CMG Landscape Architecture

Create an environment for a firm that creates environments.

When you walk into CMG one thing is clear: they like to tack things on the wall – sketches, elevations, photos, menus (well maybe not menus). There are material samples everywhere, pieces of stone, jars of dirt. It makes sense, CMG is a landscape architecture firm providing collaborative design and management services to a range of public, institutional, and private clients. Clients like San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, UCSF, UC Berkeley, and City San Francisco come to them for informed aesthetics and smart design.

Challenge: Cleanly implement a rich user experience

Infield Design worked closely with CMG to understand what they were looking for, a clean site that showcased their work. We built a site that offers a rich user experience and can be easily maintained internally by CMG. The new CMG website:

• Provides a flexible way to present work from scetches to finals.
• Delivers dynamic graphics using AJAX for improved SEO.
• Communicates the technical goals and challenges to internal team.
• Document and train key staff to maintain the site.

Solution: Let the product speak for itself

Infield Design worked closely with CMG to establish priorities for the website redesign. Key elements of the project’s success include:

Capture the studio. From the moment you enter the CMG studio, their collaborative design process is apparent. The white walls are covered, to a large extent, with layers of sketches and studies. Beyond the actual work that is being done the office, like many productive environments, has its own estetic. After a time it became clear our task was to try to create a site that would work like thier walls: a place the they can easily tack something up, step back, and analyze it.

Keep it simple. Create a simple flexible framework that presents the work on a clean canvas for greatest impact.

Make it visible. Implement site in pure HTML. Avoid hiding content behind technologies that reduce SEO.

Stay focused. Keep the focus on the work.