Designer: Michael Ulrich

StudioAlex shoots photos for DG magazine and for our sister publication STEP inside design. But Alex is probably best known as one of the nation’s leading photographers of firearms.

Covers and feature work for magazines such as Shooting Times and Shotgun News, and for manufacturers like Smith & Wesson and Taurus, keep Alex’s images accessible to hunters and sport shooters everywhere. But there’s a related market she has yet to crack: Although to the uninitiated it may sound strange, private gun collectors pay big money to have professional—one can even say “glamour”—photos taken of the treasured pieces in their collections.

To capture that lucrative market, StudioAlex needs a strong web presence with up-to-date programming and intuitive navigation. And the photographer’s current site, which she’s been building piece by piece for the past two years, just isn’t captivating the well-heeled collectors she’s looking to attract.

Describing what she’d like to see in her website, Alex says, “I want the overall design to go hand in hand with the style and technique of the photographic images that are being showcased.” DG creative director Michael Ulrich, who took on the redesign, agrees that her portfolio should get star billing: “Photographer’s websites are all about the photography,” he says, adding that while typography may be of secondary importance, he still wanted the type to be “beautiful and supportive.”

Ulrich’s makeover relies on classic typography to set off large, single images of beautifully styled and lighted firearms. That’s a big change from the existing home page, which combines six images in a free-forall that competes for site visitors’ attention.

Also competing for attention, in Ulrich’s estimation, is the original StudioAlex logo. He advises a more restrained approach. “It’s very modern and doesn’t fit with the classic treatment I had in mind,” he says. “Besides, I have to wonder how essential a logo is when the imagery is so elegant.”