Over the past several months, I worked with my long time friend and associate JD Howell to develop the latest revision of his photography portfolio. This time around, the talented Lukas Dryja, of Kolor, had designed a beautiful stripped-down visual identity for JD’s business. Working from his designs, I developed the concept into the final interactive site.

The general idea of the last iteration is carried over: minimal structure with the focus on the presentation of the photos. However, by avoiding the use of Flash, the site is made both more accessible and better performing. The ‘lights out’ feature and scaling images are achieved with JavaScript in this version, while the content is again managed with an XML/PHP backend. A new cross-browser font replacement technique called Cufón was used to enable the use of a non-standard font for the site, maintaining the look and feel of the mockups in the translation to a dynamic version.

I think JD’s photography, Lukas’ design, and my development work have come together to make this latest iteration of www.jdhowell.ca minimal and lightweight, while effectively communicating JD’s unique brand and style. As always, the primary emphasis is on the photos, with the design and functionality serving the work.