17 Nov Law Firm Website
In the process of starting a new practice, a group of experienced attorneys approached my colleagues and me at New Frontier Marketing for branding and website design. I began by creating a distinctive logo, and then drew inspiration from the logo to design a clean, sophisticated website that expresses the firm’s professionalism and approachability.
Many law firm websites look templated and tired, strewn with stock photos of gavels, law books, and courthouses. By avoiding such visual clichés and instead featuring black and white photos of the attorneys at MacNeill, O’Neill & Riveles, I created a classic, yet fresh, homepage. The animated slideshow of these photos (excerpted below), introduces all the attorneys at the firm in side-scrolling succession. The friendly red ampersand from the logo slides in to echo the firm name and to symbolize the attorneys’ collaborative approach.
A little something special appears on the individual attorneys’ profile pages. Under each attorney’s biography, rectangular buttons reveal more details about their bar admissions, education, and professional accolades. These buttons feature the red ampersand from the logo, which serves two purposes – to signal additional information (ampersand meaning “and”), and to further brand the site by tying the logo into the more standard features of the page. Whenever possible, I like to find a clever or fun way to use small details like this to tie a project together.
My dad always wanted me to go to law school. For me, designing law firm websites is a good compromise.