A tidy portfolio website for television/film art designer Curtis A. Schnell, who has had a long career creating visual eye candy ranging from nuclear blast sites to crashed aircraft to revolving alien restaurants.  No set is too huge or too elaborate for him to take on, even if it means building an entire baseball stadium in the middle of nowhere in less than a month (including growing all the grass for the field).

The site gives easy access to galleries of photos and information on some of Curtis’ more notable projects, so we had an opportunity to try out several new javascript slideshow approaches which include upgraded cross fading, variable opacity, custom controls, easing effects that allow for a gentle “bouncing” effect on moving slideshows, and more.

The site opens with a vertically tiled slideshow highlighting some of his more interesting projects, and any tile that is clicked on takes the visitor straight to a gallery for that film.  Each project has a description of awards won, subject matter, design notes and more, with tons of pictures in handy slideshows.  A full credits and contact page are also provided.

Curtis has made a specialty of design in a deco style, including sets that paid homage to Frank Lloyd Wright, so we took two colors and built out a design that has a classy, somewhat deco look with reddish browns and mustardy yellows, like a comfortable old leather chair.

In true Schnell tradition, this site was built from initial conception to rollout in only three days to allow its launch before an important studio meeting.  It required some herculean efforts and lost sleep on the part of our programmers, but the results were worth it.