brownbear, Author at Brown Bear Creative

High View Modulars Logo and Website Redesign

Role: Graphic Designer / Web Designer / Web Developer

In 2007, Brown Bear Creative designed and developed a site for High View Modulars, a southeastern CT modular home builder. The design and colors were based on their logo at the time which featured a set of mountains in a forest green and white palette.

High View Modulars wanted to modernize their brand, redo the logo, and update the site colors accordingly. To achieve this goal, Brown Bear designed a fresh logo concept that updated the mountain imagery, incorporated architectural detail, and brightened the color scheme.

Brown Bear then integrated the new logo into the site and changed the colors to reflect the new palette. In addition, Brown Bear upgraded the set of three static images on the homepage to a sleek Javascript slideshow. The photos rotate through a loop independently of each other, creating a pleasing, dynamic effect.

Professional Endodontics Website Design

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Professional Endodontics, LLC, a dental practice dedicated to root canal treatment, wanted to revamp their site and showcase photos of their staff and offices in New London and Westerly.

Brown Bear Creative designed a bright, clean layout with a blue and yellow color scheme. New and existing patients can easily navigate through the site to learn about the practice and the field of endodontics, as well as download forms before their appointments.

A sleek, fast-loading, and search engine-friendly slideshow on the homepage highlights professional photos taken of the staff and facilities. Because the slideshow uses Javascript instead of Flash, it is compatible with mobile devices (including iPads and iPhones) as well as all modern browsers.

Launch Professional Endodontics Website »

Protecting Your Wealth Law Logo Design

Role: Graphic Designer

Protecting Your Wealth Law, PC, a law firm based in Newton, MA, approached Brown Bear Creative for a fresh logo design. Because the firm had evolved recently to encompass more than just wealth law, they wanted to rebrand themselves using their initials, PYWL.

For their new look, the firm wished to incorporate a recognizable symbol to help distinguish their brand. They decided on a penguin, as it would represent qualities important to the firm such as strength, solidarity, and family. Brown Bear designed a sleek, contemporary logo featuring an emperor penguin in a red, grey, and white color palette.

Law Offices of Joshua F. Pompilus, P.C. Website Design

Role: Web Designer / Front-End Web Developer

Brown Bear Creative was approached by Boston Online Marketing to redesign the website of their client, the Law Offices of Joshua F. Pompilus, P.C.

The client’s wishlist included a bright, clean layout with more of a “social media” feel. To accomplish this look, Brown Bear created a contemporary design with bold blues, greens, and yellows.

Brown Bear also developed the templates for the site, including the sleek dropdown menus in the navigation.

Boston Online Marketing incorporated the templates into their content management system, which allows the client to update the content of the website themselves.

Launch the Law Offices of Joshua F. Pompilus P.C. website »

The Law Office of Peter Goselin Logo and Website

Role: Graphic Designer / Web Designer / Web Developer

When Peter Goselin, a Hartford-based attorney specializing in employment law, decided to start a solo practice, he contacted Brown Bear Creative for a logo and website. He wanted his identity materials to reflect the values and nature of his practice: professional, yet down-to-earth.

Brown Bear developed a simple, yet elegant logo, and a clean, straight-forward website to match. Drawing upon the focus of Attorney Goselin’s law practice – defending civil rights and helping workers collect unpaid wages – a historical photo of Connecticut railroad workers captures visitors’ attention on the homepage. His four main areas of employment law practice, his contact information, and his biography are also highlighted, quickly leading visitors to the information they need.

Launch the Law Office of Peter Goselin website »

Oncology & Hematology Associates Print Materials

Role: Graphic Designer

Brown Bear Creative designed a cohesive series of print materials that allows Oncology & Hematology Associates of New London to better serve their patients. Based around a soothing color palette and Oncology & Hematology’s logo (also designed by Brown Bear), all the print materials reflect the comforting, yet professional atmosphere of the medical office.

The materials include an informational brochure given by primary care physicians to patients in need of specialist care, a patient survey, appointment cards (with the providers’ information on the front), letterheads, and envelopes.

Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Awards: 2012 Connecticut Library Association Publicity Award for Electronic Media/Website

The Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library offers a multitude of services including books/e-books, movies, periodicals, museum passes, genealogy/local history materials, passport renewals, community programs, and more.

The staff needed a website that would display all the services in an easily accessible manner. Brown Bear Creative designed a site that streamlines the user’s experience with intuitive navigation menus and a clean, consistent layout. The homepage calls attention to recent news and upcoming events, along with a search form to the library’s entire catalog.

Because the site is backed by the powerful WordPress platform, all the librarians can easily update their own department pages without using any special web-editing software. The Children’s, Teens’, and Adults’ sections also feature their own blogs to share news about department-specific programs and events.

The website was recognized by the Connecticut Library Association (CLA) in their 2012 Publicity Awards contest, winning the website category. See the results here.

Launch Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Website »

Northeastern Connecticut Transit District Logo & Website

Role: Graphic Designer / Web Designer / Web Developer

The Northeastern Connecticut Transit District (NECTD) offers bus services to the northeastern CT towns of Brooklyn, Killingly, Putnam, Thompson, Eastford, Plainfield, Pomfret, Woodstock, and Union. They approached Brown Bear Creative to rebrand their organization and to produce a website that would house pertinent information about their services.

To reflect NECTD’s diverse service area comprising of both quiet countryside and bustling town centers, Brown Bear incorporated both farm and downtown imagery into a cohesive logo.

Like the logo, the website follows suit with a clean, straightforward look. Visitors to the site can easily access the information they need, including bus route maps, schedules, fares, and other details about riding the bus. Using the latest coding practices, Brown Bear ensured that the website is fast-to-load, search-engine-friendly, and accessible.

Launch Northeastern Connecticut Transit District Website »

Blue Hills Regional Technical School Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Blue Hills Regional Technical School, a vocational high school located in Canton, MA, was in need of a website that not only highlighted the wide range of shop programs they had to offer but one that showcased student and faculty pride.

Brown Bear Creative designed and developed a WordPress-powered website that captures prospective students’ interest while providing a comprehensive resource for current students, parents, and staff. Staying true to the Blue Hills Warrior colors, Brown Bear used a strong blue and green palette in the design. The site incorporates vivid photos and graphics to help reflect the wonderful sense of community at the school.

To ensure visitors can easily access information and documents, the site is laid out in an intuitive manner. A navigation menu with dropdowns at the top of every page provides a consistent source for page links throughout the site. A list of “Quick Links” located on the sidebar of every page makes popular links immediately accessible. Visitors can also use a search form at the top of the site to look for keywords.

As Blue Hills is a technical school, it was especially important to showcase its various vocational programs. Each shop has its own dedicated page that describes the program and features a slideshow of images of the facilities and students in action.

Using WordPress’s password-protected admin panel, Blue Hills staff have the ability to easily add school news and documents as well as edit the text and images on every page of the website. This capability allows them to keep parents and students up to date on school happenings.

Launch Blue Hills Regional Technical School Website »

Nursery Art: Animals Playing Sports

Role: Illustrator

A capybara glides around the ice rink; a fox lifts her body into a handstand; a turtle dives for the football; and a bear slides into second base. These are just some of the playful scenes illustrated by Abi of Brown Bear as a baby shower gift for parents-to-be Sara and Colleen.

To create the artwork, Abi drew the scenes in Adobe Illustrator and digitally colored the backgrounds. Printing the illustrations onto watercolor paper, Abi then hand-colored the animals with colored pencils to create a more textured look.

Nursery art: Animals playing sports