Parchment Post

Parchment Post curates the work of diverse designers and illustrators to deliver high-end greeting cards and stationery to subscribers’ mailboxes. We constructed their beautifully simple site based on Darling Studio‘s elegant layouts, and provided basic training to the Parchment Pressers on operating, editing, and updating it.

We helped the show with a light theme customization and hosting, opening the new digs for business in February, 2011. Tune in for wisdom, tips, and advice of, by, and for seasoned freelance creatives twice every month.

The Freelance Radio Show

Do What You Love for Life e-Courses

Yorkshire’s Beth Nicholls is a creative adventurer, and in her e-courses she delivers “tools and inspiration to help you do what you love, for life.” Utopian.net built the architecture and code to implement another Darling visual design for Beth’s Do What You Love for Life e-courses, including the surrounding site, social features, and simple authentication for enrollees.

Iris Photography's new Darling/Utopian site

Magazine, event, and wedding photographers Iris Photography sought a look-and-feel rebuild for their portfolio site as well as a streamlined content management backend so they could update more easily. We constructed a custom theme based on the crisp template provided by collaborator Darling Design, integrated plugins and software to add features and functions to the new site, and delivered the finished product early in September 2010.

Chosen as the picture-snappers for TIME Magazine’s Most Influential 100 Gala and official portraits for the 2010 New York Mets, Iris has plenty to show off, and a site built to do just that.

Scott Hull Associates

Scott Hull Associates first called on us nearly two years ago for the construction of a multi-artist, multi-author site highlighting their respected agency. When the time had come to rethink, refine, and reinvent the site’s visuals, Scott rang again.

Bringing us together once more with Penelope Dullaghan, a frequent collaborator and popular editorial artist from Scott’s stellar stable, the project called for a design that would maintain a similar feel in a simpler, cleaner, and more concentrated form. Penelope delivered a layout we were as excited to develop as Scott and company were to green-light. We added some clever programming on a tag-based quick search feature that prospective Scott Hull customers can use to sample the styles, manners, and methods of the illustrators Scott represents.

The new site puts a honed focus on the work Scott’s team of talents produces for a diverse group of clients — from Jamie Oliver Magazine spreads to award-winning Starbucks campaigns, from the mural helping set the mood for your meal at Panera to Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark.

In the Wish Studio

Mindy Tsonas’s Wish Studio covers a lot of ground: hands-on instruction, inspiration, guidance, tips and techniques. Touching on topics from motherhood to arts and crafts, the site helps nourish artistic sensibilities with a group blog, a forum and discussion board for the Studio’s authors and fans, and the latest on the activities and passions of this very creative community.

Working with another standout visual design from Darling Design, we implemented a custom theme and plugins on the WordPress-MU platform, and added to the site visually and functionally integrated discussion forum software. Exclusive subscriber/member content is delivered in subdomain sections like the Sky Studio, and information about Wish Studio seminars and events is front and center throughout.

The new RUCS, Inc. site

A recent Utopian.net collaboration with our friends at Darling Design put their vision for client Rick Unvarsky Consulting Services, a California commissioning, LEED Management, and electrical and plumbing design firm, through our Leitmotif process. We worked with Darling Studio and the Unvarsky team to develop and deploy the company’s new site, which keeps clients and partners up to date with project news and a file upload/download facility for exchanging documents.