Case Study: Nielsmaakt.nl
Minimalistic design with a clear focus on images
Pario built the website for cabinet-maker Nielsmaakt and also did the corporate photographty and logo-design.
Nielsmaakt already made photos of his previous projects but had Pario make photos of his .workshop and wooden washbasin. I also designed the logo for Nielsmaakt even though I normally don't do the logo-design myself.
Showcase
The client wanted a very simple lay-out. Since Nielsmaakt gets its clients through word of mouth he didn't care much for SEO but rather used his website as showcase of his work and his contact-data.
So instead of text the focus was on photo galleries. Pario also added a form to request a quote for the his xyl'eau washbasin.
Het logo: Minimalistich maar wel dynamisch
Logo
The logo is an abstract display of the initials NM of the company name (Nielsmaakt). The lines (which seem to resemble a heartbeat) provide the logo with a dynamic appearance. The minimalistic design also has to give a sense of style.
The design of the website is also minimalistic. The homepage consists of three blocks in the same colour as the logo. The blocks show white icons which represent the sections.
By clicking (or rollover) the block, it turns to show more info. That way the website keeps it's minimalistic design while still offering the information the visitor needs.
Het logo wordt enkel getoond op de homepage. De andere secties bevatten ook weer drie horizontale blokjes (verticaal op mobiel).
On the other pages you will see the same three blocks (without the logo-block). The challenge was to keep the information as compact as possible to fit the screen (no scrolling on desktop pc's).
Instead of a photo gallery we used a slider-carrousel to show the photos of the client's projects.
When a visitor clicks on a photo it opens up in a so called Light Box in which the entire photo is shown. The photos are pinnable on Pinterest.
The photos can contain captions to provide the visitor with extra information without changing the layout. Another way to safe space was the use of an accordion (a menu that collapses) which was used on the 'werkwijze'-page of the website. The same principle is used on the FAQ page on pario and the membership-section on the homepage.
In the slider all photos are cropped to fit a standard size. Once a visitor clicks on a photo it is shown fully in a Lightbox.
Photography
Pario made a fun photos on location to use on the website of Nielsmaakt. To keep in line with the minimalistic style of the website we turned the photos into black and white. We also used an exaggerated depth of field to focus the attention to the work.
