The client
THQ Inc. was a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. It built titles for major game systems, PCs, and wireless devices. It sold them through offices in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific from its headquarters in Los Angeles County.
The company has since been sold, and competitors acquired its assets. The engagement still matters as a picture of how Intrepid Network works inside a large, already-moving production team.
The challenge
THQ did not need another design pass. Another firm had already designed the site. The development team that programmed the CMS needed a partner who could:
- Implement the approved look and feel on the theme layer.
- Fit an existing stack, tickets, and code review without slowing the build.
- Treat functionality and search as part of the front-end work, not an afterthought.
- Match pixel-accurate comps across a multi-language, multi-role project.
Large publisher sites fail when the visual layer and the CMS layer are built in isolation. This project required someone who could join midstream and still own the quality of what users see.
What we did
Intrepid Network was contracted by the project’s developers—not as the sole agency of record, but as the team responsible for turning the design into a working theme.
- Implemented the website’s look and feel at the theme layer.
- Worked within the client’s tools and standards: Jira, Git, and the team’s development practices.
- Coordinated with writers and project managers on an already-underway production schedule.
- Built with functionality and search optimization in view during implementation, not after launch.
- Held the craft line: every pixel placed where the design intended.
Josh Utley’s background running design production—including teams of up to 22 artists, plus writers and project managers—made that handoff practical. The job was not to invent a new process. It was to respect theirs and still ship a precise front end.
What it demonstrates
Some clients need a full redesign and a years-long retainer. Some need a specialist who can enter a large project, speak the same language as engineering, and finish the layer that users actually see.
THQ is the second kind of engagement. Intrepid Network is built for both.
Services
Theme-layer implementation · Front-end / look-and-feel build · CMS collaboration · Jira & Git workflow · Search-conscious implementation · Multi-team production support.