www.blueyonder.co.uk re-launch

The brief required a visual reworking of the existing blueyonder.co.uk website whilst maintaining the current logo and basic branding set. There would be structural changes and to this end, a series of wireframes were to be produced and agreed upon in the first instance.

It was felt that the existing website (pictured above) lacked a central focus and this was to be addressed with a larger, central rotating flash 'banner' featuring the main articles for the day.

Based on the agreed wireframes, the new site featured a search bar and alotted space for a standard sized 468 x 60 pixel banner advertisement below the main article. Their positioning would maximise advertising revenue.

The tabular top level navigation was to be continued, but the graphical buttons and rollovers of the previous site were to be replaced with an unordered list with graphical backgrounds. In general, where possible, titles and the like were now to be reproduced in HTML / CSS rather than graphical format. This would not only reduce page weights but also save editorial time.

Whilst page weights were an issue, the team felt that the new website still needed to retain some of the non-corporate, subversive characteristics of previous versions. For example, we retained 'bluey' a superhero-type character developed by Pulp Fiction.

New interfaces for the suite of blueyonder applications and microsites such as the Multiplayer Gaming Channel were also created.

Illustration & Iconography

Previous versions of the site had used illustrations to highlight the webservices and we produced new sets as such. Both 160 x 120 pixel versions and 50 x 50 pixel versions were drafted. Rendered in 3ds Max a reflection was composited into the frame for added spatial awareness.