Editor’s Note: This is part 1 of our series on the new PMG website.
“Who made this mind-blowing website?!?” you certainly asked yourself upon visiting pmg.com. Well, this blog post series is for you, curious web visitor.
The talented creative and dev teams at PMG recently redesigned the site, and below are a few of my favorite pieces of their work:
1. Videos & Infographics
The video on the careers page really shows off the PMG culture. The site features video on the home page as well with a cool background video of the Fort Worth skyline (it switches to a static image on mobile, in case you’re not seeing it). Video guru Jonathan Hunt had this to say:
“We knew very early on that we wanted to integrate video into as much of the site as we could. We started with two main points of focus: use video to highlight the agency culture at PMG, and feature video content on the homepage to create more dynamic engagement. We’re now looking to expand the use of video on the site to include insights into each of our services as well as developing informational and education videos for the digital marketing industry.”
Infographics are another way that the team found an visually engaging way to show off what we do. You can check several of them out over on the services page.
2. Branding : Blue is the new Green
I think the new site looks even better and has changed significantly. The colors were updated, fonts were changed, the PMG logo was updated, and a hexagon “beehive” pattern is featured throughout the site. The beehive is a visual way to show how PMG works as a team – not that we barf up delicious honey (I wish!).
“We DO barf up delicious honey, John.” says Alana Mandel, who will have more to say on branding in an upcoming post.
3. Coding for Today & the Future
The whole site has been moved from a custom JavaScript-heavy site to one that runs on WordPress. A big reason for the move is that the old site was about as easy to update as turning off Game of Thrones mid-episode.
A few nuggets of technical wizardry the team put into the new site:
- Dev team WordPress ninjas customized both the theme and plug-ins so that the site wasn’t limited to the standard form and function.
- The new site is secure (HTTPS) to do our little part in pushing for better Internet privacy and get a little SEO boost in the process.
- Among the work done to make the site load quickly, the honeycombs and text on the team page are done with SVG polygon-magic.
“Making sure it works on retina displays was a main priority for us this time around, we wanted to make sure it looked crystal clear on the next generation of screens,” said Chris Alvares. I think this is Chris’ way of trying to get us to buy an office Oculus Rift.
4. Content : Careers Section
The “difficult to update” nature of the old site meant that people weren’t able to list current job openings on the site. The new careers page addresses that and then some. It shows off our company benefits and culture, and has a really clever application process (no, really) to let applicants show off a bit.
5.Content : Contact Us
All of PMG got involved in building the contact page by filling out a Google Doc of their favorite locations around town. The background of the page is an interactive map, and the points of interest are all unique to PMG.
And Lastly, My 5 LEAST Favorite Parts:
- Doesn’t work in Netscape 2.0
- Olive Garden is missing on the map as a point of interest
- Lack of cat videos
- Everyone looks a little “too” happy. Where are the bitter people??
- Site doesn’t go very far when printed and folded into a paper airplane
Those are some of my lists, but drop us a line with your thoughts on the site. And stay tuned for more posts diving further into the new site.