When Rajnish Hedao called us up, we had never heard of Acropolis DMG. He introduced himself as a friend of Mark Lapwood and that we were recommended by him for their new website. When we did a background check on them, we found a few references to the tripod team that is Acropolis and also came across their existing website. One look at it, and we were all sure that they were certainly not the kind of clients we would be happy to work with. Well, doesn't a company's business collateral, or its website speak volumes about the image the company has of itself? Isn't it the reason for which we even have a job as web designers and graphics professionals?

After all someone who accepts poorly executed work from a professional can certainly not have an eye for beauty and aesthetics. At least not to the level we expect from our clients.

We couldn't have been more wrong in the case of Acropolis. A quick confirmation from Mark assured us that they were the best one can find in their field of work and that we shouldn't judge them by their existing website. When high resolution images from their recent work started to pour in, we were amazed at what these folks were capable of doing.

The Process
We first worked out a suitable information architecture for their new site as very little could be reused from their existing structure or content. As they required us to take up the copy writing for the site, we researched the world of set production and what it takes to be successful in this field.

Once the copy was in place we were ready to make them a quick prototype site and a CMS. This helped test out the website for any navigational or content issues. For the design, as the target audience was from the entertainment industry, we decided to have some fun with bright colours. As the site structure was rather simple, we decided to use large buttons for section links and colour-coordinated the pages with the link buttons.

The images became the heart of the site. Some nifty javascripting and CSS made the pages more interactive. Images slide up and down, additional project and client information, team member profiles, are all overlaid on a semi transparent CSS layer and slide in out over the images.

The Result
Acropolis is very pleased with their new website. They now have a powerful marketing tool to showcase their excellent work. They can upload new images and projects on their own, thanks to the integrated CMS. At least now, their potential clients won't end up making the same mistake we were about to make, that you can't always judge a book by it's cover.