Amplitude is proud to be building an author website for science writer Kitty Ferguson, who has crafted a string of best-selling titles and given lectures all over the world.

A new website for our Los Angeles baby photography company which specializes in capturing journalistic-style images of kids from newborns to young children.

The site uses a unique side scrolling layout to set it apart somewhat from the usual website look.  While this is unconventional, the long wide format creates an intriguing experience for the visitor, like exploring a book of treasured family photos.

The palette is built from classic baby pastel blues and pinks, creating a gentle soft look.  The content is placed on a piece of thick paper, lifted slightly so the page has a 3D look.  The photos themselves, which will eventually be built into photo sets by subject, are lightly distressed along the edges to match the paper look.

In addition to the usual site optimization we perform, the site will also include a blog to help this site cut through the clutter fast in a highly competitive field in a highly competitive city.

Tahoe Swim Systems is an established provider of systems that convert boring, static pools into exercise powerhouses, either as new installations or as conversions from traditional pools.  Their patented Dynamic Flow system creates a powerful current that a swimmer can swim against continuously in any style, without the need to build a huge pool or to make any turns, and the physical impact or injury potential is practically nil. While we haven’t tried one yet, we’re told that hydrotherapy is exhausting and great exercise!

The site includes complete product information on their four major offerings, with plentiful pictures and explanation of how their systems work.  They’ve created some gorgeous installations around pools of all sizes, which are on display throughout the site.

Tahoe Swim Systems serves not only Los Angeles and Southern California, but the whole USA, via free shipping of equipment and long standing relationships with pool contractors around the country.

With only 16×16 pixels at our disposal, favicons are usually best made as very simple stylistic icons.  In this case, we broke the rules and used a version of the light bulb animation found in the header on the website.  It is small, but very distinctive and colorful as an icon all the same.

This is a communications company in San Diego that serves government leaders and agencies, corporations, and boards with strong strategic thinking and creative approaches to facilitation and planning.  The lightbulb, which always evokes a bright idea, really works for them, so it is good to see that branding continue in the browser bar.

A little favicon for Los Angeles honkytonk musician Grant Langston: his initials in big, bold letters with colors that complement his website.

Now visitors won’t see a blank sheet of paper next to his site’s name on the browser bar or down in the tabbed view.

The homeowners of the Palisades Condominium complex in Knoxville, TN needed a powerful, yet easy to maintain website that would allow relatively non-computer savvy homeowners to access important condo documents, stay abreast of ongoing news and issues, see a condo calendar of events, find contact information, and post their comments and pictures to the site.  It also needed to be economical in design/build cost and be user-editable to keep ongoing costs down.

We created this straightforward WordPress-based design that uses multiple content streams and editable pages to make maintenance a snap.  Visitors have access to a wide range of information, including archives of financial statements, board meeting minutes, news and issues, a calendar, and more, while the HOA officers have access to a robust (yet simplified) admin area to maintain and edit the site with a minimum of fuss.

HOA members can sign up for a mailing list that auto-emails them any new site content daily, including edits to existing posts, new comments, and other material.

The site features large type to cater to the older demographic for the site.

The site was an immediate hit, with a large percentage of homeowners signing up for updates and a flurry of comments and activity.  The site filled an information gap and brings everyone into the process of managing the condo, letting their voices be heard.

More ad banners in support of some important industry awards won by this prominent automotive search engine optimization technology company.  These are slated for heavy rotation on Automotive Industry News’s site and newsletter, which limits ads to a strict, tiny 20k limit, making these an exercice in creative jpeg compression.

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.

A video-heavy website built for Six14 Productions, a high quality Los Angeles production company that does everything from classy documentaries (Unconquered with Val Kilmer) to broadcast commercials (AM/PM, Comcast, Fedex, SpikeTV) to industrial films (GMC) to eye-popping music videos (Prom Kings, Breal, Bloodsugar). The company is helmed by the Sloggatt brothers, Justin and Bill, who take a personal approach to every film they make.

This site puts their work front and center, with a powerful, high quality video interface that automatically customizes its feed to the bandwidth of the viewer’s connection.  Handy tabs along the top allow viewers to select a channel of interest, and then side list navigation allows them to choose a film they’d like to see.  Full screen video is just a click away, where a media list of films is also seen so the viewer doesn’t have to click back and forth between full screen and small screen to browse.

In addition to contact and services descriptions, the site also has a full featured blog system that allows the company to put up news with images and video without needing any fancy programming.  A simple backend admin system (available securely over any browser) is always available so the blog can be updated anywhere they might be in the world.

The look is deliberately neutral in color to allow the video to truly pop out colorwise, with a top and bottom navigation bars that have the look of brushed aluminum and a slight 3d feel.  The company logo pops out of the top navigation like a camera lens pointed straight at the visitor.

On a side note, we are particularly proud of these little icons created to spice up their service description page.  Please endulge our designers by giving them a closer look:

If you are in the market for high quality, creative, and competitive cost video/film production services in Los Angeles, delivered with a family touch, look no further than Six14 Productions.

A straightforward portfolio site for Los Angeles hairstylist Scott Riffe, describing his background and showing off his work in a series of slideshows.

In talking with Scott, we kept coming back to his treasured scissors as a metaphor for the precision and training that is reflected in his results.  I had no idea that Japanese-made professional shears cost upwards of $1000 a pair!  We decided to use a shot of his shears on his opening page to set the tone of the site, which is otherwise quite neutral with a splash of blue to reflect the color of his shirt in his headshot.