Client:
Ben Saunders
Ben Saunders is a polar explorer, endurance athlete, motivational speaker, and all-round good-guy. He’s the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton. Impressive stuff.
With three North Pole expeditions already under his belt, Ben came to Erskine in December 2007 regarding a website for his upcoming North Pole Speed Record exhibition; another solo effort to the Pole, this time with emphasis on speed.
Ben aimed to half Pen Hadow’s time and reach the North Pole in 30 days, unsupported and on foot. This was going to be an exciting project, for us as well as Ben.
Due to some sponsorship issues we didn’t actually get started on the site till early March 2008 – just two weeks before the expedition was due to kick off! Not only was this going to be an exciting project, but also a rather hasty one.
The brief was simple in essence; Ben and Andy (the expedition manager) needed to tell everyone about the expedition in the most interesting way possible, and Ben needed to be able to post daily progress updates from the ice. This was all to be wrapped up in a design that was modern (in line with the advanced technological nature of the expedition) but also quietly acknowledging the traditions of polar exploration.
Blogging from the ice
The system we built to facilitate Ben’s blogging from the ice was an extension of the ExpressionEngine CMS, and the interface was simple enough for Ben to use on his Satellite phone and PDA. He was able to post daily journal entries, upload photos, and post statistics about his day; how far he’d travelled, what the weather conditions were like and how many hours he’d spent on the ice. This resulted in a much more immersive experience for the expedition’s many followers.
Because of the timescale, the design process for North was intense, but the outcome was successful. Erskine implemented a minimalist design that just screamed “polar expedition”, and made use of varied page layouts to keep the content across different sections fresh and interesting.
During our time working with Ben we also created this visually striking landing page for his network of sites, though this was only used temporarily.
“When I first approached Erskine Design, I had a gut feeling they would do a good job – their portfolio and their combined level of experience speaks for itself – but they consistently exceeded my expectations on every level. Despite being presented with faintly ridiculous deadlines and a string of knotty challenges, the guys at Erskine remained utterly unflappable, and a joy to work with throughout. I’m already working with them on my next expedition, and I can’t recommend them highly enough.”
Ben Saunders, May 2008
Ben is currently planning to reattempt the North Pole Speed Record in 2010, and has large plans for the opposite Pole later the same year. Watch this space.