I thought a kind of island of content or knowledge (Canadian History) broken into distinct slices corresponding to the main sections of the ECHO site (most of which were yet undefined), with a search-engine orb in the center.

Perspective was of central importance. I liked the idea of placing the user in a position above and looking down from a distance at the site and its content, thus affording them an overview before entering the content-heavy pages.

A dynamic, animated Flash navigation structure featured on the site of the now defunct design firm Insomnious’ became one of my main points of reference.

Other inspiration came from architectural perspective drawings, especially from the early Modern period, as well as utopian city plans also from the beginning of the century.