Creative services for the design-challenged developer
Earlier today 4 of the sites that I’ve been working on for the past 5 months went live. Right now I’m extremely excited to finally be able to unveil what I’ve been working on, and extremely tired because I’ve been working on them way too much.
Here they are…
I’m in the process of finalizing an article for Digital-Web.com that will detail the design process behind the ExpressionEngine home page (check for it after SXSW), and once I gather some strength, I’ll add some more details here as well.
Time to start packing for SXSW! Woo hoo!
Hello, my name is…
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, a stay at home designer from Grimsby ON, Canada. To get in touch use the contact form.
The Globe and Mail are looking for a web designer… looks like it could be an interesting gig. View the post at Authentic Jobs
Lovely work from 10am.
Terminal method to disable shadows in os x screen window captures.
Thanks for the interview Geof! Man I need haircut.
A New Day for Jason Santa Maria. Very very nice redesign rethinking.
Help Wanted
Recent openings posted at Authentic Jobs.
Idologic Hosting
I've been with Idologic since January 2006, and can vouch for their amazing support and reliablity.
ExpressionEngine
A feature-rich content management system that allows PHP illiterate folks like myself to create dynamic sites.
Basecamp Project Management
Basecamp is the smarter, easier, more elegant way to collaborate on your internal and client projects.
Derek Nelson
March 08, 2007
The sites are beautiful. Killer job!
Min Tran
March 08, 2007
Great work as always, Jesse ! I love them.
Aaron Kuzemchak
March 08, 2007
The sites are absolutely gorgeous! The
pMachineEllisLab team deserves the best, and they really got it! Great job!Reese
March 08, 2007
Jesse, I went over there today and was blown away. I wasn’t surprised at all to read it’s your work. What a huge improvement and great brand repositioning for them. It’s friendly, fresh, VERY well organized and makes me drool. I’m sure it took forever, but wow—it looks worth it! I look forward to reading the digital-web article.
Nathan Sawyer
March 08, 2007
Well done!
I would be very proud if I were you.
R. Bhavesh
March 08, 2007
Great Work Jesse!
The first time i laid my eyes on.. i had the feeling its your work. I came here to check and it really is :). I would love to read/see how – process of this project.
Congrats man. I envy you!
Brian Sweeting
March 08, 2007
Excellent work! Now they just need to turn you loose on the ExpressionEngine control panel.
Geof Harries
March 09, 2007
I second the comment about the EE control panel. It needs some major 31Three redesign action. Heck, even just a new colour scheme; there’s so few options and the purple gets a little tired after a while.
Stefan
March 09, 2007
Very impressive! You rock – and EllisLab, too :)
andrew pendrick
March 09, 2007
Congratulations on such an impressive set of sites – cohesive branding with an host of beautiful details. I especially love the EE site’s content overview tabs.
Looking forward to the article.
Manuela
March 09, 2007
Congratulations! Very impressive work, abolutely beautiful.
Will Bolton
March 09, 2007
Yeah, I’m with Brian and Geof – looking forward to seeing what you can do with the control panel (not just visually, it needs some serious recoding of the html).
Congratulations on a great job.
isaac
March 09, 2007
Good job!
I like the redesign for the logo of expression engine! the last logo was a little ugly!!
The new logo for code igniter is very cool…
And all the sites are very beautiful.
Congratulations!
Adam
March 09, 2007
As Mr Ellis said: “I consider Jesse to be among the premiere designers in the world; hes an incredible talent. We are very pleased with his work.” – Most definitely !! – really enjoy and admire your work Jesse or should I say Sir! .. look forward to the design process and future projects :)
matthew Smith
March 09, 2007
I’ve posted some examples of your work in my User Interface Set. Nice job!
Bence
March 09, 2007
Hey Jesse, some very impressive work on the sites, congrats!
The only thing I feel a bit “outdated” is the use of the extended pixel font in the “Part of…” element. I would have gone with the already used 11px Arial to add a bit more consistence, BUT that’s all. :)
Really excellent!
jon
March 09, 2007
Congratulations. I particularly liked the way you’ve breathed new life into the EE site. The design really draws attention to just how great EE and its templating capabilities really are.
Rob
March 09, 2007
I’ll just be another one of the Jesse fan boys… Great job bro. Your work is truly an inspiration.
Kenny Saunders
March 09, 2007
Congrats on the all the hard work. It must have been tough to keep all these great designs underwrap.
Michael
March 09, 2007
I’ll also jump on the fanwagon—great job all around. I’m just getting into using EE on some projects, and I have you to thank for leading me to it. I’m looking forward to the write-ups, but for know I’ll just sit back and stew with envy.
Ivan Brezak Brkan
March 09, 2007
I was like a kid in a candy store while browsing through these redesignes – or at least that’s what my GF told me. :) Great job Jesse!
Geert De Deckere
March 09, 2007
CodeIgniter really deserved a new look. Way to go, Jesse!
Richard B
March 09, 2007
Amazing work for an amazing company. EE rocks and is the CMS of choice these days. Long may they continue in like this. The site was an awesome surprise this morning! Great work Jesse (big sigh – as always… damn you for being so damn good at this stuff) :)
Joelle
March 09, 2007
Really an incredible job, Jesse. :)
Joel
March 09, 2007
Wow. That is rather good work.
I must say you are one of my main influences in web design.
That is really sappy, I know, but true.
Thanks for explaining your design process and posting tips.
Jermayn Parker
March 09, 2007
I am very impressed with the ExpressionEngine website. I love the colours, tab feature and layout.
Probably the only problem with them is that they look similar in layout, tabs etc. It would have been good to see totally different designs to show the diversity, as we all know your VERY talented. BUT apart from that well done…
Geof Harries
March 10, 2007
Jermayn – I feel exactly the opposite about the tabs and layout. If EllisLab’s goal is to build brand consistency and awareness, then a common design is the only way to go. Jesse’s done a bang-up job in this regard.
Jermayn Parker
March 10, 2007
@Geof – Each to their own I guess. The reason why I said what I did is because I personally would not want every website to be similar, if I was a client I would want my own identity and not share it with someone else.
Geof Harries
March 10, 2007
But why not, when they’re all thesame company? Heck, each of the four websites is even run through a single EE install.
Jesse C.
March 10, 2007
I always knew you were good, but you’ve hit these ones out of the park. Every time I look at your process posts I learn something—I’m very much looking forward to the article!
Congrats.
Volkher Hofmann
March 10, 2007
I’ve been with pMachine et.al. pretty much from the beginning. This redesign – which is absolutely stunning – will really put them on the map.
Great, great job.
P.S.: You must be damn tired. Great attention to detail … I’ve been looking under the hood for about two hours now. Reads like a beauty.
Paul Petrunia
March 10, 2007
Excellent work Jesse! And kudos to the Ellis Labs team for respecting good design and continuing to develop amazing web tools.
Sadhana
March 10, 2007
Absolutely fantastic!
Jermayn Parker
March 10, 2007
@Geof – Ok they are the same company but why design them so they look like different companies??
Daniel
March 11, 2007
Really impressive sites! Great use of colors and beautiful as always. Congratulations…
Nevin Lyne
March 11, 2007
Jesse is an AMAZING designer! Love all of the work he did across the sites (though I of course love my site more than the others ;) But I still have work for Jesse on the web hosting control panel side of things thats for sure :) Have the give the guy a bit of rest though first!
Iain
March 12, 2007
Fantastic work Jesse. Looking at your work keeps me inspired – even when work feels mundane, keep it up.
Adam Wiggall
March 12, 2007
Well done Jesse!
Great work, beautiful communication of the concept. It makes EE look much more the way it should.
I am sure designers everywhere are taking a good look at their work right now and wondering how guys like you are ever going to be caught?
Thanks.
Adam
paul jarvis
March 12, 2007
wow, is that ever some tight UI design. everything thought out, everything done to perfection. way to go!
T. payton
March 12, 2007
Jesse,
Fantastic job on the EE sites. Made my day to see such good work.
“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.”
Erwin Heiser
March 12, 2007
Impressive work, it adds a whole other level of professionality to EE and associate sites. Looking forward to that article, Jesse!
Waylon
March 12, 2007
Marvelous work. What is/are the font(s) used in the graphics?
Phil Coffman
March 13, 2007
Beautiful work Jesse. Design consistency is obviously key for any one site and to see it across 4 is just impressive. The design compells me to want to use their product, so great job!
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain
March 13, 2007
Thanks for all the kind feedback guys… much apppreciated! My main hope is that these websites help bring EE a little more into the spotlight and that it starts to get the attention that it deserves.
Volkher Hofmann
March 13, 2007
Jesse,
have you had a stiff drink to celebrate yet? ;)
It really is a superb job!
Jason Brown
March 14, 2007
Jesse, that’s some FANTASTIC work… just recently found out about you and started checking out some of your previous portfolio stuff. But these… wow, really sharp. Logos, layout, graphics, it’s killer. Way to go!
Birgit
March 14, 2007
Congratulations, especially on the EE redesign, really love it!
chd
March 15, 2007
very nice – where do you get those icons or how do you make them?
Petra
March 18, 2007
Fantastic work, I really love it! Great attention to detail and colors. Nice icons and headers. Congrats!
Neil Turner
March 20, 2007
Yeah – fantastic job. All 4 designs are beautiful. I’m very jealous!!
Andrew Ingram
March 20, 2007
Wow, very impressive redesign. I loved your article on the process involved too.
Alex Griffioen
March 22, 2007
I absolutely love the (long awaited) redesign of EllisLabs’ platforms. Excellent job Jesse!
Just curious; who did the illustrations? Was that Paige Pooler by any chance?
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain
March 22, 2007
Hey Alex,
It wasn’t Paige’s work (although I do love her stuff), I actually found bits and pieces of it on istock. I believe that process will be part of the next Digital-Web article.
Stu Collett
March 23, 2007
Loving your work Jesse,
Really inspirational design. Do you happen to have any articles on how you approached this mammouth task?
Well done again, fine sir!
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain
March 23, 2007
Hey Stu… check the recently posted Digital-Web article.
Rob
March 23, 2007
Awesome, awesome stuff, Jesse. I was going to ask about the icons until I read the Digital-Web article you linked to above.
Man, what a supremely usable and great-looking site you’ve created here. And I have to say, the Digital-Web article is incredibly informative. It’s a generous thing indeed when designers lay out the process in such detail.
Thank you for that, and congrats on some really beautiful work.
Richard
March 27, 2007
The sites look great, good job.
One thing I noticed while navigating the Code Igniter User Guide, when going between with the User Guide pages there is a strange flash before the page loads.
Viking KARWUR
March 29, 2007
You’re kewl guys!
Paolo
April 23, 2007
Great site design! But how you integrate the switch panel in EE? Is the home page out of the EE mark up?
Jay
May 02, 2007
You spelled Expression, ‘Expesssion’
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain
May 03, 2007
Thanks Jay… sometimes I like to get creative will spelling too.
Backstage Passes
May 15, 2007
Great Job! I’ve got you bookmarked!