An online presence is an absolute necessity nowadays.  Whether you sell something or make something, a website is how everyone finds out about you.  Below are a few recent examples of work Brad Aldridge Productions has done for the web, from small one-person shops to large organizations.

KALX 90.7fm Radio, Berkeley, CA

KALX is a free-form radio station in Berkeley, CA.  While it’s operated by University of California it’s pretty much run by hundreds of volunteers.  Noted for their extensive music collection (+80,000 pieces of music) and their knowledgeable DJs the station’s website was somewhat a holdover from the late 1990s; the site had been hand-coded by volunteers since then.  We were approached to update the site, figure out a way to add new, unique content to increase online viewership, but also ensure the back-end was an easy to use interface.

The station team wanted the site to appear fresh, have easy ways to update listeners, and have a design more appealing to the modern-music-lover.  We gave KALX a Drupal-based site loaded with features custom designed for them:  Tabs to switch between who’s on air now and who’s on air the rest of the day, immediate access to Top 10s of music monthly and weekly.  We also designed a feature box that could highlight station news, guests, or show information.  We also worked with KALXs playlist manager (RadioActivity) to develop out a unique “show” page for each DJ or program.  You can click on the DJs name to get his or her profile and see everything that DJ has played….ever.

Buy Local Berkeley

This local organization in Berkeley encourages citizens to actively shop at locally owned and operated businesses.  For the design we chose a mix of hand-lettered navigation with a range of photos showing the “local side” of Berkeley.  The simple layout reflects the very simple goals of the Buy Local program and enables visitors to quickly and easily find information about a huge number of local businesses, all in one place.

Downtown Berkeley Association

The Downtown Berkeley Association is a local business improvement organization dedicated to promoting Berkeley’s Downtown district.  They came to us looking to take their website, which was designed in the early 2000s, into the modern age.  We worked out a very flexible design that allowed for many types of content and, since the DBA was undergoing a shift in organizational direction at the time, plenty of changes for the future.  Our favorite feature is the main page (at right), which features large, scrolling images of Berkeley’s downtown area.

A Girl and Your Dog

A San Francisco-based dog care and dog walking service, A Girl and Your Dog, needed a home in which current and prospective clients could learn and play.  We used the company’s existing identity to shape a website that told their story in three simple buttons: about the company, what they offer, and a blog (the ‘dogalog’).  The pages are packed with their product––the dogs they walk––and the site uses WordPress as a way for staff to quickly edit content and add photos, even from their mobile phones.

Nate Tabak, Journalist

Nate Tabak is a journalist based in the California Bay Area.  As he was preparing for an extended trip to Kosovo, he asked us to design a new splash page for his existing WordPress blog.  We wanted to offer a type of “portal” to Nate’s readers, so we put together a feed-page that collected all of his photos, blog posts, and tweets.  We combined the design of this portal page with a redesign of Tabak’s personal identity accoutrements: his business cards and stationery.  The name Tabak translates to “tobacco,” and Nate wanted to incorporate this into his design.  We constructed and photographed a fake pack of Tabak cigarettes to anchor his home page and make his work stand out with a little whimsy.

Genii, The Conjurors’ Magazine

We’ve been working with Genii since 2001, when we first redesigned their site, and this is the third version we’ve produced since then. Begun in 1937, Genii is now the magic industry’s largest magazine, and the site functions as a hub and funnel for their print edition.  In our 2007 update, we added a robust forum and a wiki dedicated to magic tricks and history.  Genii’s audience is diverse, so the site uses bold, large graphics to present new content and products.  The magazine’s editor, Richard Kaufman, also promotes his book company through Genii, and we assisted in a simple design for that, as well.