This project is one that is near and dear to my heart. StuftStream is run by my close friend Bailey Brupbacher, and I have been a part of it since he (almost randomly) decided to buy his trailer last year.

Bailey was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana – we met through a friend of a friend when he moved out west to follow his job in water filtration; and have been very close ever since.

StuftStream creates some of the most amazing fusion cuisine that you will ever try, it is unfortunate that it’s a 2,000 mile commute for me to enjoy it.

Bailey gave 11eleven Studio full creative control over this project, which is nice for us, but also adds some pressure. For this project we had to wear multiple different hats, while placing ourselves in multiple different sets of shoes!

For this project, we had to think like StuftStream’s target market would think. Mainly… what information will be the most pertinent? And why would we be viewing StuftStream marketing materials? So we set out to create a “base” for all of their marketing operations.

Knowing that food trucks need to hold a large presence on social media, we made sure to focus the site around platforms that would be easy to update, and keep the site fresh with content. We linked their:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Google +
• and Yelp

We knew that we wanted all of our information to be instantly available, which is why we made the homepage load directly to a live feed of StuftStream’s Twitter (so that hungry patrons could find them) and Yelp (because of course you want to see others’ opinions).

We used advanced carousels across the site to clearly display information in an organized manner.

Like I said, we’ve been a part of this project for a long time, and it’s actually linked to a personal project of ours: Stuft (more to come in future posts). So we were lucky enough to be able to pick color scheme, font pairing, and design the logo.

For the logo, we wanted to incorporate the iconic Airstream feel with our already existing “Stuft” brand. The colors had to be fresh and clean, so we went with a crisp green as the base, and paired that with a vibrant orange.

Overall, we really wanted to draw attention to the food, and the flair of the guys (and gals) of StuftStream; we wanted this site to feel “clutter-free”.

We went back and forth for a couple hours, trying to decide what to use as the background for the header. Would it be just a white background to keep the clean feeling? Or should be use a static image to highlight the company?

Ultimately I decided to spend some extra time in photoshop and make a collage that helps encapsulate the feel of StuftStream (adventures for your eyes and your tastebuds). But we needed to drop down the exposure so that we didn’t take too much away from the menu text.

Although you might be expecting us to talk about their delicious food, in this instance we are talking about the navigation menu that 11eleven Studio created.

We tried to create some symmetry on the site while keeping the StuftStream logo front and center, which is why we opted for a split-menu.

Once we drop down to a specific number of pixels on screen, we will see the menu drop down to be optimized for mobile (as all of out site do).

Website creation was only about 50% of this project. The rest was branding and connecting – Meaning that we spent a lot of time creating a consistent image across all visible avenues. This started with the logo design and color scheme, and moved forward with social media development.

As I said, for this project, we wanted to use social media as the focus. We:

• Claimed StuftStream’s Yelp Page
• Created a Google My Business Account
• Created e-mail via Google Apps
• Linked Facebook via FB Developers
• Linked Instagram via Plugin
• Linked Twitter via Twitter Developers
• Created custom contact forms via plugin
• Displayed Yelp via premium plugin

For this project, we wanted StuftStream to have as few barriers as possible to updating their website. We wanted them to be able to post blog posts with ease, and update menu items whenever necessary. The solution to this is the premium plugin: “WP Bakery’s Visual Composer”.

I love this plugin, and I think that every wordpress site should use it. It drastically reduces the programming knowledge needed to update the site.

We also used “Yelp Widget Premium” – which gives us a direct, up to date, feed from StuftStream’s Yelp page. We use this to immediately establish quality as they have 5 stars and it shows up on the StuftStream homepage.

“Dude I just looked at it (for the first time) and it truly brought tears to my eyes how wonderful it is and how well you put together the exact things that I want and need. You’re inf***ingcredible!! I love you”

– Bailey Brupbacher (Owner/Operator StuftStream)