Gosselin Law

GosselinLaw.com was looking for a new website design which clearly stated their areas of practice, was simple to navigate, and instilled the viewer with a sense of trust and caring. Using a jQuery info slider on the homepage, a soft color palette, poignant images, and color-matched icons, our borderline-obsessive perfectionism clearly paid off. Carefully crafted SEO helped land this site on the #1 spot on the first page of Google's natural search results. Yes, as in, the top spot on page one.

Find out more »

Laulhère US

The LaulhereUS.com site incorporates a full eCommerce shopping cart system and products gallery with a custom widescreen image slider on the homepage. Custom icons, image manipulation, line-by-line hand coding, Custom Logo Design, and SEO complete this successful web design project.

Find out more »

Henia's Salon & Day Spa

A clean, professional site was just what was needed for Henia's Salon & Day Spa to achieve the memorable online presence they were looking for. A high-impact info & graphics slider, inviting color palette, custom icon set, and a soft animated background create a powerful visual statement.

Find out more »

Chaos Theory Ventures

A unique solution was needed to convey the message of this multifaceted private equity and consultancy firm. Updated logo, clean professional web design, XHTML 1.0 strict coding, CSS 2.1 validation, jQuery subcategory tabs, and PHP contact form round out a great project for a great client.

Find out more »

Web Design & Development


This is where we're supposed to sing our own praises and talk about how we design amazing websites. Not really our style. If you want to see some of what we do, check out our Portfolio. And, if you want to hear about how great we are, skip down to Testimonials and read what some of our actual clients have to say.

Search Engine Optimization


The big SEO secret is that there's no secret. No one can guarantee they can get your site onto page one of Google. And, if that's their claim, steer clear!  Although, one thing's for sure… some people are more skilled at SEO than others. We have built multiple sites that have achieved the top spot on Google's natural search.  And, that's a fact.

Logo Design & Branding


First impressions are everything. Your logo is you. Your brand is you. You are what people think you are, and they're already forming opinions the second they see your logo. That's why the best logo designs form the best first impressions instantly. This is who we are. This is what we do. And, we're the best.

About

That's me right there.

My name is Ernie Chiaradonna, and I've spent the last 15 years creating a long list of happy clients; most of whom were stressed-out and in need of some serious design help when I first met them.

At first glance, it might look like I create amazing graphic design and web design projects. And, while that might be true, what I'm really creating here are solutions to problems. Which is why I love doing what I do every day.

When you hire Design Excite to update your corporate identity and online presence, you're getting the kind of dedication, experience, and creativity that doesn't quit until each pixel is perfect. If that sounds like what you're looking for, feel free to get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

What's all the excitement about?

The decision to call ourselves Design Excite couldn't have felt any more perfect. We had been discussing several available names, and none of them really seemed to fit what we were all about. But, as soon as the name Design Excite was mentioned, we knew without a doubt that we had found the name that described us best.

Above all else, there's an excitement to what we do. It's the feeling you get when you love what you do every day. Whether we're coding a new website, designing a logo, or choosing the perfect typeface for a brochure, we bring a passion and an excitement to creating something that no one's ever seen.

And, when our clients see their finished product for the first time, they know exactly what kind of excitement we're talking about.

Testimonials

  • The website Ernie built for Laulhère US was beyond our expectations. We needed a site for the newly expanded US branch of our company, whose headquarters are in France. The new US website actually better reflects our products than the website of our parent company – and includes a full eCommerce package. I'm happy to give Design Excite my highest recommendation.

    Jérémie Trouillet
    Executive Vice President
    Laulhère US

  • We have relied on Ernie for our web design needs for the past ten years. Throughout that time, he has designed the last four versions of our company's website, and each one has been better than the last. Thanks to his amazing SEO skills, our new website has achieved the top spot of Google's natural search results. Yes, the top spot. As in, the #1 spot on the first page. I highly recommend Design Excite. In fact, you'd be crazy not to hire them.

    Richard Cristo, President
    New England Outsourcing

  • Ernie is our graphic and web designer for life. His attention to detail is second to none, the quality of his work is unparalleled, and his professionalism is unmatched. We trust all of our print marketing and web related projects to Design Excite, and never cease to be amazed at the results.

    Lisa Smith, COO
    Gosselin Law

  • Ernie has been the only artist/designer I've trusted for every album cover and printwork for every music project I've been involved with since 1994. Over the past sixteen years he has produced some of the most amazing artwork, designs, and layouts that I've had the honor to pair with my music. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Design Excite to anyone looking for the absolute best.

    Michael Scrima, Musician, Instructor
    School of Rock, Boston

Services

  • Logo Design & Branding
  • Web Design & Development
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Print Design & Marketing
  • Art & Illustration
  •  

Logo Design & Branding

At Design Excite, we work diligently with small businesses and individuals, as well as larger companies and corporations, to provide them with one-of-a-kind, carefully crafted logo designs and brand identities. We are also available to work on further developing an established brand identity for businesses wishing to keep or slightly tweak their existing logo. We strive to design unique, memorable identities for our clients, which clearly convey their message and identity.

You are what people think you are, and they're already forming opinions of you the second they see your logo. That's why the best logo designs provide the best first impressions instantly.

Our Logo design & branding services include:

  • Logo design & redesign
  • Corporate imaging
  • Branding & rebranding
  • Logo marks
  • Identity marks
  • Pictorial marks
  • Letterform marks
  • Wordmarks
  • Icon design

Our logo design method is a carefully researched, and thoroughly planned out process. If you need a clip-art style logo within a very short turnaround time, we're not for you. We pride ourselves in creating iconic, timeless logos with a strong focus on typography and spatial relations. We never use clip-art.

Web Design & Development

At Design Excite we make the web beautiful. And websites better.

Our main focus in each Web Design project is the user's experience. After all, they're the reason you need a website in the first place. Our job is not only to help users find your website, but also to help them find what they're looking for within your site. They're there for a reason.

If the user doesn't enjoy browsing your site, if they can't easily find what they're looking for, or if they're having trouble figuring out where to go, then you can be 100% sure where they'll end up: clicking away from your site, and finding your competition.

That's why every one of our websites incorporates:

  • A flexible, one-on-one design approach.
  • 100% web standards compliant coding.
  • Natural usability and ease of navigation.
  • Positive, memorable user experiences.
  • Elegant designs with pleasing color palettes.
  • Your message, delivered clearly and accurately.
  • Cross-browser compatibility so that your site
    works equally well in Internet Explorer, Safari,
    FireFox, Chrome, Opera, and other browsers.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask are like living creatures that evolve from day to day. They're constantly scanning the internet for relevant content to provide to searching users. So, there's no secret shortcut to getting your site to the top of the search results. But, one thing's 100% true: Some people are more experienced at SEO than others.

As a web developer who has created multiple websites that have achieved the number one spot on page one of Google search results, I understand the delicate balance required to maximize SEO effectiveness. I can also tell you that there's no magic formula, and no guarantees. If anyone claims that there are, they're either lying or uninformed, so be selective when hiring.

The "O" in SEO stands for Optimization.
In basic terms this means setting your website up to succeed. And, success in SEO terms means getting search engines to consider your site relevant enough to list it higher in their search results.

If your website were a high school senior, Search Engine Optimization would be a tutor, a guidance counselor, and an SAT prep course all rolled into one. Without them, a student might still get into college (and, you'd still have a website), but long-term success is much more likely when proper care and preparation are ensured.

And, just like with a student, once these steps are taken, success still can not be 100% guaranteed. SEO is simply preparing your website to go out into the world in the best possible position to succeed.

Print Design & Marketing

The most important tool for any graphic designer is their mind. Software, computers, pencils, ink, and paper are simple tools through which the designer's creativity and ideas can manifest themselves. Anyone who can use a pencil can draw lines on paper, but…

It takes knowledge, experience, talent, vision, inspiration, imagination, creativity, and passion to achieve successful design. That's what we provide our clients with every day at Design Excite.

Here's what else we provide:

  • Business Cards
  • Brochures
  • Flyers
  • Poster design
  • Marketing materials
  • Product catalogs
  • Trade journal advertising
  • Product packaging
  • Marketing collateral

Keeping a your theme and message consistent throughout your entire print and online marketing campaign is crucial to developing your company's image and brand. We perfectly match each design and product to reflect your project theme and overall identity.

Art & Illustration

At Design Excite, we work extensively in many areas of the illustration, graphic design, and advertising industries. The work we've done for clients has appeared in magazines, music, advertising, publishing, fashion, packaging, textiles, merchandise, newspapers and in frames on walls. Our work spans across several different genres and disciplines including:

  • Drawing and sketching
  • Classical painting
  • Photography
  • Illustration & book cover art
  • Album cover & music art
  • Digital & Computer Arts
  • Cartoonistry
  • Photo manipulation
  • Creative typography

Long before he was designing print materials, creating logos, or hand-coding HTML, Ernie Chiaradonna was drawing, painting, and creating cartoons & illustrations.

Even as a child, he could always be found utilizing his creativity, striving to create something the world had never seen.

He was Art Editor and contributing artist for his school newspaper, as well as Editor-in-chief of the Literary Magazine. This early exposure and experience with typesetting, layout, illustration, and design aesthetics would stay with him throughout his life, helping to prepare him for what would become his life's work.

Over the course of the next two decades, Ernie would amass a portfolio of successful projects for what would become an ever-expanding family of lifelong clients. He still loves to paint & draw in his free time.

Portfolio

  • Untitled

    Original Artwork - July 26, 2007
    Tools: Prismacolor™ & DecoColor™ markers.

    Preview
  • Gosselin Law

    A multimedia info slider, front-end UX, color-matched icon set, animated FAQ accordion, PHP contact form, Google maps integration, and SEO package.
    Tools: XHTML, CSS3, Javascript, jQuery, PHP, MS Expression, Photoshop CS4.

    Preview Visit site
  • Henia's Salon & Day Spa

    A custom jQuery image & info slider, front-end UX, color-matched icon set, animated CSS3 striped background, custom photo gallery, and SEO package.
    Tools: XHTML, CSS3, Javascript, jQuery, MS Expression, Photoshop CS4.

    Preview Visit site
  • Firekid

    Book cover art and typesetting.
    It's essential for a book cover to pique the viewer's interest immediately, while telling a story with a single, powerful image. A great cover can sell a book.
    Tools: Adobe Photoshop CS4

    Preview
  • Chasing Tristesse

    Book cover & dustjacket layout, logotype, and web design for supporting info site, round out this personal project for a forthcoming novel which I'm writing.
    Tools: HTML, CSS, MS Expression, Photoshop CS4.

    Preview Visit site
  • Artwork: "Alone"

    Original drawing in pen & ink. The first in a three-piece original series.

    Preview

News

  • 10/01/10An Iconic Typeface
  • 09/26/10What's in a Name?
  • 09/12/10Retiring Hideca

An Iconic Typeface

We began this project with the difficult task of developing a brand around our new name. This began with designing a new logo. We went through several rough drafts and revisions before arriving at the one you see here on our site. Special thanks go to a couple of our friends @TheLogoFactory and @GlennVanBogaert for their feedback and constructive criticism. The finished logo employs Helvetica Neue Thin in all lowercase, and Komika Axis by Apostrophic Labs for the exclamation mark.

As with all of our wordmarks, we paid special attention to the "kerning", or spacing between individual letters. This process is largely subjective, though the overall goal is simply for the mark to be pleasing to the eye. This involves maintaining equal space between vertical lines, tightening between concaved letters such as "x", and also merging some letters like we did with the "d" and "e", the terminals (curved ends) of the "e" and "s", and most notably, the stems (legs) of the "g" and "n".

It's worth mentioning, at this point, a little bit about the Helvetica typeface. It's history is well-documented and it's impact on our culture have been the subject of many essays, books, and even a documentary. So, I won't go too much into it, other than to recommend Helvetica, the fascinating and provocative documentary by Gary Hustwit, and to mention other major corporations who use Helvetica in their logos.

Helvetica Neue Thin, which is the specific font and weight of the Helvetica family we've chosen for our logo, is also used by Sears, GAP, Metro PCS, Armani Exchange, and JCPenney. While, other weights & styles of Helvetica are used by countless other companies, including 3M, AmericanAirlines, Crate&Barrel, Staples, BMW, Nestle, Post-it, Jeep, Tupperware, Scotch tape, Energizer, CVS, Oral-B, The North Face, Mattel, American Apparel, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Orange, Target, RE/MAX, Toyota, Panasonic, Motorola, Kawasaki, Verizon Wireless, and probably hundreds of others.

As you might suspect, Helvetica is the most iconic typeface in the world; so much so, that it's used in New York City subway signs, Canada's federal government, Chicago Transit Authority, and IRS tax forms.

What's in a Name?

Welcome to the new website! [Cue the party horns!]
If we could've had a ribbon cutting or a grand opening celebration we surely would have.

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about what went into rebranding ourselves from Hideca to Design Excite, and why we did it in the first place. The transformation was a long, carefully planned process stemming from the issue that our original brand and domain name was a) not memorable, b) not a real word, and c) difficult to spell phonetically when relayed verbally and recalled later. This basically amounts to having a website that, all else being equal, would receive more hits with a better name.

When we originally chose the name Hideca, we did so because it was a 6 character dot com domain name which was a single, pronounceable word. And, though it was admittedly a made-up word with no meaning, we felt that the positives of having a short, pronounceable domain name outweighed the negatives of it being a non-word. So, in the mold of brands like Xerox and Sony (yes, we dream big) we set out to establish our name as synonymous with greatness in our industry.

As the years passed, and our business grew, it became apparent that our name had some issues. It was often either mispronounced when read and spoken, or misspelled when relayed verbally and typed from memory. These being serious problems, we decided that rather than continuing to try to build up a brand with a flawed name, that it would be much more beneficial in the long run to rebrand ourselves beginning with a new name with great positive connotations and no flaws. Of course, this is a difficult task. One of the hardest things to get right in business is choosing a name. We learned that the hard way.

So, the process began. We started by listing dozens of descriptive terms. We asked ourselves, "Who are we?" and "What words describe us best?" We also knew that we wanted to include the word Design in our name, not only because it's memorable and it's what we do, but also for its SEO value. It's extremely beneficial to getting your site found if you include one of your primary keywords in your domain name. And, for us, the number one keyword which describes what we do is Design.

So, narrowing down our options, it was clear that we need an available domain name that was either [Something] Design, or Design [Something]. Our next step was to begin combining our descriptive terms into various combinations until we arrived at a short list of finalists. From that point it was just a matter of eliminating the ones that were not available as dot com domain names. This step determined that our final decision was between just two names. But, really there was no contest. We had been leaning strongly towards Design Excite throughout the entire process, and we were shocked when we learned that the name was actually available. So, feeling certain that destiny was playing some roll in our ongoing saga, we ventured forth and began the process of retiring Hideca, and giving birth to Design Excite

We're glad you're here, and we hope you like it. We'd love to hear what you think.

Retiring Hideca

Well, it's been several years since we first began at Hideca Design, and many great projects were produced under that auspicious banner. But, as times change, so must we change with them. Adaptation is a key part of business, and any advice we would give our clients is advice that we would be foolish to ignore ourselves.

So, it's with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to the Hideca name. But, the passion, creativity, and hard work that has served us well for many years will live on right here under a new, easier to remember, and much more exciting name.

We'd also like to give special thanks to all of our wonderful clients for coming along on this ride with us. Sure, the email signatures and invoice headers you receive from us will all be different, but the care, attention, and love you've always received from us will remain as strong as ever.

The last decade was filled with many great projects of which we're extremely proud. And, we're confident and hopeful that the next decade, and those that follow, will continue to see our body of work expand with many new and exciting additions to our web design portfolio, graphic design portfolio, corporate branding portfolio, logo design portfolio, and illustration portfolio. Did I miss a portfolio?

Contact

Contact information

Google maps

Please feel free to email me.

© Design Excite! All rights reserved. Validated by W3.org as web standards compliant XHTML 1.0 Strict markup.