Astrel Creative - Interactive / Motion / Static Graphic Design from Dave Soderberg

Astrel Thanks You

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:31:31 +0000

Just wanted to let some recent sites that recognized Astrel know how much I appreciate it. I was featured a while back on Creattica and I’d encourage you to make us a favorite. I was also recently featured in an article on Design Shack. More features include an Honorable Mention on The CSS Awards and features on Make Better Websites among others.

2010, We’re All Grown Up Now

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:11:35 +0000

It’s been a crazy past year as I went from running Astrel Creative full time to being picked up by Odopod as an Art Director in San Francisco. Now that my family and I are settled out here it feels like I can finally breathe and get things back to normal. 2010 will be an amazing year for design as IA and UX come to the forefront. For the first time it really feels interactive is growing into a legitimate role in the business landscape, where sites are approached with the same integrity and scrutiny as a company’s product. I am excited to see where things go over the next decade and can’t wait to play a role!

New Work Is Live

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:03:41 +0000

I just had the chance to add quite a bit of new stuff to the work section. New projects feature the all new Beatport, Battor Country Club, and Ford Vehicles. On the Ford project make sure to click “View Photoshop Process” for an inside look at how some of the feature spots were made.

Battor Country Club

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:00:32 +0000

I was approached by grantmx ( a small interactive development studio ) to kick off the designs for a new luxury country club in the village of Battor in the Volta Region of Ghana, West Africa. The approach was to capture the sleek, high fashion, luxurious target demographic they were after while maintaining a simplistic and easily navigable website.

Beatport.com

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:53:54 +0000

While working at Beatport ( electronic music downloads ) I was constantly awaiting the opportunity to design the existing online store that had been in use since my arrival. Beatport 4.0 was a massive undertaking that started with myself, Jonas Tempel ( CEO ), and Hub Selto ( Flex Developer / UX and IA designer ) working closely together to hash out every bit of the site from a revamped IA to a better UX and gobs of new features. The biggest design challenge was that this site had to be restricted to a 1024×768 monitor and the only scrolling could be for content within the application itself. After initial art direction from Jonas Tempel I completely handled all interface design, development documentation / communication ( site developed in tandem with Real Eyes ), and even building the skins in Flash as well as coding all CSS through Adobe Flex Builder. This massive Flex application broke new ground and led the way for customization of Flex skins and the way Flex applications can be pushed to be beautifully designed.

Cheap Sunglasses

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:27:39 +0000

This startup was created to promote and host live music events around the world from some of the premiere DJs in Electronic Music. Eventually Cheap Sunglasses was to promote and sign talent of their own to the Cheap Sunglasses record label with pressed vinyl and downloads through their site as well as the other top music stores. I wanted to create a fun atypical logo that played directly off of the company name. The site itself was to be an indie inspired vibrant clash of fashion and usability. I handled all design of all facets of this project and XHTML front end dev powered by a WordPress CMS.

UPDATE
Unfortunately this company dissolved midway through development of this site. If you are interested in this site design contact me for more information.

COGSwatch

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:59:08 +0000

COGSwatch is a product of Eighty20 Labs. Eighty20 focuses their products on the Eighty20 rule, that 80% of anything is made up by the other 20%. I was asked to design their identity and then the landing page for the COGSwatch application. The application is directed toward restaurant owners or book keepers to easily identify their top 20% costs and watch / manage those items and their contracts. The interface is currently under development, check back for updates.

The New Beatport Trailer

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:01:45 +0000

The New Beatport Microsite

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:48:06 +0000

The launch of Beatport 4.0 was approaching and we wanted a way to slowly leak new features to our dedicated users while also gaining press and excitement. The concept was the five senses redefined by music. X-Ray imagery with electronic music inspired bright green equipment injected into areas of the human body. The microsite would weekly reveal a new sense and new features of Beatport 4.0 that correspond. Massive amounts of press and user excitement ( even criticism ) were generated because of this site and the unique visits were in the hundreds of thousands. I art directed my team for the X-Ray imagery and personally handled all interface and IA design as well as the motion design for the intro. The site iteself was developed under my direction by Scott Isaacson of Riverbend Interactive.

Ford Vehicles

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:30:17 +0000

I was approached by Jason Tatton of Riverbend Interactive to assist in designing pages and feature images for a complete overhaul to the Ford Vehicles website. Jason had done an incredible job developing a beautiful new look and under his established design and art direction I was asked to assist in multiple facets of the site. My role included rolling designs into new pages, minor IA design throughout assigned pages, and photo manipulation.