(Disclaimer: this project was completed by my employer, liQuidprint)

For this project, I had the role of Art Director. (I did a little front-end, too, including a custom jQuery widget.) Cycling Closeouts is a Wisconsin-based bicycle and parts retailer. They'd been doing most of their business online listing products individually on eBay. They knew that in order to expand and run more efficiently, they needed a complete website with fulfillment capabilities to handle worldwide orders, as they noticed some of their eBay customers were ordering parts from as far away as Japan! They have a couple brick-and-mortar locations in Wisconsin and decided they wanted to expand their online presence.

Usually when working on a new project, I do a ton of research and come up with a single direction I think is appropriate for the client. Often, I'm required to pitch two ideas, but I always know which one is the winner. This project was an instance where I was a little uncertain which direction to go, and really had two unique ideas.

I was uncertain if appropriate message we should have was to be "Budget parts" or if it should be "Cool place to get all your parts." While Cycling Closeouts do sell complete bicycles, they do lots of volume on individual bike parts. Their main users were very bike savvy, but it was difficult to say how much they cared about the "hipness" of the web. The final design is the one featured at the top.