At the height of the dotcom gold rush, Hothouse Interactive was one of the first digital only agencies in Australia. They produced and hosted many leading websites including Hutchison Telecom, Telstra BigPond, ETrade, and an early version of the Microsoft Network (MSN) website. For the Australian Business Online site, Hothouse Interactive briefed Franklin on building a series of user interface icons and banners based on an approved initial concept. Stephen produced up to twenty-two icons, each having to be visually recognisable in a large, medium, small, and tiny format. The result was over eighty individual designs, which gave the Hothouse Interactive developer’s more than enough variation for multiple user experiences.

Design Direction: Hothouse Interactive
UX/UI Design: Stephen Franklin   
ABOL website navigation icons inset on blue corporate colour background.
Samples of icons were supplied to Franklin from which he developed new designs, extending the navigation UI.
List of all ABOL icons showing their file name designation and size range.
Along with the primary large size icon Stephen had to develop each at a medium, small, and tiny size.
Mock-up of the ABOL Home Page.
The final icons were exported as low file size GIFs to meet the internet bandwidth constraints of the day.

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College Portfolio
Portfolio submitted as a requirement for graduating from the KvB College of Visual communication, Sydney Australia. Stephen received a diploma in Graphic Design on the 7th of December 1987.
John Bullers Pies Packaging Artwork
Creative artworking for the John Bullers Family Pies. A new product range from Green Isle Foods.
Escape to Luz Brand Identity
Identity design for Escape to Luz, a Dublin based holiday company which organises personalised trips to the Costa del la Luz in the Southwest of Spain.
BigPond Cable Launch Hero Image
Worked with the Art Director at Frontline to produce a hero image, the centrepiece of the Telstra Big Pond launch campaign. Blended two stock photography images using various distortion effects to create the blurred image on the outside and manipulated colour values to maintain an overall consistency.
Grandiosa Lørdagspizza Packaging Retouching
Retouching of the front of pack hero image for the Norwegian frozen pizza brand Grandiosa.
Brightspark Brand Identity
Identity design for Brightspark, a Dublin-based digital marketing agency.
Kellogg's Froot Loops Back of Pack Illustration
A promotional back-of-pack illustration created for Kellogg's Froot Loops cereal packaging. Included the digital creation and preparation of the finished image for use in the packaging artwork.
Microsoft Communiqué Cover Image
Front cover image for the Microsoft Communiqué magazine featuring the new Microsoft Front Page application. Utilising Alias Sketch 3D software to set the lighting and texturing of the composition of the image, and Photoshop for the final shading and colour balance.
Unilever Flora Packaging Artwork
Development of master illustrations, photography, and master elements for the Unilever Flora Heart design packaging artwork.
Queensland Energy Revolution Report
A seventy-page report on Queensland energy. Franklin designed the complete report including all graphs, charts, and illustrations. The target format was a short run digitally printed document.
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