Symposier is an online community to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing among medical professionals around the world. Particular emphasis is placed on reaching doctors in developing countries and regions where the community is too thin to support itself with advice effectively. The first launch of the platform was purely a functional prototype. We were brought in to improve the user experience and usability of the tool. This was achieved by re-engineering the site architecture, designing an intuitive user interface and providing quality assurance testing.
The project was delivered on an aggressive schedule.

We were approached by two entrepreneurs ready to change the game in the alternative medical care segment. The core idea is simple: provide immediate access to credible providers of holistic health services. We worked closely with our client to analyze the existing market, define the audience and position the product so that the resulting web platform is targeted in both content and functionality. A few months away from launch, we’re excited to arrange our first appointment with the acupuncturist around the corner using HealMe.

Sikisoko is an online and mobile platform targeted at users in developing nations to empower them to live more self-sufficiently, free from aid and charity. At its core, it is a web based search engine, marketplace and social network. Users can post know-how projects, offer products or services, engage in networks or announce events. In order to address a wide range of literacy and language requirements, navigation and content emphasize visual over verbal communication by relying on image sequences, video and icons.

Sikisoko Inc. is a start-up founded in 2009 in New York. The protoype of the platform is currently in development.

STACKD helps people in office buildings get in touch. A little over a year ago, Supermetric moved into a 20 story building in Manhattan’s Flower District. We noticed how people used the elevator to post items they wanted to sell. Sometimes companies left postcards advertising their business. Each time the elevator stopped we caught a glimpse of who else had set up their business here. It seemed like all the clients and collaborators you might ever want could be a floor or two away. We designed STACKD in order to get to know them. The concept reflects our opinion that the next phase of the internet will incorporate physical location and proximity in much more important ways than previously – particularly when you think about the internet as mobile and ubiquitous. STACKD is a step in that direction.

Runnersworld and Adidas wanted to create an online tool that would make it easy to choose, among dozens of models, the shoe that’s right for you. We faced quite a challenge – every foot is different and people run on lots of surfaces. The solution lies in simplifying interrelated criteria such as weight, pronation and arch height to the point where we could program an algorithm to parse the product catalog. The runner answers four questions and receives a star-rated recommendation. Created in collaboration with our friends at www.zagollc.com

We first designed and built Kliment Halsband a website four years ago. That’s a long time in internet years and technology has changed considerably since then. When they came back to us for a few edits it was an opportune moment to move them away from Flash and towards a site that would work on the iphone / ipad. We also made better use of screen real estate and loading times to show larger images and adjust layout flexibly to various browser dimensions. The new site has an integrated blog and more navigation smarts than before.

Emblem is a branding firm with a high-power team that has decades of experience with some of the world’s most successful companies. The firm’s unique approach enables them to understand which degree of change a brand needs in order to adapt to new requirements. The concept for the website organizes case studies into four categories from most significant to smallest degree of change. This project demonstrates a great deal of our interaction design philosophy: to show a quickly digestible amount of information at a glance and provide more detail upon user interaction.

FXI – the leading manufacturer of polyurethane foam needed to differentiate in order to escape pressures of a commodity driven market. Our colleagues at www.mblm.com repositioned the firm on the idea of innovation and brought us in to design the appropriate web experience for the new brand. The website uses a series of stories to relate foam products to our daily lives. Spend just a little time on the site and you learn that FXI products surround you every day. Industry insiders can dig deeper to access technical information; which stress tests the products undergo before shipping; which molecular structure makes up the filter that oxygenates your blood during surgery.

It was a pleasure to work with one of New York City’s finest builders who is known for projects such as the Perry Street towers, designed by Richard Meier. When Gotham Organization came to us they had four separate web domains for different parts of their business. We began by developing an information architecture that keeps those segments distinct while not confusing a user who browses from one to another. The first site to launch, Gotham Construction, tells a story of the deep expertise of a company that has been in business for four generations. The clean and rigorous design is intended to communicate strength and reliability. To provide a great experience in browsing the site, we designed user interaction down to the last detail, using javascript to make the site smooth and responsive.

Kim Wendell Design primarily creates renderings and animations of architectural spaces. Sometimes these images are used for real estate marketing. Other times an architect wants to rapidly create a powerful design representation that a client understands in an instant. KWD can produce this image from as little as a sketch and a conversation. We developed an idea for this website that is a kind of smart archive. KWD can add more projects or bios of additional staff or stories about how they work. Each of these pieces is tagged so that the archive can be sorted according to categories that are helpful for a person browsing the site. There are no pages on this website to get lost in. You just turn off the stuff you don’t want to see or sort it in a way that works for you.

Lacasapark is a building in Brooklyn owned by Emiliano Casarosa and Jaehee Park. In addition to being their home, it houses a hair studio and vintage boutique – the couple’s joint business endeavors. The website reflects this structure. It’s pretty clever technologically. All the images are fed by a Flickr account (for easy updating) and the blog is a customized WordPress template. The real fun is in interacting with the site. There are a few nuggets like the product image gallery which is always within cursor-reach that we are particularly proud of.

We worked with the communications department to design a permanent installation as part of several efforts we have undertaken to raise public awareness of the extensive scientific achievement at Rockefeller University. The installation commemorates the many scientists affiliated with the institution who have won the prestigious Nobel and Lasker prizes. The location is a complex space leading into Caspary Hall, an auditorium frequently used for concerts and lectures. A “crowd of men” float with some distance to the curvaceous wall onto which we silkscreened a timeline of scientific achievement that can be extended for decades.

In 2007, Nokia sponsored the Young Creatives Competition at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Our collaborators on this project devised a real time video documentary to shadow contestants during the 48 hours they were given to complete a 30 second spot using the new Nokia NSeries device. They turned to Supermetric because of our experience in designing at an architectural scale. To draw visitor attention to the competition we created the graphics for a 150 foot long wall that couldn’t be missed. The design prompted people to opt-in to receive TXT messages about the competition as events unfolded. The design transports the themes “international” and “communication”.

Cynthia Davidson, editor of a magazine on architecture and theory called LOG, invited us to design the collateral for a symposium held at the Guggenheim Museum. Sometimes it’s very satisfying to leave the complexity of web design behind and design something where the goal is to create pure visual impact. The topic “Contamination: Impure Architecture” is one we quickly connected with and we were thrilled to attend the symposium to watch hundreds of people carrying our material.

Vivaldi Partners is a leading marketing strategy firm with a unique consumer-driven approach. Erich Joachimsthaler, the firm’s founder and CEO, has written extensively about this approach – most recently in a book entitled “Hidden in Plain Sight.” It’s a good book but it’s long and Erich wanted to create something short and sweet that tells the story in a way that text alone struggles to do. We worked closely with the energetic Mr. Joachimsthaler over a period of a few weeks and designed this 48 page booklet. It uses color and typography to communicate the big messages. Detailed diagrams provide visual explanations of key concepts. Carefully art directed photography showcases the team at Vivaldi’s New York office.

The City of Orange, New Jersey created a very progressive masterplan describing a transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly urbanism that sees the city’s future as a dense mix of residential and commercial growth. Of course, it took over 200 pages for the document to make that point. To tell the story quickly and simply to an audience of 20,000 residents, we developed a graphic language of diagrams and photography and paired them with bold headlines that focus on things the people of Orange could really connect with. Created with our friends at Red Antenna.

This book documents an unbuilt project for engineering giant Arup. In the text the architect spoke of wanting to fold space. We folded paper. The cover encloses the book and needs to be unfolded in order to open it. Each chapter divider is washed in a bold color in a shape that hints that it can be creased and folded. If you aren’t afraid to earmark the pages to do so this splash of color protrudes like a page marker. Interactivity is not restricted to websites, we feel.

Published by Edizioni Press
Designed with Bethany Koby (www.ciaobethany.com) a long time ago but included in the Information Design Workbook 2008.

Founded 1894, Van Alen Institute promotes inquiry into the processes that shape the design of the public realm. They have always organized competitions towards this end. Over the last two years, the organization reshaped itself and now also contributes to the architectural discourse by offering fellowships three times a year. Exhibitions and other programming at Van Alen are driven by the work of the fellows. Supermetric was tasked with creating a website that could tell the story of the organization with its historical context and provide an archive of work currently being produced that can extend into the future.

Karuna brings Yoga to the people in a straightforward way that focuses on an individual’s practice and not on preconceived notions of what Yogo has to be. Don’t want to chant? Don’t have to. The graphic identity is fresh and fun with an element of seriousness that doesn’t pay homage to the visual cliches of the industry. The website uses photography to feel as personal and direct as the private classes Karuna offers.

Richard Dattner and Partners is a New York City architecture firm founded in 1964. Their work includes master planning, educational institutions and corporate clients. Richard also designed many of New York City’s playgrounds. Representing such a diverse body of work isn’t always easy. We were excited to be working on this project not only because we were charged with completely redesigning the outdated website but because we were also commissioned with designing the firm’s new book and marketing brochures. The distinct advantage when designing for multiple media is that you can create an aesthetic that works across them all rather than trying to adapt a print identity to the web.

Stunning photography fully fills the screen of this site designed and built for Voorsanger Architects. The New York firm builds exquisite projects from the Rocky Mountains to the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. Executing the site within a short timeframe allowed for focus and simplicity. The navigation reacts to the cursor position, staying out of the way most of the time and coming into play when needed to request more detailed information.