July has been an exciting month for us here at MODE, earlier this month we celebrated the launch of the redesigned Mellow Mushroom website. We planned some low-key festivities around the studio and we knew our friends from Mellow Mushroom were going to join us in Charlotte for the launch, we were quite surprised however, to find that they had transported a mobile oven from their headquarters in Atlanta and were set up to bake pizzas in our parking lot.

Since we don’t have a Mellow location in Charlotte, and we are huge fans of their pizza, this was truly a pleasant surprise. In addition to MODE team members, a number of die-hard Mellow Mushroom fans found their way to our obscure corner of uptown via Twitter to partake. We didn’t share our beer though.

When we asked about the trip, Michael Shemtov, Mellow Mushroom’s Director of Marketing & Brand Development said “I decided to come to Charlotte to personally thank the team at MODE and show them how much we appreciated their efforts. As the site came together, we couldn’t help but see not just the effort that was put in, but also the love. It was important for us to let the entire MODE team know that we saw their hard work, and how much we appreciated it…we wanted to give it personally, with a pizza on the side.”

Michael Shemtov hits the launch button (actually the button says bullshit)

For those of you who don’t know Mellow Mushroom, it is a dine-in pizza and sandwich franchise with nearly 100 locations operating across the US. The restaurants are known for their outstanding food, easy-going atmosphere and the aesthetic distinctiveness of each store. A defining feature of the restaurants is the hand-crafted art that has been an integral part of the Mellow Mushroom experience for the last 35 years.

When developing the site, we wanted to capture the essence of that hand-crafted art as well as the uniqueness and authenticity of the individual locations. We went on-site to multiple locations to photograph employees, patrons and owners in their environment — as well as the ingredients, the ovens, the artwork, and the overall atmosphere of the restaurants. From a custom, hand-drawn typeface and unique preloaders for each section of the site, to over 100 layered and animated illustrations by MM’s own Dusty Griffin, every detail of the site has been newly imagined while embracing the offbeat character Mellow Mushroom is known for.

A key to the site’s success was giving each individual location a significant presence. We found that individual Mellow locations have a tremendously passionate local fan base especially active on, Facebook, Twitter and industry forums/blogs. To capitalize, we’ve built upon that activity by integrating with Facebook, bringing each store’s status updates, events and photo galleries directly into MellowMushroom.com. We’ve also given each store the ability to promote their place in their local culture by publishing lists of local retail, bands, organizations and festivals.

The process of creating this site was an enjoyable, if incredibly frenzied, experience. Due to the complexity of the visual, technology and content strategies, there was a well-orchestrated, highly collaborative chaos between both the design and development teams in full gear throughout the duration of the process.

Alex and Preston in on the action

Luckily, we had a client who was willing to support an ambitious approach and was appreciative of our efforts along the way. So appreciative, in fact, that they thought they would drive up from Atlanta on launch day, and surprise us with our very own temporary Mellow Mushroom, set up in our parking lot.

Check out mellowmushroom.com