Art Direction, Graphic Design, Illustration, Typography, User Experience, Photography Edit, Front and Back-end Development, User Interface Design, Project Management, Hand drawing.
D’Angelico is a guitar brand based in Manhattan, New York. Company’s story goes back to 1932, when master-luthier John D’Angelico opened his instrument shop in the Lower East Side. The legendary guitars were strictly hand made in limited quantities and were embraced by leading artists. The guitars remained popular until the 1970’s when D’Angelico past away and his legacy was lost with him… until now.
It’s not everyday that a legendary brand is brought back to life. Our team was trilled to be part of the adventure. But how do you go about reviving a legend? We were given the mission to create a simple website showing the old guitars being manufactured with new technology.
To revive the memories of D’Angelico’s legacy, we focused our digital design on the exquisite guitars, their long-standing tradition and history. We drew every detail around the beautifully crafted instruments. We devoted the website to digital storytelling. Scrolling along, we’re taking visitors to old New York to learn about the lives of John D’Angelico and his best apprentice James D’Aquisto “the two greatest guitar makers of the 20th century”.
After reading D’Angelico’s history, viewers can click around and marvel at the quality and sharp details of the different guitar series. Users can also browse popular artists using the guitars or watch videos about the brand.
The success of D’Angelico’s website went far beyond our wildest expectations. The site was named Awwards Site of the Day, FWA Site of the Day, Webby Best Visual Design Honoree and Forbes E-Volution Awards for Design Aesthetics. It was also featured in many design books, articles and publications around the world.
Beyond the success the site received in the design community, it gave our client the boost they needed. The brand was recognized again, shining bright in all its glory on the international music podium. The legend was reborn and became the talk of town for renowned music artists.
The original awarded version of this website has been redesigned twice already. Eight months after launching D’Angelico’s first website, the band needed no more introductions. D’Angelico was already in the hands of affluent artists around the world. The company soon found itself among the most successful "new" brands in the industry.
What our client needed now was a new website that features the new guitar series, an integrated shop, customer log-ins, media coverage, dealer locations and social media feed. Outgrowing your digital space is a fantastic sign of growth and business success. It makes us proud to have contributed to D’Angelico’s online marketing.
Before beginning manufacturing, original guitar models were put through an MRI machine and an x-ray to replicate the instruments accurately. It took between about two years to create one of the master-builder guitars from raw wood.
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