Design Exploration: Cabedge.com/B7ven.com

Design Exploration

For my design exploration topic, I decided to choose a couple of website development companies that provides interactive design and digital branding to a slew of major national companies. They provide not only total online presence and image branding but also advertisements, e-commerce, print design, internet video and other custom applications. In the future, I want to have my own company similar to these websites using my multimedia and film/video background...

Cabedge.com/ B7ven.com

Cabedge.com and B7ven.com are brainchild of Matt Reed and Chris Blanz, a team of web designers based in Nashville, Tennessee. Although these two websites are of completely different concept, one worth noting is their similarity in visual style. Cabedge.com has a very rural farm feel to it while b7ven.com has an ultra-modern and sleek look. However, they both have a minimalist style, throwing in only what’s necessary. They both look clean, has a page layout that will fit most screen size, centered orientation, and have ample negative space on both sides that makes center of the page stand out more. They both have just enough information for visitors to digest and has informal feel to it. B7ven.com is more flash-based compared to Cabedge.com.


Graphically, there is a nice balance of text and graphics on the home page that provides an obvious hierarchy of information. At all levels, the sites remain elegantly uncluttered. There's also a tone of irreverence to the sites; it doesn't take itself too seriously. Although these websites are mostly flash-based, they are designed to take minimal bandwidth, downloading only smaller text files after the index page comes up. Overall, I really like the way these websites are presented—clean, eye-catching and functional.