Designer Ofir Mizrahi on creating diverse websites that convey the right vibe

Led by Israeli designer Ofir Mizrahi, Ofir Design is a brand and design studio based in New Orleans that provides a full service, from identity to tone of voice. If ever a potential client needs reassurance of the high-quality results they'll get, they just have to glance at the stunning work on the studio's online portfolio, spanning clients in the gastronomy, lifestyle, culture, corporate and non-profit sectors.

By way of example, Ofir's award-winning site for real estate development Mateo Street is well worth checking out. Built using Editor X, this one-page site looks amazing, without being showy. Via thoughtful use of differently coloured sections, it conveys a ton of information without looking cluttered. And the icing on the cake is the nested scrolling feature, which evokes a sleek and sophisticated feel that's perfect for the chic, vintage ethos of these modern rental spaces.

We chatted with Ofir about his design journey, what sets his studio apart, and how he creates his award-winning work.

What's your background: how did you get involved in design?

When I was growing up in Israel, I was always doing art and figured this was what I was going to do. When it came to college, I decided to sidestep a little into doing not art exactly but an art-related subject, graphic design.

In 2007, I studied Design and Visual Communications at a university in Tel Aviv. At this point, my focus was mainly on branding and print. And I fell in love with graphic design: the combination of being creative and putting that in the context of having a system and a grid.

After that, I worked in a few studios, again mostly for branding and print. I started as a graphic designer at Re-Levant Studio in Tel Aviv, and later got hired by David Haliva Visionary Design Studio in the same city.

When I moved to the States in 2014, I took a lot of classes in different disciplines, everything from interactive design and UI/UX design to letterpress and screen-printing. And I've never really chosen a particular direction to focus on; I just like to bounce between them and do different things.

What makes your service unique: why do clients come to you specifically?

First, I should explain that clients don't come to me for a specific style. In fact, if you look at my portfolio, you'll see ten different sites with ten different styles. Rather than make every website the same way, I want to create something bespoke that will suit a particular client perfectly.

I'll start with deep research into the company, what they're doing, and trying to understand their work or what they want to sell. And this is the part that I love.

I create inspiration boards, give them many options, and really listen to them to find out what they want. I get them involved in the process. They answer questions and see different options for design. I give them a lot of room for feedback and making the changes they want while always guiding the project, so I'll also be pleased with how the site ends up.

We love your site for Mateo Street! How did you create it?

I've been working with the company, The Borman Group, for a long time. They are an award-winning real estate re-development company focused on the preservation of vintage buildings and the revitalization of urban submarkets in Southern California. So they take old warehouses, for example, and renovate them beautifully. They might turn them into creative offices, restaurants or studio spaces. They always keep something from the old building, but also make it totally new.

One of their re-development projects was in Compton, a culturally iconic area of LA, and the concept was a hip-hop vibe that honoured the neighbourhood's culture. Another project was the re-development of a police station. So, there is always a different inspiration for the design elements that typically comes from the buildings themselves.

For this project, I had to use my imagination a bit because I had to create the website before the building was even renovated. The client didn't have many visual assets or images at that point, but they said: "We still need a website. Let's create something". And they wanted to give it a vintage vibe. So I took textures from old papers and incorporated them into my design to give it that vintage feel.

And there's a vintage feel to the typography too.

Yeah, I always put a lot of attention on the typography on my websites. I think that's partly because of my background, designing books and stuff like that. So choosing the right fonts is always essential to conveying the vibe that I want.

Amazingly, you could create a cool website without hand-coding it from scratch but using a web design tool like Editor X.

Yes, using Editor X means I don't need to hire developers to help me write the code: I can do everything myself.

There was a time when I'd use web design tools like this to create sites, but they didn't give you many creative options on how to present the site. With Editor X, though, that's not a problem: everything's really open. There are so many ways to create a website, and I can be much more creative. So it's been a game-changer for me.

The support is great, too. Editor X is a platform that encourages me to learn more and to understand how to do things I didn't know how to do before. So with every website I build with it, I'm trying new things.

Get started with Editor X today!

Editor X is a website creation platform that offers advanced design and layout capabilities for designers and web agencies. It's totally free to build and launch unlimited sites, while the premium plans give you access to the most advanced features. If you're a designer or agency who wants to spend less time hand-coding and more time being creative, Editor X can transform the way you work. Get started with Editor X today.