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AcceptLower East Side culture and living
Essex Crossing is an expansive urban renewal development on New York City’s Lower East Side, highlighting the area’s rich history and unique cultural flavor. The Market Line will be a bustling, bazaar-like marketplace featuring a wide array of local vendors. The Rollins will be a luxury residential building inspired by famed jazz musician Sonny Rollins. Both attractions are up-and-coming pillars of Essex Crossing and reflect the downtown area’s past and present character.
Teamwork
We worked with design partner QuallsBenson to create a digital experience as iconic as the physical site itself. No easy task. The primary goal was to capture the attention and interest of local vendors. At 150,000 square feet, the Market Line has plenty of space to fill.
For the Rollins, we collaborated with QuallsBenson to come up with a visual aesthetic that reflected the vibrancy and energy of the project. As with many luxury residences, we were tasked with highlighting the many amenities. One of our challenges was finding creative ways to speak to the benefits of living in the Essex Crossing development, which won’t be complete until 2024. Fortunately, when it comes to real estate projects, we’ve been around the block.
Plan of ATTCK
Our goal in designing the Market Line’s website was to convey a sense of motion, so the site’s navigation was aptly inspired by the city’s subway map. The logo, a geocentric interpretation of the area, spans three city blocks in the heart of the Lower East Side. We established a vertical plane, allowing for user-friendly and mobile-friendly content scrolling. The content type was form-fitted for vendors, and the system content types, built using RENTCafé, allow the web admin to manage page entries (e.g., new amenities and updated neighborhood profiles). As always, QuallsBenson’s world-class art direction, visual strategy, and photography elevated the project to a true work of art. It was a pleasure integrating such beautiful images throughout the site.
Considering the man the Rollins was named for, it was only appropriate to create a music-centric vibe. Photos and text cater to the artistic scene, but not in a way that would alienate those who aren’t musically inclined. QuallsBenson and our team put our heads together on this one, creating a design that brings radial pulses, turntables, and music waves to mind. The result is a jazz-solo-smooth effect that draws viewers in. We like to think Sonny Rollins would approve.
Branded motion design
The little details are always the funnest part of any project. We call them our “winks.” They’re what elevate a simple experience to something much more refined. We developed the navigation layout, micro-animations, and site-wide transition effects to provide functional and visual parity with the brand. The Market Line is situated between the F, J, M, and Z trains, so we used the familiar aesthetic of the NYC subway map, which uses black markers to indicate local stops along a line.
Landing animation
Visitors first see a beautifully branded animation that conveys the energy and excitement of the project and the neighborhood. We handcrafted this short animation using Adobe After Effects.
Animated background
Sometimes we get the chance to make the background more than just a background. Here we stylized a subtle animation by using JavaScript, HTML5, and SVG. The rotating, purple, turntable-esque gradients subtly correlate with the music-centric theme of the building. This sophisticated approach is used throughout the website, bringing new life to the Rollins.
Credits
Producer
Gary Gertz
Developers
Dennis Plucinik
Oka Tai-Lee
Designers
