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Re:Design Winners: Websites
Our trio of judges selected the best redesigns from hundreds of deserving entries. Here are the revamped sites that won recognition from our panel. 
December 2007
Blumenthal Law Office
The jury is in: A simple, elegant design & organic palette wins over clients.

Take One Digital Media
Account manager/project manager: Liz Thibodeau
Designer/programmer: Devin Lyttle
Photographer: Eric Grupp
Client: Blumenthal Law Office
Contact: www.take-one.net

The Blumenthal Law Office website needed not only a redesign, but a new interface for e-mail and back-end office functions. According to Take One Digital Media’s account manager Liz Thibodeau, “The client was interested in a completely different approach to the law office site. The group had researched other sites and felt like most ‘lawyer’ sites looked the same: gavels, courthouse steps, etc.”

Working with Paul Blumenthal and the entire law office team was a wonderful experience for Take One. “They were easy to collaborate with, quick with approvals and always seemed to know exactly what they were looking for and could express it,” explains Thibodeau. “Having had the opportunity to meet with the client prior to conceptualizing the look and feel of the site allowed us to establish a much clearer perception of Paul’s personality: professional, accomplished, creative and eccentric.

“Due to Paul’s artistic background and passion for the outdoors, he requested a color palette that implemented various hues found in nature: taupe, green and black,” Thibodeau says. It was important to Blumenthal to have a site that was aesthetically different than that of any competitors. To address this concern, Take One avoided typical imagery and selected a combination of typefaces that were unique, yet elegant: Delicious (navigation/headers), Georgia (HTML headers) and Tahoma (body copy). Custom photography—shot by Take One’s still photographer—adds to the overall appeal of the site.

Take One felt the “best way to [reach potential customers] would be to introduce them to the partners by putting the partners’ images on the home page with their credentials, listing each of their biographies and even using their signatures—which lends itself to a more personable experience for the user,” says Thibodeau.

Behind the scenes, Take One used Photoshop and Dreamweaver for the design of the site. The budget for the project only allowed for basic programming languages such as HTML, CSS and Javascript, but Thibodeau says it wasn’t necessary to have anything more advanced: “I think the final outcome gives the firm an established and sophisticated presence on the web.”


1. Original
The Blumenthal Law Office requested their involvement with Law Tigers—a group representing motorcyclists—be carried over from the original site.

2. Redesign
Paul Blumenthal, also an avid artist, wanted an organic feel to the color palette—as well as custom photography that truly represents who the firm is.

Thoughts
The warmer palette, inviting photos and fresh copy—as well as an improved layout—mark a large improvement over the original site design.

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