Three Great Jakes Sites Honored by the 2018 AVA Digital Awards!

From roughly 2,500 worldwide entries, three websites designed and developed by Great Jakes were recognized for distinction by the 2018 AVA Digital Awards. The Dinsmore website received Platinum, the Gunderson Dettmer website received Gold, and the Wilkes & McHugh website received an Honorable Mention.

More on the AVA Digital Awards

The AVA Digital Awards recognizes outstanding achievement by creative professionals involved in the conception, direction, design, and production of media that are part of the evolution of digital communication. The annual competition is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP).

More on Dinsmore.com

Having tripled in size over the past 20 years, Dinsmore, an AmLaw 200 firm with over 650 attorneys, enlisted Great Jakes to create a sophisticated website that would properly position the firm as a major national player.

Key characteristics of the website include

• Homepage Animation – The homepage features an animated sequence built around the tagline, “Accomplish more.” Engaging, full-frame photos are used to highlight four “power statements,” which encompass the positive and progressive culture of the firm. Great Jakes added fluid movement to these stills to create a dynamic experience that pulls viewers in.
• Dynamic Content Teasing – The website is equipped with Great Jakes’s new Dynamic Sidebar Tool. This feature allows firms to easily create and manage sidebar content, including “suggested content” teasers that keep site visitors engaged. The suggested content can be manually curated, or the feature can be set to “automatic mode,” which uses a proprietary algorithm to suggest related content.

More on Gunder.com

Gunderson Dettmer, the global leader in representing high-growth technology/life-sciences companies and venture capital firms, came to Great Jakes to create a site comparable to those of the firm's startup tech and investor clientele.

Key characteristics of the website include

• Visually Impactful Client Stories – The website features a series of in-depth “client stories,” accented by beautiful, edge-to-edge imagery. These profiles illustrate the caliber of client that the firm regularly serves, and they describe the type of close, collaborative relationship that the firm has developed with each client.
• Integrated Logo Database – The website is equipped with a database for uploading client logos. Once they are in the system, these logos can be used in various applications throughout the site, while maintaining a uniform look. This adds a nimble, visual means for the firm to talk about its clients. At present, 190 logos are being used on bios and service pages.

More on WilkesMcHugh.com

Wilkes & McHugh, a litigation powerhouse that built a national reputation around nursing home abuse and neglect cases, sought Great Jakes to create a fresh visual identity and a new website that would elevate growing practice areas.

Unique features of the website include

• Geo-Targeted Homepage Content – The website uses geo-location technology to offer a targeted user-experience. When a person visits wilkesmchugh.com, the website instantly determines the visitor’s geographic position, down to the zip code, and serves up a location-specific image and message.
• Dynamic Sidebars – The website is equipped with Great Jakes’s Dynamic Sidebar Tool. This feature allows firms to quickly and easily customize sidebars that feature “suggested content” teasers, pull quotes, videos, photos, and calls-to-action. Easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionality gives site administrators unprecedented flexibility and control over their page layouts.

About the Technology

Both the Dinsmore and the Wilkes & McHugh websites feature "attorney microsites"—a unique approach to lawyer bios that Great Jakes pioneered. Attorney microsites are, essentially, small websites for each attorney that fit within the firm’s larger website. Each microsite can be customized to the specific business development needs of each attorney and can contain any number of pages or type of content. In addition to supporting the attorney bios, microsite functionality has been implemented for the Practice Areas and Industries sections of each website.