you have read:
The Brief
Polly is a successful screenwriter who said this in a discovery call:
I want something that is extra minimalistic but speaks volumes about who I am and what I do.
For me, these are the magic words that I literally spend my life waiting to hear. And, full disclosure, when I do hear them they almost always mean something else. 😎
I ❤️ symbolism, and coming up with design ideas that are extra minimalistic but speak volumes. I love all my work, but this very specific space where I lose time and get giddy 🙂
You may be looking at this and thinking (quoting another client of mine) “Where is the design?”
Well, it may not be for everyone, but it is definitely for me & Polly.
Some stars have aligned somewhere to bring us together for this project and I loved every second of it. Thank you ✨
Brand & motion design
I began by doing some research on the screenwriting industry as a whole. The ideas and principles that drive the industry and the rules that apply to screenwriting.
A few fundamental rules came to the forefront:
- Show. Don’t tell.
- Monospaced typography
- Portrait page format for scripts
- No colour (with a few exceptions)
I explored as many monospaced fonts as possible to settle on a pairing that I felt was most modern and clean, and available for online use without hefty fees (we were working to a specific budget).
The animation of Polly’s name as if typed by someone with a cursor blinking expectantly at the end was my interpretation of the first rule: Show. Don’t tell. It clearly showed that Polly is a writer, the typography nodded to a specific type of writer – a screenwriter.
I wanted the visitor to be hypnotised by the blinking cursor for a little while, adding a delayed floating-up message to tap the screen to enter the website.
Website design desktop
The website requirement was simple: Provide examples of Polly’s work.
Staying in the screenwriting universe I have presented her works in a simple portrait format vertical scroll, as if scrolling through pages of a screenplay.
To add a little life to the monochrome simplicity I have added full-colour hover effects that open another “page” with information for desktop users.
Website design mobile
On mobile, we opted for a different approach to be able to include the full colour poster as well as additional information with as little “estate” as possible.
client feedback:
Lauren was a joy to work with.
She quickly grasped my requirements, took the initiative and looked around at comparable sites in my field, came up with a style that was almost perfect first time and iterated based on my feedback in record time.
The whole experience was seamless, fast and intuitive and I highly suspect that Lauren is technically capable of anything.
Totally recommend.