CFW came to us while still enjoying rapid growth within their traditional business model, but had a website that was never fully functional, consisted of content that was almost 3 years out of date and lacked the professional image to match their firms reputation with notable clientele. Much of the value that can be leveraged from a quality website was not realized due to an incomplete implementation and lack of continuous improvement as the company grew. Sunshift's challenge was to provide a perfect balance between technical function and attention to quality design. We set out to exceed not only CFW's expectations, but maximize the positive impression of professionalism and quality service for all visitors to the new website. It needed to be a valuable tool for current and potential customers to become familiar with, at their own leisure, the breadth of services offered by CFW, make the appropriate contacts for a particular geographic region, and reference the technical information provided for convenience.

We started the redesign with a new sleek and powerful corporate logo that addressed CFW's goal to better associate themselves with the sports industry and fans who provide their readership. More inspired by sports apparel than by the flashiness of sports media, we chose a clean and bold, while non-distracting color palette of dark blue, gray and white. Professional and collegiate sports logos, as well as sample pages from CFW publications would provide enough attention grabbing color and was complimented by a simple yet rich background ramping vertically from white through a full range of blues. An interactive U.S. map on the homepage showcases the depth of advertising opportunities available by listing team publications in each state as the pointer moves over them. More customized interactive content internal to the site progressively provides more detailed information and appropriate contact methods according to the visitors own interests. A completely customized portfolio viewer provides the visitor with valuable insight on CFW publications.

SJ Vacations (formally Sam and Jacks) is a partnership formed for investment into premium vacation properties to be rented directly by the owners. SJ held a number of unique properties with numerous amenities located in highly demanded vacation areas, but their current website did not reflect the quality of these locations. It also did little to inform potential customers about the properties and their availability throughout the year. Once the website was launched, it also needed traffic to be generated to it consisting of customers that may be looking for a condo or home to rent that SJ Vacations may be able to provide. This would be especially challenging because SJ vacation properties ranged from premium log cabins surrounded by picturesque mountains to luxury oceanfront condos.

Starting with a clean slate, the new brand "SJ Vacations" incorporated the previous name (Sam & Jacks) but for easy identification of the type of business by searching Internet users it was simplified and vacation was appended to the end. A new logo was designed with the vacation industry in mind, elegant and devoted to leisure. The new logo became a center piece of the site's top navigation banner, which caps a large image rich in color featuring two empty beach chairs crested with the SJ logo. This has proved to be a very inviting to visitors who are immediately tempted to experience the pristine beach and sun soaked ocean in person, exactly what Sunshift had in mind. A sub menu summarizes the properties available, and after a selection is made, a detailed profile of the property highlights key information such as amenities, links to attractions in the area, maps, weather. Central to each properties profile is a filmstrip style summary of images available which enlarge in a showcase viewer when chosen. The theme of the entire site changes from beach to mountain for the premium cabin properties. The visitor can link through to a full year availability calendar and then to a sales inquiry form if interested or would like to learn more.

As most recording artist realize over years of persistence, reaching fans is hard work. Traditionally this was done through one value added entity after another (i.e. managers, record labels, production houses, publishers, distributors, radio stations, promoters, and on and on...). Just as technology has made it possible for more talented musicians to create professional quality recordings on their own, the Internet has made it possible for artists to reach fans directly. The problem that arises is that recording artists usually prefer, rightfully so, to concentrate on the music and capitalizing on the promotional power of the Internet takes time. After all, once leaving the studio they must then turn their attention to building websites that handle online transactions of intellectual property, fan mailing lists, event calendars, professional looking design for merchandise, web and album art and promotional materials. A daunting task to say the least, but one that Sunshift has intimate knowledge of and was happy to partner with Single Systems to accomplish.

Single System's music is heavily electronic, dynamic and futuristic. It induces fantastic story boards in the imagination of the listener. Sunshift's design concepts were born from intent listening of the client's music and an appropriate ultra modern concept was the result. Along with a scalable website to accommodate their growth, a customized Myspace page provided another connection to their fans through social networking. Sunshift also provided assistance with visual effect compositions to be used for promotional material, web and album art. This part of the project consisted of a photo shoot against a green screen that produced close to 500 photos. These unique photographs were used by Sunshift graphic artists to convincingly place the duo in surreal and sensational environments. Sunshift's interest in the arts made this partnership a perfect fit.