One-year anniversary at BentoBox
Last year, our design team welcomed five new designers (Check out our first introductions here!). To celebrate our one-year anniversary at BentoBox, we’re highlighting some of our favorite sites we’ve worked on over the past year showcasing our growth as designers.
Trying to pick just one out of all the websites we created within this first year was challenging, but Wild Hare stood out for having super fun branding and a lot of creative freedom! Just one of those sites that makes your soul happy while you’re working on it.
This website was created for a new bar concept in San Diego located inside the Hilton Hotel Gaslamp Quarter. The client had a very bold and fun brand identity where I pulled most of my inspiration from in order to create a consistent online and in person user experience. A little fun fact: The name idea comes from the fact that there used to be a bunch of rabbits in the area before it was settled!
Website’s highlights:
- Hero background image expands as you scroll the page
- First text element has more of an asymmetrical look to it, which is based of their business card design
- Implemented their background texture to the cards for a more playful and consistent look combined with a 3D look to add a layer of interactivity with the user
- Menu pages are an adaption of their physical menu which brings a variation of colors and graphics creating a fun and unique characteristic of the site
Written By: Bella Ambrosio
My favorite site I’ve worked on this year is Taipei Chinese Kitchen, a family-owned and operated scratch kitchen with a fusion of traditional Chinese cuisine and modern flair. They’re opening their first standalone restaurant and wanted their website to resemble a storefront mockup. My favorite part of working on this site was the challenge of translating their physical storefront design into a responsive website design. I loved working with all the assets they provided, as well as their overall branding.
Website’s highlights:
- Graphics utilized throughout the site inspired by storefront
- Alternating menu styling based on their print menu
- Floating effect on chopstick graphic
- Gradient hover effect on cards seen on “Gallery” and “Hours & Location” pages
Written By: Chelsea Davis
Atoma is one of my favorite sites I’ve designed this year. First of all, I love their color palette and branding choices. Secondly, I love how bold they wanted to go with the site design. It allowed me to use a variety of coding skills I have learned over this past year and showcased my growth as a designer.
Atoma is a fine dining restaurant in Seattle that features seasonal contemporary cuisine with a laid-back atmosphere. They provided high-quality assets including a custom font which really makes the design unique. This site is a great example of how a simple design doesn’t have to be boring.
Website’s highlights:
- A refined, hip and modern site with a “less is more” design
- A simple, two tone color palette maintaining a clean aesthetic
- The show stopping main header and navigation that spans the entire width of the site
- An eye catching hover effect on the homepage card titles
Written By: Leanna Myers
Choosing just one site from this year was a challenge, but BLDG really stands out in my head because of how fun it was to combine their branding and their physical location. BLDG, located within Newhaven, Connecticut, resides within a brutalist office building that laid vacant for years. Marcel Breuer, (a renowned Bauhaus architect) created the building in the ’70s and is the namesake of the new Hilton location.
BLDG’s organic brush stroke branding is purely opposite of the building style, but they wanted to combine them with the strong and modern architecture of their building. I chose to create this balance by keeping photos and content boxes very angular and linear, but keeping a focus on the their brush stroke assets as the source of most color. With a light-neutral color palette, their orange and blue accents bring just enough fun into the site.
Website’s highlights:
- Layered brush strokes and content
- Padding around splits/fulls for further visibility of assets
- A mix of solid/sharp lines and organic brush strokes
- Reveal animation on full overlay
Written By: Lindsey Robinson
“Chala is more than Tacos, is an experience of the vibrant flavors of Mexico, where every bite transports you to the heart of authentic Mexican cuisine. Indulge in handcrafted tacos and savor the magic of a culinary journey like no other. Just at Chala Taqueria.”
Chala is trying to create a disruptive movement in the taco industry. Slogan is focus is ‘a kiss or a taco’. Think Neon colors, stickers, artsy, graffiti, trendy. Really trying to create a fun, irreverent brand & culture.
Chala gave us a TON to work with, including a mockup of their homepage. They really wanted to go for this collage/graffiti/street art style, with big bold text and loud neon colors. Their mockup was fairly exact so I leaned on that primarily, the largest challenge was getting all of their overlapping elements and graphics to display correctly and be responsive. For the menu page I got to have some creative freedom and I wanted to incorporate some other elements from the brand guide that had not been used on the homepage. They asked for a paper background texture and we ended up going with the pink checkerboard pattern and the wrestler graphics for a bit of a simpler feel here.
Website’s highlights:
- Graphics layered in a street art/collage style across the website
- Lots of unconventionally structured sections, sideways text, and fun accents
- “Busy but fun” style, eye catching and fun to look at
- Different graphics and branding on every page
Written By: Kai Malowany
It’s safe to say that we’ve all grown a lot as designers in just one year at BentoBox! Collectively we owe a lot to our wonderful manager Kayla, the more senior designers on the team James and Chris, and of course the design ops team. We hope you enjoyed our showcase, and stay tuned to the Bento Design Blog for even more cool sites and projects every month.
