Hunter Oil Company, Inc. is a family owned business that has been offering a complete line of automotive, heavy duty and industrial lubricants to the Southeast for over 60 years. Having worked with HOC over the past 10 years, I was aware of their success and rapid expansion. I was not aware the industry had become saturated with cookie-cutter operations, owned by large equity firms.

Our goal was to separate from the industry norm, tell the Hunter story in a unique way, highlight the employees and connect with customers on a personal level. Working with the uber-talented Trish Pavlecich (words) and Adam Komich (photos) made this project an easy win. In fact, the website was so well received, Phillips66/Kendall has backed Hunter Oil with a sizeable social media campaign, driving new business to the site.

The new owners of The Ridges Resort on Lake Chatuge had their sights set on transforming the lakefront property, nestled in the lower Blue Ridge Mountains, into North Georgia’s premier destination. Guest room renovations and a redesign of the existing on-property restaurant, The Oaks Lakeside Kitchen, had been completed. Plans for a new lakefront restaurant/bar, floating water park, retail store and redevelopment of the marina were in the works and creative direction was needed.

I enjoy branding. I’m good at it. I can talk for days about it, but the real beast on this project was the website. Once you see it, you’ll understand the amount of energy that went into bringing a lot of different entities, activities and amenities together. Fluidity was my main goal. I treated it like a magazine, creating a grid and then breaking it depending on the content. Each page was given its own identity, but as a whole it still made sense. There’s still room for improvement, but I think we captured what The Ridges Experience looks like and presented it in a format that is easily digestible and creates excitement.

Stay tuned. There’s no doubt, this site will change with the seasons.