Multiplication Rules!

The Multiplication Rules! web redesign project was more unique than most. The grounds to revamp the website wasn't about out-doing competition or going larger - it was about more appropriately reflecting the tone of the Multiplication Rules! products and busienss through aesthetics. Because the site is pitched at teachers, parents and children simultaneously, the client sought to utilise my illustration skills during this build, looking for a fun and naÏve drawing style that would give the impression the website were a school chalk board come to life, rather than a static, corporate shop or service.

I presented my website design to the client featuring several illustrations of characters styled as if drawn in chalk, decorating the content and heading the pages. She was thrilled with the result and asked if I could take the concept further by animating the characters slightly. This was a fantastic idea and so I obliged; there are far too few opportunities to legitimately utilise the animated .gif format in the modern web landscape, but the inherently clunky, stop-motion-like quality of these files was perfect for adding to the innocence and charm of this design.
With the visual style decided it was just a case of planning the build. Working with the client's copy writer, I proposed that we ditched a number of the previous site's out dated elements including event announcements, sold out stock and other hard-coded elements that the client could not control. In their place I coded brand new dedicated product pages for each of the learning materials, catergorised information pages and a user-input validating contact form.

Once the newly redesigned website was signed off by the Client and launched, Multiplication Rules! sent me a new brief to rework several aspects of the core product design.

The Multiplication Rules! Activity Packs are packaged in silver metal tins with a branded label stuck to the top. I was tasked with redesigning this label as well as generating new labels for the sides and base of the tin. The top label needed a replacement illustration that was more in-keeping with the newly established blackboard style, so I devised an image of three chalky characters playing with the pack contents alongside the brand and title text which also needed its layout improving from the previous version.
The sides of the tin are relatively narrow so it was decided that client testimonials alongside the Client's logo would be adequate for filling these spaces, leaving the underside label on the base of tin to accommodate the company breakdown, the pack contents list, the contact information and the regulatory safety information and barcode.

Included inside the Activity Pack is a brochure-style print product which serves to introduce the company further, explain how the Multiplication Rules! products work, and crucially, offer a means to trial the core product via a cut-out paper simulation. Redesigning this product was a weighty task beginning with creating several folded mockups of the final form to determine upon which pages each area of content would sit in a logical, editorial order, without the cut-out portion of the design interrupting or destroying the flow. The paper mockups helped guide the final composition and design into a very smart, illustrative and useful product that thoroughly upheld the brand.