We had a blast designing the brand new site for P.J. Clarke’s, a popular restaurant chain in Chicago. The project allowed us to flex our design muscles, and craft a site that reflects the comforting, well-worn retro style of the restaurants.

When you visit P.J. Clarke’s, one of the things that stands out is the way the walls are covered in old photographs–of Chicago neighborhoods and Hollywood celebrities. So we decided to use photography as a motif for the website. We incorporated a row of Hollywood head shots on the homepage, and scattered old snapshots or postcards throughout the site.

So many restaurant sites are visually amazing–with “cool” animations and sound effects– but they are slow-loading and nearly unusable. We were conscious to avoid this trap with P.J. Clarke’s. As you click through the site, you’ll realize that this is a good example of a site that is aesthetically rich, while still remaining easy to navigate and understand. As fun as the design process was, we were careful to never lose sight of the fact that P.J.’s website needed to be a quick and easy source of information for potential customers.