Baker’s Kitchen is a Wedding and Special Events Bakery in Richmond, Va. As a wedding photographer in Richmond I have had plenty of opportunities to sample the products of local bakeries, and rarely does the chance for free cake get passed by. In the past it was not uncommon for the creators of these towering fondant-covered confections to remain unknown to me- until I started planning my own wedding. Then I asked brides everywhere about the details of their vendors that I found enjoyable (and those that were not so enjoyable too, in order to avoid them). Baker’s Kitchen was a top answer from brides whose cakes were a treat to both look at and devour. It was not until November 2008, when my sister-in-law tied the knot, that I became more familiar with Baker’s Kitchen.

Watching Adam’s sister Gina plan her own wedding just months before ours had numerous perks. I heard her rave about her favorite vendors, including drool-inducing tales of hour-long cake tasting sessions and flavor combinations galore. And I also heard her rant about others, like the bridal shop where the cost of alterations totaled more than half the price of the actual dress. Her cake, though, was one of the more pleasant planning tasks, and the outcome, as you can see above, was a lovely and delicious treat. So, when selecting my own wedding cake I did a Google search for Baker’s Kitchen and ended up at a website that looked nothing like the tales of grandeur and tastes of heaven that I was expecting. Thus my designer urges kicked into gear, and I offered to transform the online presence of the company to match the light and airy consistency of their cakes.

Background
(What? You thought those two paragraphs of bridezilla ramblings were background? Nope, here comes the technical stuff.)

As we all know, the cake industry has recently undergone a trendy transformation from boring-cakes-your-Aunt-makes to Holy-Cow-is-that-life-sized-dog-with-a-wagging-tail-really-edible?! Baker’s Kitchen is that kind of cake company, though with less of an inclination for pyromania than Duff over in Charm City. They craft beautifully shaped and decorated cakes for all occasions, and they needed a website to showcase this talent. Recently purchased business cards were the color inspiration for the website, though I had a few other ideas to start with (see above).

One of the main elements of this website would be photo galleries capable of both organizing and showcasing cakes of all varieties. I created a Flash gallery for this purpose, with click through navigation. Another important factor was photo editing; the bakery had a huge number of photos that could be used, many that needed editing and some that were of too poor quality to be used.

The Site
The main target market for Baker’s Kitchen is brides and other event planners, the majority of whom are women. I wanted a look that was light and whimsical but that would speak to non-brides (including, gasp! the occasional groom) in need of a cake as well. Thus the varying shades of blues and yellows accented with the dashed stitching borders was born. The white and brown accents create enough contrast to keep the text easy to read and also avoid any harsh black elements.

When sifting through the photos I recognized a number of the cakes from weddings I had photographed with dmfoto. So, I called up Daniel and had him send me copies of Baker’s Kitchen cake photos, all of which are gorgeous and make up the main wedding cake photos on the website. This made my job of photo editing much easier, and allowed me to focus on the non-wedding cake galleries. There are four Specialty Cake galleries: All Occasion, Children, Groom and Dessert Cakes. Photos on the Supplies and Contact pages are all courtesy of Baker’s Kitchen, and photos on the About page are all stock photos.

Overall this site was both fun and challenging to put together. One face-to-face meeting and a lot of emails with the employees at Baker’s Kitchen and ta-da! A new functional and in my opinion very beautiful website. This site remains one of my favorite that I’ve designed to date, and I can only hope that the wonderful and talented folks at Baker’s Kitchen agree! Have any questions about the design? In the market for a cake (who isn’t??) and want more info? Leave me a comment and I’m glad to help. And, here are a few more mouth-watering delicacies for your enjoyment.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 5:37 PM and is filed under Baker's Kitchen, Clients, client profile, dmfoto, graphic design, logo design, web design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.