Update the brand identity for the digital world and create a website that will adapt with the business as it grows.

We developed a well-defined brand and website that allowed the client to add and edit content as needed.

The updated brand and website acknowledges the established reputation while allowing for greater flexibility and growth.

The Bourne family. A family business growing so rapidly it required external support in designing and developing a refined brand and website.

The Need For A Local Dedicated Team

The client searched for a local web development team that would respect the current reputation and future needs of the business. It was clear this 70+ year old family run business remained passionate about the haulage and amenity services they provided—our responsibilities would need to respect this. The client felt the previous iteration of their website was starting to show its limitations while the brand was not able to be effectively used in the digital world.

Quality Takes Time But Is Worth The Wait

The project scope involved both a brand identity refinement and new responsive website. The lack of flexibility the client had when updating the information about their product range on their current website was becoming a hindrance as their product range grew.

We proposed a website that would be ‘future ready’; adapting to the needs of the business, within certain parameters, as it grew. We would allow the client to populate product categories themselves via a CMS with new individual products or even entire product ranges.

The business had a wide range of amenity products, and needed to position itself as a market leader, particularly when it came to technical knowledge of its products and their application—the website would need to highlight this.

The Existing Website Couldn’t Keep Up With The Growing Business

All the client’s businesses were growing, it was clear the brand identities and websites had been developed as a short-term solution. Their identities were becoming muddled and a complete website overhaul was needed.

The positions of the businesses needed to be instantly clear to the customer. The existing brand identity was well-known in the local area and so a rebrand would damage this established reputation.

We looked into the client’s complete product range in great detail, analysing their organisation and technical data. This would allow us to ensure our solution provided the right information in a clear and informative way.

The logo. As the business grew, various design agencies had contributed their logo designs to the Bourne brand. This resulted in a collection of logos that looked so similar it was hard to determine which logo belonged to which division.

Evolving The Brand With The Business

Instead of a complete identity change, we instead focused on evolving the existing logo; utilising the iconic elements of the existing identity and updating it to meet its digital needs.

A colour scheme for each Bourne Group division was proposed, the colours were derived from the parent brand—indicating a subtle connection. These colour schemes would be used wherever the identity was featured; from the staff uniforms to the websites.

Due to the wide use of the brand identity and the sheer cost of a complete change both internally and externally, the proposed update would be a gradual transition from the current identity to the new.

The first stage for the website was to determine a sitemap with the client. This resulted in dropping pages that analytics had shown were not important, and focused on restructuring the main user flow for the website; allowing the users to explore the products.

The website design evolved through fidelity levels, receiving client approval at each stage. The site would have a clear grid based structure, driving users through the product categories, families and products. An advanced menu system design allowed for fluid navigation, plus the ability to add new products or categories if needed.

Time to evolve. The subtle changes help to move the business forward.

A new symbol. A favicon design that could be used on a variety of background colours.Simple design, complex build. The design of the product range listing needed to be easy for people to navigate, even on a phone.

Bringing All The Pieces Together

Following the clients approval of the high fidelity prototype, the build was broken down into manageable parts. A custom framework was developed for the front end and the back end was wrapped in an API, this would enable the site to be easily maintained and scaled as necessary. The front end for the website and administration (CMS) area were put together and with the whole system thoroughly tested it was published to a private BETA environment.

The client was given BETA access to run their own testing and populate the site so that it would be ready for launch. Whilst the client was populating the site, we ensured the site was performant, if users are to have a good experience they expect speed, especially on mobile.

With the BETA populated and the client approval received, we migrated the site over to the client’s web host and ensured the site was functioning correctly on the production server. With everything in place the client was able to launch and market the new site.

Client Control; A Vast CMS Meeting The Needs Of The Business

With the size of Bourne Amenity, we wanted to ensure history was not repeated with the brand. Brand identity guidelines were provided to the client which they could refer to when developing new branded material.

Since its launch the new website has been regularly updated by the client through the CMS. We provided hosting solutions following the closure of the previous websites allowing the client to host all their websites and domains in one location. This made it easier for them to maintain control over their web presence instead of relying on a third party—effectively removing the cost and inconvenience of a middle-man.

A simple guide. These brand guidelines showed what components made up the unique Bourne Amenity identity.

Update: The Bourne Amenity continues to evolve as new additions to the fleet are being designed with the new identity.