Vector is now Happy Cog

Read more about this exciting transition here

Mark Simonson

Since the site’s original launch, there were many features Mark hoped to add in order to enhance his online presence. Most importantly, that the site was mobile friendly.
Launch Site

Task Build a Sustainable Site That Can Be Accessed Anywhere

Simonson’s illustrious career is cemented on his 100+ fonts currently available for use, including the web-favorite Proxima Nova. We are proud – as is Mark – that this is also now the font on his own site. Out of his entire font collection, a selection of 28 are exhibited on the new site in addition to all-new PDFs, a shop-nearby information and an updated well of new and old musings. In order for him to actively use the CMS long after the development team completed work, a control dashboard was also created. It allows the administrator (Mark) to turn features on and off, from the featured posts to the fonts. He has full editorial control, as any artist should.

And as a graphic artist, Mark valued how good design and development could make mobile viewing a beautiful user experience.

To ensure the full site (fonts, photos, videos, posts and PDFs) would work on any screen, Vector Media Group inspected all sizes, resolutions and video players. Whether you’re on a 25-inch desktop monitor or a 3.5-inch smartphone, the content is high-dpi-ready. So sharpness is never lost, especially on retina screens.

Result A Beautiful, and Beautifully Functional, Portfolio Site

“We’ve worked with Vector before, and we couldn’t have been more eager to partner up again.”

In truth, it was a terrific team effort in tandem with the experts of clean, elegant design at Paravel. They really put the font design at the center of the project. Their Lead Developer Dave Rupert said it best: “The backend is nearly prettier than the front end.” And the true signal of success was elaborated by the client himself, “I’m really happy with the way it turned out .. and I look forward to working with the new design for years to come.”

Action Migrate Content for Two, Older Site Versions

Mark had originally launched a site and, separately, a Moveable Type blog, in 2000. In order to keep his archived posts from both sites – which skillfully covered topics from creative inspiration to the web-safe font frontier – our development team used the ExpressionEngine® platform. As proven ExpressionEngine® experts, Vector Media Group was best suited to find, move, save and display the 100+ posts. The Vector team wrote a script to import the old content and URLs in their entirety and migrate the formatting to the new site’s layout.

The team ensured that every piece of content would work well in a flexible, responsive design on multiple screens and browsers before launch. Because he is a designer himself, Mark gave direction to create a simple page structure that allowed him to design unique elements and expand to new pages in the future.

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