Bespoke illustration and Craft CMS development for Microsoft Unified Communications Business
VIA
Shaking up the world of unified communications
about
A young and restless team intent on revolutionising the world of Unified Communications, VIA leads the charge in providing the tools needed to change how businesses do business.
Flexible working has transformed the way progressive companies operate. With the rise in flexi-time and remote working, and changes to office layouts including hot desks and breakout areas, traditional 'hard wired' communication tools have become increasingly redundant.
Using products including Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, VIA offers a fully hosted and managed UC infrastructure for their clients, giving them the tools needed to revolutionise communications and maximise new ways of working.
Already established in the market, VIA needed to reinvigorate their digital presence in order to reflect their position as market leader and to better present their ambition, their drive for innovation and their desire to challenge the status quo.
Over a series of sprints, we stabilised their existing Craft 2 website and totally reworked their digital brand, to progress their vision digitally and create a unique and industry leading, progressive presence online.
Creating a new digital brand
VIA had an existing logo mark and visual identity which would remain. Using their guidelines as a starting point, we sympathetically expanded on them and created a suite of new brand assets including shapes, transparencies, illustration and iconography. We also fine tuned rules around typography and colour palettes to ensure that while we remained true to the brand, the site met accessibility and usability standards, too.
RGB 57 / 59 / 69
#393B45
RGB 23 / 163 /198
#17A3C6
RGB 55 / 215 / 255
#37D7FF
RGB 241 / 0 / 94
#F1005E
Headings - Bungee
Body - Stevie Sans
Information architecture
Based on the needs and motivations of each audience type, we created a new site structure, sitemap and navigation. Focusing not only on getting each site visitor to the area of the site that was of interest to them quickly and easily, but signposting them to information or reassurances they needed to progress to conversion.
design
Sprint based design in action on a live site
Due to an upcoming product announcement there was a need to restructure, redesign and relaunch the homepage and product area of the site: quickly and in isolation. To minimise inconsistencies between the newly designed pages and the rest of the site as much as possible, we rolled out the new header and footer and the UI kit site wide as part of sprint 1.
Following the initial launch, we continued with the design of the rest of the site. Rather than working at page level, we worked on components which could be used to build out page templates quickly and efficiently.
development
Ongoing development of an inheritated Craft 2 build
While we were re-skinning the site in its entirety, rebuilding functionality was not part of our remit. We therefore had to keep the existing templates (and content fields) but apply a complete new interface.
The client was keen to have the ability to create bespoke pages on the fly, rather than working within the limitations of stringent layouts. We therefore developed a highly adaptable page builder in order to give the client maximum flexibility, without any risk of breaking the design.
Illustration
During sprint 1 there was a lack of imagery available to us for design and so, we developed a suite of bespoke illustration and iconography to bring the brand to life digitally. As well as representing the tech environment VIA operates within, this aesthetic reflects the progressive, ambitious and entrepreneurial nature of the stakeholders vision and mission. Team and office photography was taken during sprint 2, at which point, we were able to seamlessly merge VIA's stunning new imagery and their illustrations to create a highly unique and identifiable style.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Abstrakt! Every interaction, meeting, planning session and workshop has been professional and friendly. The team's attention to detail, knowledge and skills are second to none. Every page build, design and illustration has been exemplary. The team have gone above and beyond to ensure that our brief was not only met but improved upon and every detail considered. Abstrakt earns my highest recommendation!
Suzanne Whetton - Marketing Manager - VIA
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