Defining the visual language of a Minecraft Development Agency
framer design & build
ux/ui design
picture this
An industry-best Minecraft developers who grew up playing the game needs to level-up their agency portfolio to reflect the professionalism and playfulness expected by their fortune 500 brand partners. Together, we redesigned their website to showcase their impressive portfolio, incorporate cheeky, whimsical moments, and ultimately generate new leads.
Starfish Studios is the premier Minecraft development agency, partnering with McDonalds, Disney, and Nickelodeon to create mods, mini-games, and world activations. The studio has grown significantly since launching, but their website didn’t match the playful and professional nature of their brand. They needed to improve the information architecture, making cross navigation easier and improving SEO. And while they need to serve brand partners, players, and investors, the primary goal is to improve their portfolio.
Starfish recently redesigned their core visual identity, but needed help codifying a broader design system and visual language. Their visuals are bold and bright, but maintain a restraint and subtlety that I wanted to mirror.
I mimicked their new logo by using rounded corners and outlines with transparent backgrounds throughout the site. The project cards, CTAs, and typeface were all chosen with this in mind.
Similarly, I designed the motion language to be playful and bouncy without being veering into maximalism. The text tumbles in, buttons press down, and project cards overlap on hover.
Starfish creates immersive worlds and experiences in Minecraft. That meant the site needed to be just as immersive from page load. I set the visually arresting reel their team created behind a mask of their logo as a visual metaphor for seeing Minecraft through the Starfish lens.
I built a new CMS for their case studies, news, and jobs. The case studies in particular feature modular elements to accommodate the breadth of projects and variety of content. Sections automatically populate or are set to hide depending on whether the field has data.
Starfish Studios now has a website that welcomes users into the world of Starfish through a visual language as playful as their mods; a dynamic CMS to promote their new releases and brand collaborations; and clear, cheeky calls to action to drive client acquisition throughout the site.
With the website fully approved and ready to publish, the Starfish Team pressed pause in anticipation of announcing their rebrand. During that hiatus, the founders decided to move away from Framer and develop the site themselves. The final version incorporated a number of variations on my designs, which you can view here.
Starfish chose to hire me because their studio has a reputation for serving gamer girls and they saw a feminine touch in my designs that they wanted to emulate. It felt fantastic to be sought out by a client because they appreciate the sense of wonder my style evokes.
From the start, Will and his team said they wanted their website to be fun—and this project definitely hit the mark. We explored a number of funky directions before settling on the site we launched and the entire process felt like professional play time.
