When we first started looking for someone to help redesign Colossal, we knew we needed a special partner. Our latest site, designed and built by the amazing Armin Vithad served us well for over seven years, but with numerous additions we had completely outgrown it. We had code tucked away in the gut that was over a decade old. It was practically carved from wood. So where should you look?
First, we knew that many hands would make light work, and a small team was the only solution. We wanted someone from Chicago, an agency that shared not only our brand ethos but also our vision of the world, a partner who would help carry our brand forward for the next decade.
After a long search we landed Firebellyand it was well worth the wait. Their motto: Good Design for Good Reason.
About ten months ago we joined forces and through workshops, surveys and research into our readership and goals, we laid the foundation for a meaningful partnership, a new identity and a brand new site on WordPress.
To say the feedback was positive would be an understatement. Although we expected the usual bug reports (thank you very much, they are still broken!) and constructive criticism (also cool!), we were impressed by the overwhelming response from each channel. When we shared this with the Firebelly team we realized there might be a bigger story for all you design nerds, so if you’re interested in how the new site came together, we’re sharing the first of a three-part series Over the next month, the curtain will be pulled back on the joyful collaborative rebranding and website transformation and the process behind the magazine you are reading today will be shared.
Discover Part 1: Laying the foundation on Firebelly.
Finally, a huge thank you to Will Miller, Dean Sweetnich, Susannah Ramshaw, Elaine Hancock, Makenzie Beyer, the rest of the Firebelly team, our developer Jordon Rupp, and illustrator Natalie Shilo for helping to make this website what it is today. We are so glad we undertook this project with you by our side.
