-d-bass-generation-logo-website-launch/feed/ 0 http://www.zackdarling.com/2011/10/sea-of-dreams-2012-prophesea-poster-flyer/ http://www.zackdarling.com/2011/10/sea-of-dreams-2012-prophesea-poster-flyer/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:00:48 +0000 Zack http://www.zackdarling.com/?p=2743 San Francisco event producers AnonEvents, Sunset Promotions and An-Ten-Nae came to ZDCA for original design of the renowned Sea of Dreams event poster and flyer. Titled “Prophesea” for 2012, Zack Darling’s established aesthetic of refined collage and dynamic layered effects, combined with a grounding in Burning Man, alt Cirque and cabaret graphic styles, is a perfect fit for the Mayan Calendar imagery and prophesy theme.

ZDCA is honored to be included among a group of highly respected artists from past years’ designs, including Andrew Gonzales, Andrew Jones and The Firm.

Of special note is that the imagery shows the ocean goddess above water for the first time in the event’s history. The concept of the mermaid goddess leaping above the surface and toward the sacred Mayan symbols in the heavens is a perfect opportunity for merging a variety of styles and layered imagery that ZDCA is known for in the alternative performance and events community.

Zack Darling also the Sea Of Dreams promotions in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2010. You find previous Sea Of Dreams designs in our gallery.

You can view (or even buy prints) the 2012 background artwork on ZDCA’s Deviant Art profile by clicking here.

Keep your eyes peeled for their new website which we’re feverishly working on here at the ZDCA offices – it’s going to be a good one!

With two booming locations, it was time to re-vamp their online presence. Time to bring on ZDCA for a complete makeover of the site! Although a beer tavern may seem like a light-weight project, Hopmonk is a huge cultural force in Sonoma County, featuring:

• One website for two distinct locations
• Daily and nightly live music with internationally known performers in multiple stages at each location
• Rapid ticket sales
• Large events for hundreds of guests
• Spacious and unique indoor / outdoor facilities
• Extensive beer, wine, and spirits menu
• Excellent food and desserts beyond mere “pub fare”
• Fine catering

The list goes on! To accommodate, a large-scale website was built with much graphic and interactive customization that included collapsible navigation menus for both locations, multiple galleries in two dramatic formats, performer information feeds directly from the ticketing service to display on the website so the client does not enter info twice, food and drink menus that can be updated easily without resorting to PDFs, and so much more.

We look forward to a custom iPhone app integration and a shopping cart for T-shirts, band posters and more.

The talented illustrator Max May worked closely with Jade to bright color and vision to her lovely children’s poetry. The collaboration of these two brilliant minds resulted in a team with a wide array of influences by highly creative people. Once the artwork was brought to ZDCA, we already had a beautiful story underway.

ZDCA worked on digital imagery and color adjustment with all the illustrations. They were scanned, touched-up, re-painted in PhotoShop and had various graphical elements integrated with the pen-and-ink artwork. Once completed, we layed-out the book in InDesign and pre-pressed it for perfect-binding hard copy publishing and production.

The result is a unique book that stands above many in crowded market, depicting large, full page color, hand-drawn pages with urban and fantasy references for young and older children alike. Look for it in your local children’s book store in the “awesome” section.

WaccoBB directors came to ZDCA with a forum theme update project to bring the popular site into today’s design sensibility and functionality.

The project scope was broad at three complete and unique theme designs including custom logos, interface graphics, icons, global color schemes and more, all to be easily selectable by users on this massive forum website.

We also worked closely with the client to take their long-standing rising sun logo and re-develop the brand with a new iconic image. We successfully brought their visual look to a new level, yet still spoke to their audience with the same familiar voice of the previous design.

Additionally, informal user testing was conducted to better determine a final result that both accommodated the technical needs of the forum and the aesthetic needs of the long-term users who are passionate and outspoken about their WaccoBB experience.

After completion of the Wacco theme designs, we implemented the same look & feel to their digest email templates as well as their new Business Directory (currently still in development).

We really enjoyed the opportunity to work with such a powerful tool for the North Bay community.