After hearing about us from friends and hoping to spruce up his website, Mike gave us a call. We gave him more than a website, we gave him total control over his online content & his brand.

Helping Mike’s Place redesign their website, had to start with their branding. Mike’s outdoor sign, t-shirts, printed menu, and website all had different typefaces and branding, this had to change. Working with Mike, we decided to take the logo from their new printed menus, we would rework the design and recreate it from scratch. We built the logo in Adobe Illustrator, a mathematical, vector-based design application. This allowed us to print the logo as large as we wanted in the future, and gave Mike a pristine version of his logo for future projects. After recreating the logo design, we could then start to simultaneously design the other components for Mike’s project, and also develop the custom technology solutions needed for the Mike’s Place website.

The Technology – Mike’s Place Website – (Link)
As mentioned above, Mike now has the ability to edit or create new items on his website using an easy online tool. By simply logging into his website, Mike can change his entire menu, catering menu, daily specials, and/or coupons. He can easily edit each menu item’s category, price, description, or title. We also developed custom technology for the Mike’s Place website to display their daily specials. Our systems check the available items labeled as “Daily Specials” and then generates a menu for the entire month. Our systems also update the list daily, displaying the “Daily Specials” for today and six days in advance, a full week. You can see that on the “Specials” page. Mike can fully edit or create new items labeled “Daily Specials” at any time, ensuring the monthly menu of specials meets his approval. The system we developed allows Mike to oversee the “Daily Specials” in “real-time”, making edits and additions that display instantaneously. We also added a contact form that will email Mike directly with customer feedback. Lastly, we implemented a Facebook “Like” button and “Send” button that drive traffic back to the Mike’s Place website.

The Design – Mike’s Place Website – (Link)
Our design for the website borrows heavily from the logo design. We used the line of dots seen in the logo throughout the site, we also looked to the logo for the color palette of the website. For the background, we created an illustration representing the interior walls of Mike Place. The website depicts this with the white molding at the very, the wainscoting in the middle, and the dark molding at the very bottom. The information design of the website or layout of content and data, was challenging. Although a small site, every page had to be designed separately to present the content and data correctly. A good example of this is the “Full Menu” page. Mike’s Place has an extensive menu of items, so we created an interactive list of menu headings, allowing the user to navigate up and down the page quickly. Speaking of the menu, we thought the food should be the highlight of the website, taking a large and prominent role at the top. We scheduled several photo shoots at Mike’s Place, carefully orchestrating with Mike the different dishes to photograph. We then sized, cropped, and color corrected all the food photography, and animated them across all the pages of the site. Displayed on top of the food photos are the daily specials. We developed custom technology to allow Mike’s Place to have an automated daily specials list, with the ability to customize that list at any time. Read more about the technology on Mike’s Place website above.

The Mike’s Place Facebook Page – (Link)
The Mike’s Place Facebook Page employs all the latest technology. For example, we’ve attached the physical address to the Facebook Page, so people physically visiting Mike’s Place can “Check-In” via their mobile phone and alert their Facebook friends. We also have a custom tab called “Specials & Coupons”, which is technically a Facebook Application, listing right on Facebook the dynamic specials for the next 7 days at Mike’s Place, as well as the everyday coupons offered at Mike’s Place. We also uploaded a large portion of the custom photography we shot and edited for the website, highlighting the delicious dishes and the interior of Mike’s Place for those who have yet to visit the website.

The Mike’s Place Business Card
Our design of the business cards for Mike’s Place was straight forward, but works in concert with the overall brand we created, reestablishing the typefaces and the colors. The back of the card also doubles as a “Loyalty Card”, allowing customers to buy 5 coffees, and then get the 6th for free. The business cards are also just a piece of the puzzle that helps reinforce the brand we built for Mike’s Place.

The Mike’s Place CafePress Store – (Link)
To further help Mike’s Place reinforce and solidify their new brand with customers, we created a Cafe Press online store. This ongoing effort allows Mike’s Place to continually deploy branded materials to their customers as gifts, and also place branded items throughout the actual physical restaurant. These items include: Coffee Mugs, Cooking Aprons, T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Buttons, Magnets, Container Bags, and Wall Mounted Clocks. Mike’s Place also has the potential of use these items in ongoing marketing and promotional efforts.