Wassel Design

You know on road trips, when the gas tank is getting low but you’re in a groove and want to keep on driving? You know you need to exit and fill up the gas tank but, for whatever reason, you take a chance, knowing the next stop is coming up. You risk it. You watch the needle sink lower and lower. First, a quarter of a tank, then an eighth of a tank, and finally your indicator is hovering just above “Empty.” Five miles pass, then 10. Your gas light comes on. 20 miles and still no sign of the next exit. Just as you start panicking, trying to figure out who you know living the closest to your present location, you see that green sign of hope. “Exit #20 - 1 mile.” You take a deep sign of relief, drive that mile and fill up.

That was the feeling I had with this site. I put up a version of Wassel Design back in November that was minimal, to say the least. It involved a simple contact form, a quick paragraph semi-describing what I do and five examples of past projects. There was no “meat” to the site. It was something that I knew would need to be revisited sometime down the road - I just had no idea it was 20 miles until the next exit. Client work came in and the site got pushed back. I knew that this site was losing gas. It was running on empty.

I made a conscious decision to get off at the next exit and filled ‘er up. What you see now is the result.

I’ve gone though 8 versions of this site since I bought the domain in 2002. Some were straight portfolio sites, one was my personal blog, and others were all Flash sites. To say it’s had an identity crisis is an understatement. At the turn of the new year, I made registered Wassel Design officially with the government. Wassel Design LLC was formed and it was at that point I knew I needed a site that would project the maturation that the company is going through. No longer was this about Addam. It was about Wassel Design LLC.

With all this in mind, I sat down to design a site that showcased the work I’ve done so far. After all, that is what makes design firms stand out. I gave the work a much larger viewable space and decided that the 960px grid was the way to go. Things just sort of fell into place after that decision was made.

One of my other main focuses while redesigning was the typography. I’ve felt that the majority of past designs didn’t place as large an emphasis on typography as they should. Seeing as I’ve had my typefaces featured internationally, this should be something that I pride myself on. Sadly, it wasn’t until recently that I’ve decided to “take back” web typography and place the focus on it.

In the new version of the site, I’ve also added this blog. I felt it was important to separate out my personal blog posts from design-related ones.

So that’s it, the tank is refilled. We’re going strong down the highway. Let’s see where this takes us, shall we?