In late 2007, we were approached by Chris Johnson, product manager for Remodulin, a pharmaceutical product for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension. For those of you that didn’t go to medical school, that’s high blood pressure in the lungs, apparently a not-so-pleasant medical condition. Their website was suffering from old age and needed to be revamped — stat. We were more than happy to put on our scrubs and perform a little cosmetic surgery.

Note: We’re not doctors, but we play them on TV. You may have seen us on NBC’s Extreme Corporate Makeover: Homepage Edition, yet another lame reality show inflicted upon America by the writer’s strike.

Once we made the initial incision, we discovered a new and exciting world of regulations and limitations regarding the marketing of pharmaceutical products. We wanted to give Remodulin’s site a facelift, a tummy tuck, and some porcelain veneers, but we were thwarted at every turn!

For the facelift, we decided to include photos on the site of active people enjoying life, but that was much more challenging than it sounded. People at the beach? Can’t be near the water because it presents risk of infection. People skiing or snowboarding? High altitudes are out. Someone on a bicycle? Overexertion is bad. Happy family? Can’t include children. After a few hundred options, we finally settled on some photos to use.

Then came the tummy tuck. Instead of an old-school static website, we set up ExpressionEngine, our CMS of choice. A company that specializes in marketing for pharmaceutical companies provided the initial copy for the site, which we quickly loaded into the templates.

We thought we were done and we could send the site to the recovery room, but then the text revisions started rolling in. We truly had no idea how intense the review process for a pharmaceutical site was. Let’s just say that we had to pull out the crash cart, charge the paddles to 300, give the site a zap, and then get it stabilized in the ICU.

Thanks to Dr. Chester and his surgical team, Remodulin.com made a full recovery, went home, and had its new look revealed to the world on live national television. Chris was overjoyed with the finished product:

Special thanks to the crew that designed our website, Onwired. You have done and will continue to do a great job.

Our work was so well received that we’re already in talks with United Therapeutics, Remodulin’s parent company, to work medical miracles on another site.

What We Delivered

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS
• Expression Engine Integration
• Google Analytics

Michael Simpkins at Networks and Web Applications recently contacted OnWired about a new logo. His technology firm does everything from server installation to networking to web design and development, and it needed a bold, confident corporate identity. OnWired had just created a logo for one of Michael’s other ventures, Death Care Web Sites, so we jumped at the chance to do more work for him.

Networks and Web Applications, a technology company in Pennsylvania, spun off a business venture focusing on a very specific niche — the death care industry. They offer web development services to cemeteries, funeral homes, and death care suppliers, so they needed a new brand identity that would encompass the entire industry. Just in time for the International Cemetery Crematory Funeral Association convention (yes, it’s real — I couldn’t make that name up if I tried), Death Care Web Sites was born, and OnWired was happy to provide them with a shiny new logo.

One fateful day, we received a phone call from Steve Wappel, the man in charge at StarQuest Dance. He said “Take a look at my site. You’ll know why I’m calling you.” We looked, and yes, we knew immediately.

StarQuest’s site was designed in 1994 and hadn’t been updated since. It was screaming “old school,” all the way from its bubble letter logo to its 1985 neon color palette. You almost expected to see a photo of a grinning Ed McMahon on the home page. But alas, we were denied that little bit of guilty pleasure.

After a couple of long talks with Steve, we realized he was working hard to modernize his business’s image. StarQuest is one of the premier dance competitions in the country. At the competitions themselves, everything is cutting edge — high-end video production, impressive sound and lighting rigs, and laptop-wielding judges. Steve realized he needed to bring that high-tech image to his site as well. On top of a full redesign, he chose a customized content management system along with some really cool functionality.

StarQuest’s target market is teenage girls — a very different audience than our typical corporate client. Upon receipt of our first design concept, Steve sent a simple three-word response:

Needs more whimsy.

After a few rounds of revisions, we delivered a design that was sufficiently whimsical. We then turned to Expression Engine, our CMS of choice, to do the heavy lifting. Thanks to some creative thinking, we were able to integrate both YouTube and SlideShowPro into Expression Engine’s already impressive functionality to provide StarQuest with powerful customization capabilities.

Heck, it was so good, we became a featured showcase on ExpressionEngine.com itself.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS
• Expression Engine Integration
• Logo Design

We don’t generally find ourselves in the company of lawyers, which you could say is a good thing, but we made an exception for Erik Mazzone. When he approached us, he was in the process of starting an executive coaching business targeting attorneys. We’ve worked with quite a few executive coaches, but Erik definitely wanted to be a bit more innovative, combining a bit of pro blogging with his coaching.

Erik had no brand identity and no existing site. He basically gave us a clean slate to work with, and only had one design direction for us — use earth tones. Use them we did. We mixed in some greens and tans along with one of those super-trendy upholstery-inspired backgrounds and a few quasi-realistic paper elements to come up with a nice layout.

We then took the design, sliced it up, and integrated it with our most favorite blogging platform of all time — Wordpress. It took some custom programming to implement the features Erik wanted, but alas, we were victorious.

We typically don’t toot our own horns, but we just have to mention the fact that ErikMazzone.com has been featured on lots of design sites, including TutorialBlog’s 30 Great Web Designs article.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS
• WordPress Integration
• Business Card Design

Daniels & Daniels, a construction company that has been around for nearly half a century, approached us about doing a new website. They wanted something clean and corporate that would help them to better compete alongside their competitors’ professional sites. They told us we could do pretty much anything we wanted — anything except touch the logo. Needless to say, we were more than happy to assist.

After a little Photoshop magic, some slicing and coding, and a healthy dose of testing, we created a slick new site for Daniels & Daniels that really gives them the professional look they are after.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS
• Copywriting and Editing

Pre-OnWired, Tony and Jon both worked as web designers for Thomson. Post-OnWired, when Thomson needed a new site for one of its business units, where did they turn? To Tony and Jon, of course.

You see, Thomson had recently acquired a new business and wanted to have it rebranded. They needed someone who could work within their corporate style guidelines, particularly when it came to the web. Of course, back in the day, Jon was on the committee that helped to define the corporate web design guidelines, so he could already recite all the rules.

We took Thomson’s design framework, jazzed it up a bit, and delivered a slick site. On top of that, we updated the code suggested by the corporate guidelines by converting a bunch of old table-based nonsense into contemporary, standards-compliant CSS and XHTML.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS

In late 2006, we got a call from Mark Janas at Empiric Systems, a vendor of radiology information software. He said:

Unless you blow me out of the water on price, you’re the company I want to redesign our site.

As you can guess—since you’re reading this now—we didn’t blow them out of the water with an astronomical price. After a few discussions, Empiric decided that they wanted to go from a pretty plain site to something a bit more slick and modern. Designing from a dark gray/blue/green color palette, we gave them just that and the result speaks for itself.

By the way, we typically don’t create homages to early 80’s video games, but these guys REALLY wanted a Flash version of Pong on their home page and it actually looks pretty darn cool.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS

It’s not often that we meet a client who makes us feel inferior about our personal level of fitness (or lack thereof). Thys Wind was just that guy. You see, he’s a triathlete. He runs. A lot. On the other hand, we sit in front of computers. A lot. No contest.

Thys needed a site that would allow him to sell marathon and triathlon training plans to runners. All he had at that point was a logo design and a couple of his favorite colors. We took it and ran with it. Get it? He’s a triathlete and we “ran” with it? Ok…never mind.

Anyway, we designed a slick little site with ecommerce functionality and a content management system. He can sell his default and custom training plans, blog about recent races, and help the world become a healthier place.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS
• Content Management Integration
• Ecommerce

After years of using a logo that was slightly reminiscent of both a biohazard symbol and a well-known women’s fashion brand (don’t ask), OnWired rebranded. With the fuzz hot on your tail, what else are you going to do? Of course, we’ve been changing a lot, too. We’ve got a new office, new employees, and a new website, so we needed a new logo that would reflect all of our…um…newness. Wait till you see it in person — it’s awfully slick, if we do say so ourselves.

Apparently, OnWired has cornered the market on doing design work for executive coaches in Raleigh. Linda Stanley asked us to jazz up her previous logo and then give her some slick business cards to match the look and feel of her site.

Pam Boney is easily one of our favorite people to work with. Over the years, she and her team at Executive Suite Partners have come to OnWired for her logo, website, business cards, and other print collateral.

When Erik Mazzone launched his new website and new executive coaching business, he needed some new business cards as well. Conveniently enough, the design we created for his site featured some quasi-realistic paper elements, including business cards, so we took those concepts and translated them into the real thing.

To go along with their shiny new website, StarQuest needed a groovy new logo that would bring them from old-school bubble letters to something a little more contemporary. After a bunch of initial concepts and more than a few rounds of revisions, we finally arrived at something that satisfied the powers-that-be at StarQuest. Let it never be said that we don’t go the extra mile to ensure client happiness.

The NC State Department of Poultry Science was in need of an Extreme Makeover, but instead of calling Ty Pennington, they turned to the only people who could help them — OnWired. On top of needing a complete design overhaul, they also wanted an easy method to update the content of their upcoming, great new site. Needless to say, we were happy to oblige.

In case you haven’t heard, the poultry industry has been achieving unparalleled success as of late, and NC State felt that their site didn’t really do much to stand out. Here’s what they said:

Tons of verbiage and very little wow factor. Typical institutional website. Very bland.

Luckily, we were given free reign to design something modern and add a little “pop” to their image. The only restraint? We had to keep the NC State Red Brick Logo. We certainly didn’t have a problem with that.

After a little digital wizardry, we came up with a really slick design. The head bobbing chicks have proven to be quite a hit with their visitors and our potential clients.

What We Delivered:

• Custom Website Design
• XHTML/CSS
• Custom Content Management System