view
Work/

Redefining a property developer's digital brand

Winner roundelWinner roundel

Project

Web & Brand

Role

Senior Art Director

Client

Taylor Wimpey

Agency

Valtech

Taylor Wimpey looked to Valtech to redefine their digital experience, and align with their customer-first strategy through a market-leading platform.

Banner image

While Taylor Wimpey's brand existed within print materials and signage, their marketing function was decentralised with multiple regional brand managers which meant much of their collateral was inconsistent and lacked a single point of truth. As well as visual inconsistencies, tone of voice was purely dependent on individual marketing teams. Their website was basic, using only system fonts, lacking a responsive framework and several expected features such as complex search and contextually-suggested content.

Working in a core team comprising a UX Designer, Business Analyst, Researcher and Technical Lead, we took Taylor Wimpey through a discovery phase of UX and Brand workshops, interviews, and creative ideation. We used these insights to outline user stories and journeys, culminating in a mobile prototype used for moderated and unmoderated user testing.

Art Direction was minimalist with brand colours used sparingly for interactive elements, with further colour added through photography and bespoke iconography. house buying is an emotional purchase, so we gave space to hero the photography. Putting emphasis on homes over houses, we included photography of people enjoying their homes to add some humanity to the living spaces; these were balanced with more traditional empty spaces, allowing home buyers to better imagine their own use of space.

Up until this point, Taylor Wimpey used one primary sans-serif font, and a secondary serif for higher-end plots across their print marketing, but despite commonly supported webfonts, still using Helvetica as their websafe brand font. We used this an an opportunity to update their typography to more consistent brand alternatives across their digital platforms, and in the process promoted their secondary serif font to primary use to reflect a more elegant and modern aesthetic. Two new iconography sets were also created including one to communicate local amenities and features such as bedroom and bathroom numbers, and a simpler UI set. Along with the website update, a Tone of Voice and photography document was also created to guide the production of new content for each local marketing team.

No items found.

RESULTS

Banner image

Questions, or interested in talking about this project?

Let's talk

Instagram

Visual exploration, 3D experimentation, 36 Days of Type, & various side projects

View all posts

They say…

Always hard working and with extremely high standards. He’s also a top bloke to have around and made a big contribution to our award-winning culture at the agency.
– Jon Lonsdale, CEO at Octopus Group (Publicis Groupe UK)
Regardless of the scope or scale of each brief, Dave’s ambition to produce exceptional creative always reigned supreme. Dave was also good fun to be around, bringing lots of humour to work which often brightened busy days.
– Katie Pospischil, Head of Client Services at Octopus Group (Publicis Groupe UK)
Working with Dave is fun, productive and a genuine inspiration – he manages to grasp both the creative requirements for a project, and the technical detail with which to deliver it. It’s quite something to behold. I really enjoyed working with Dave, both for his professional excellence and his brilliant sense of humour, wit and work ethic. I can’t recommend him highly enough.
– Tom Dennis, Head of Content Marketing at English Heritage
Dave has added a huge amount. You can’t be a great marketing agency without a really strong creative department and Dave has delivered that. He leads from the front, with a natural passion for design which means you know he’ll always give 100% to anything he works on. Dave commits! Culturally, Dave is very easy to work with and great to have around. He always speaks his mind as a senior team member, but always in a very balanced and consultative way. He’s also good fun and people enjoy being around him, which is crucial for a management team member.
– Pete Hendrick, MD at Octopus Group (Publicis Groupe UK)