The making of the Navsegda.com website
Project manager: we’ve got a request from a potential customer. He needs templates for a matchmaking website. It’s meant only for the real thing, you know, for pure relationship be it soul mating or friendship. No dirty, low-grade stuff. Think mini Switzerland where it’s clean and things are kept in order.
Project manager: please give me some guidelines for when to expect your matchmaking service concept.
Art director: the main idea is that this is the place to find serious long-term relationships. It’s all based on nurturing and building true connections, rather than finding a “disposable” one-night partner. As a result, it’ll take you a good half an hour to set up a profile. Then it’s submitted for approval. Access is granted in 24 hours. You start looking around, getting involved in some conversations. One of the special features of the project is users being able to ask or answer any posted question with all the answers shown on the author’s profile, much like Google Answers or “I’m feeling lucky.” No one gives a f*** anymore are you or aren't you a churchgoer. But what they do give a f*** about is what would you do in this or that situation. It’s important we find a good psychologist to help with the basic questionnaire.
Designer:
Art director: nope.
Designer: to stand apart from other matchmaking sites let’s portray our mini Switzerland with its quietness, cleanliness, and order by the use of fancy birds, vignettes, and such.
Customer: it looks more like a ballet of some sort. Our ideals and standards are just as high, but let’s somewhat ground the aesthetics.
Designer: in this case, a beautiful romantic pattern of beautiful romantic images is what we need.
Customer (hotly): the last one!
Designer: and let it change color by the touch of a... cursor.
Technologist: not a problem.
Designer: Christmas and New Year designs.
The romantic pattern really makes the whole site shine, including the navigation portion of it. Notice how nicely it gets cropped as you resize a window.
Drawing a favicon.
Designer:
Roma Voronezhsky: spherical horses in vacuum are not going to be even considered.
Designer: what horses? In what vacuum?
Roma Voronezhsky: a spherical steed in a vacuum appears when designer places a favicon against white background. What you should do instead is take a browser screenshot and create favicon using it as its natural environment.
Dreaming up the “How it all works” page.
First sketch.
The final sketch.
