I recently added the comps I designed for an RFP for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This project was a nice break for me from the work I do for AMD, which is my main client. It was a sizable challenge to create a blend between the Hard Rock’s luxurious, heavily textured persona and a clean, modern presentation of who they are as a brand. I browsed the assets provided by the client and decided the photography of their property would the main driver of the site’s design.
I pulled the color scheme out of the photos (purple and gold being the dominant colors) and mirrored the patterns in the carpets and wallpapers into the background of the site. I didn’t want to overwhelm the site with texture or organic shapes, so I used geometric blocks to house the content and utilized a 16-column grid from 960.gs as the backbone to the site’s structure.
If you’ve followed my work and know me well enough now you’ll know that I’m a big proponent for the details. It’s impossible for me to ignore them or to not zoom in to at least 1200% on my comp to make sure every pixel is perfect. One example in this comp are the social network icons. I could have easily dropped in some pre-built badges and had been done with it, but while those would have filled their purpose they would have stood in stark contrast to the overall aesthetic of the site (especially some horrible “hard candy” styled icons). So why not take some time to find a way to integrate them into the site and make them unique to the comp? The idea of using playing cards actually wasn’t the obvious choice at first, but after landing on that idea there was no other option in my mind. After building them we tweaked the copy to play up on the metaphor. I think they’re one of the best parts of the design and really play in hand with what the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is all about.
The mobile version of the site was a fun addition to design. I wanted it to be clear and functional, so I made sure it was relatively consistent with the native UI of the iPhone. Thanks to teehan+lax’s iPhone GUI PSD Design Template I was able to mock this up fairly quickly. I completed this design before I had my own iPhone and in retrospect I might have done a couple of things different here with the UI as I’ve grown much more familiar with how an iPhone operates. Still I’m happy with how it looks, the concept behind it, and what it represents as a mobilized version of the main site.
My design was one of 3 that we presented to the client and in the end they decided to go with another agency. Regardless of the outcome this was a great project to work on. I have other projects that I’m hoping to add to my site in the coming days so stay tuned for more new work.
Phil, this comp looks excellent. It’s a real shame they went with a different agency on this one. Your attention to detail, especially with those playing card icons, is awesome.
Lovely. Love the purple tones & textures – the playing cards are a nice touch too.
Job good.
Simply gorgeous stuff. I love the way you combined straight/modern type and edges with just enough depth and texture. That’s so hard to nail down the right way.
Grant’s right, and the overall balance of these comps is excellent. Beautiful work. The playing cards are clever, but I wouldn’t have gone with the “full house” copy, because there’s obviously not a full house showing. Or maybe that’s just me being too literal.
@Pat – Thanks! Yeah I was bummed that we didn’t get the job.
@Grant – I appreciate that. Combining elements like that is one of my favorite things to do in design. That juxtaposition is always an interesting challenge.
I’m definitely not a person to care enough about anything to write something online, but this… Woah, that’s really good. Awesome work
Being a Las Vegan, I’m not surprised this genius work was passed up. I’ll let you draw your own conclusion from that last statement.