A WORD WITH THE BROWN OWL

Tracy Costopoulos is the owner of award-winning design studio, Brown Owl Creative.

Always ahead of the curve, we spoke to her about Wix, Rollover, and the sleeping span of a snail.

Brown Owl creative was one of the standout agencies on the Wix Arena, with stunning designs, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to her fellow Wix professionals, that Tracy won a huge Wix competition four years ago.

Wix teamed up with 49ers legend Jerry Rice to provide the platform for his new website. They created a contest to see who could come up with the best design, and Tracy’s stood out.

That was one one of the highlights of my career,” she said. “Obviously starting my own company is right up there, but winning the WIX Jerry Rice Website Design Competition in 2012 was good, he still uses the site today.

It helped cement Brown Owl creative as one of the top agencies working in Wix. And lead to a ton of fresh clients for the platform.

“I’ve been offering WIX solutions to my clients since 2012 and the ease of use of their editor is something really appealing to non-techie customers, with a bit of training they are up and running straight after handover. When I build a Wordpress solution the learning curve is way more steep for a customer.”

Tracy's site uses Rollover to add some interactive features

Tracy also works in Webflow and Sqaurespace. A whilst she’s a fan of Wix, she’s aware of its limitations.

“Any platform has it’s pros and cons. If there was one area I could hope to see improvement on WIX it would be loading speeds. Their core functionality is based on Javascript and as much as I love Javascript and all the cool things you can do with it, it slows down loading time.

GETTING USERS ACTIVE

“My background is in graphic design and I’ve worked in some fast paced advertising companies as well as in-house design departments for large organisations prior to starting my own company Brown Owl Creative (www.brownowlcreative.com) in 2012.”

Since its launch in 2012, Brown Owl Creatvie has developed and grown the rance. services offered to compete at the leading edge of web services and stay ahead of the demands of modern business.

“We work closely with local and international businesses to develop strategic creative solutions through innovative design, development and branding. Our philosophy is simple, to create quality work that is purposeful, beautiful, meaningful, and long-lasting. Through our ‘User-Centred Design Process"​, we focus on getting the user to be active, rather than passive”

FUNCTIONALITY IN DESIGN

Tracey says she has noticed … “a movement towards Scandinavian design characterised by simplicity, minimalism and functionality,” in modern web design.

She is also keen on Google’s Material Design principles which are guided by print-based design elements – such as typography, grids, space, scale, colour, and imagery – to create hierarchy, meaning, and focus that immerse the user in the experience.

Tracy has always used cutting edge tools as part of her design and so tuned to Rollover to provide some extra sizzle for her new site.

“I endeavour towards a clean creative style and enjoy experimenting with different colour combinations and typography. I suppose my work is characterised by simplicity and functionality. I like the idea that something can be beautiful and functional at the same time and I place a lot of emphasis on user experience and the emotive experience of the user. I’m a perfectionist and a little OCD so I think this resonates in my work. I don’t like clutter or unnecessary fluff.

“I chose Rollover as I like the hover over effects it offers and enjoy adding some interactive movement to my sites. I find it very user friendly and quite flexible to use.

So what design trends has Tracey noticed this year: “I’ve seen a movement towards Scandinavian design characterised by simplicity, minimalism and functionality. I’m also keen on Google’s Material Design principles which are guided by print-based design elements – such as typography, grids, space, scale, colour, and imagery – to create hierarchy, meaning, and focus that immerse the user in the experience.”

Finally, we said we were going to talk snails, so let’S do it. Tracy has IFL Science as a client, and as a result she’s got the scoop on the matters that matter. Importantly, she reveals that snails can live for up to 15 years, and can sleep for three… Who knew.

You can check out some of Tracy’s work below.