Opinion
be on the brief but will be gold dust
nonetheless, so it’s important that we
open our eyes and ears and shut our
mouths, at least in the initial stages.
Designers need to know from the get-go
what a brand wants to get across to the
people it’s targeting and where it wants
to go commercially.
It’s easy to get caught up in pure
functionality – ecommerce capabilities,
navigation, multi-platform performance,
graphics, product and service descriptions,
check-out and booking processes... Of
course, all of that is hugely important.
But if people aren’t feeling the brand at
every stage, you’ll struggle to stand out
in a vast ocean of good design and make
it to the upper echelon of great.
NO SAUSAGE FACTORY
Our work with The Breakfast Club is a
prime example of why it’s so important
to look beyond the ‘what’ and ‘where’ and
get to the heart of ‘who’ and ‘why’. With
around 15 cafés, the owners like to
champion an anti-chain feel (each
restaurant has its own identity with retro
and nostalgic stylings) and celebrate the
fact that charity work is central to the
brand model.
We knew we had to capture the
experience of eating at a Breakfast Club
café and ensure all that made sense
online. The website had to be an integral
part of the brand’s expression. And we
had to get that sense of individuality,
passion for people and nostalgia across
without coming up short on functionality,
all while communicating the
philanthropic side of things.
A bit of a head-scratcher at first but if
you take ten steps back and think ‘brand-
up’, the fog starts to clear. Brand
messaging and ‘feel’ need to flow through
every aspect of a website and be evident
at every touchpoint along the journey,
always reinforcing, building, celebrating.
It’s not enough to upload a few facts onto
an About page and say ‘job done’.
WHO ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
A big part of going native with your
client’s brand has to be fully appreciating
the people who interact with it and the
never lost sight of the need for a clean
and clear user journey.
And that’s because the core principles
of web design are no different from other
creative disciplines. The idea that you
have to understand the whole digital
world is wrong. In fact, sometimes the
people who appear to know the most are
less creative, hiding behind all that kit.
There’s a lot to be said for getting the
ideas right without worrying about tech
pros and cons – and then working with
multidisciplinary team members to find
a way to make everything work.
By making that strategic creative idea
the heart of everything and keeping brand
messaging and people front of mind at
all times, your website will seem less of
an add-on. It’ll become a pivotal part of
the brand journey, improving the
relationship between people and things.
It’ll be great, not just good.relationship between the two. The goal
of branding is surely to streng then those
bonds, to improve the links between
products, services and individuals,
between people and things. A great
website will amplify that whole sense of
purpose. A good one will serve its basic
function, before the person moves on.
By weaving the unique brand experience
through every stage of the online journey
with strong creative, you can create the
perfect marriage between commercial
ambition and brand-people bond. It feels
enriched, more slick and holistic.DON’T BE A TOOL
We all have myriad tools at our disposal
but strategic thinking and strong creative
have to come first if you’re going to get
from good to great. It’s those original,
rich ideas that connect the dots and bring
everything together for the end user.
With our Breakfast Club project, we
wanted to convey a sense of overflowing
passion and energy, a little bit untamed
and untempered by ‘the norm’, which was
right for the brand’s personality. But we PROFILE
Ferry is co-founder and director of design agency
ShopTalk, which has amassed a varied body of
award-winning work.