Just in time for the new year, we launched a new website for J K O’Donnell’s Irish Ale House. We’ve been proud to work with JKO’s since before the doors first opened in August 2007. (Fort Wayne, can you believe we’ve had this gem for more than five years now? [Insert Oscar Wilde quote about time not standing still here.]) Back in ’07, we sifted through folklore, family history and modern-day travel stories from the JKO team to develop their brand, from logo and identity through the original iteration of the menu and on through environmental design and signage. And of course, a Flash-based website that launched with the impact and fanfare the pub warranted. The JKO logo is an interpretation of the O’Donnell family crest—detachable for various uses throughout the pub. New for 2013, we’ve redrawn the simplest iteration of the logo—the banner—as a line drawing for the new website. And that wasn’t the only simplification that occurred…
Translating the previous Flash site into a CMS-powered, mobile friendly, HTML-based site was a fun process to work through. After a few sketches and conversations, we decided that ultimately, we wanted to design an intuitive, familiar experience. On the new site, you’ll see the same downtown Fort Wayne cityscape–parallax and all. The experience is also seamless from desktop to mobile devices, thanks to responsive design technologies. And with the new CMS-powered site, JKO’s can keep you all updated with the latest happenings. Be sure to check back often for new food, drinks and events. And don’t forget to tip your bartender!
Notes from Art Director, Nate Utesch:Once we decided that the parallax of the Fort Wayne/Castlebar hybrid city was gonna stay, there was no question as to whether or not we were going to continue to use the illustrations we’d previously commissioned from our friend, Aaron Minier. We went back to Aaron’s original drawings and built the parallax fresh at a slightly larger scale. Amazing how these six-year-old illustrations came back to life without a hitch. And what’s even better is we found an unused drawing from Aaron’s early concepts. It was of the Anthony Wayne statue at Freimann Square. So we stuck it in there—sitting at approximately 568 feet tall. Enjoy!
Another new addition to the site is a page that tallies up all the games playing on the major Soccer networks. JKO’s has proudly become an incredible spot for watching the games that ESPN and the broadcast networks aren’t playing day-to-day. You can now click through to LiveSoccerTV’s daily schedule for exact matches and local times.
We’ve got more to share, but…let’s meet for a Speckled Hen and move the conversation to a more comfortable environment, eh?
