Welcome to the new AURAS website! The last time we remade our site was a decade ago, and while we made an OK portfolio site, it hardly communicated the extent of our skills, experience and philosophy. We want to change that.
Not exactly at the top of my to-do list, I have been thinking about a new site for the last year. But it was only until the pandemic came along to halve our workload that I seriously began to tackle learning how to build a modern website. Call it my Covid-19 Project. After putting it off for ages, I wanted to do something I would be proud of and I wanted to do it myself.
I had a lot to learn. Tools like InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop are as natural to me as an extension of my own hands. Learning new tools and understanding the practical aspects of creating a site in WordPress was a challenge, but not half as much as reimagining how the site should be built.
The hardest part was actually to NOT use the templates and premade sites that have made building a site easy enough for almost anyone to tackle. I built and then rebuilt the site several times as I became more competent understanding how a proper site should be made and how to implement some of the bells-and-whistles such as animation and custom fonts that would make it more interesting.
Ultimately, I realized the construction of a website is just another vehicle for telling a good story—it just has its own tools and its own rules. So, here is the story I want to tell—over forty years we have learned a lot at AURAS about the process of design. We care about the process as much as the product. HOW we work is as important as what we make. Of course the new site showcases our history and work, but I also hope it demonstrates that creativity, artisanship and collaboration produces better results and more satisfying solutions—and that we can all have more fun along the way. —Rob Sugar
