Janus Motorcycles
I designed the website for Janus Motorcycles to give user the same feeling that you might get from looking at one of their unique vintage-yet-modern motorcycles. Classic fonts and motifs juxtaposed with clean lines and modern aesthetics. My goal for this site was to keep it photo-centric without sacrificing the unique, eye-catching design elements that really bring it together to fully engage the user.
Janus motorcycles are all made by hand, with many of their parts sourced from local welders and suppliers. They really wanted this handcrafted feel to come through in the design. I achieved this by utilizing blueprint-style drawings and tied further into the design of the bikes by adding the same “pinstripes” in the buttons that Janus hand paints onto their fenders.
The client also wanted a configurator to help people visualize what their bikes would look like. Prior to the configurator they used a simple online form and had no visual representation of how different add-ons, color options, finishes, etc. would appear in their specific configuration. Giving the customer a way to create their own personal bike and view their finalized design made it much more likely for them to decide to place an order.
The biggest challenge of this project, and the one that I’ve experienced with just about every configurator that I have designed, is that the client had a tendency to want to fill in every empty space in the design with anything that they can think of rather than just leave it empty. Continually emphasizing the importance of screen real estate and not visually overwhelming the user to clients often takes about as much time as actually creating the design itself when it comes to complex projects like these.