How do you shift external brand perceptions to attract a new audience?

Ellis Hillman

Workshops, Brand Narrative and Identity, Website

Background

Chartered Architects, Ellis Hillman, has spent the last 30 years cultivating a stellar reputation for excellence in architecture across a range of sectors, including residential, commercial, health, education and ecclesiastical.

The aim

Aligning with a change in leadership, Ellis Hillman wanted to create a shift in external perceptions to better reflect its evolving positioning and ambition to attract the next generation of residential and commercial clients. Ellis Hillman needed a new visual identity that modernised the brand while retaining the sense of warmth and approachability that long-standing clients have undoubtedly valued.

3 men in the Ellis Hillman team working in the office

Ellis Hillman architect build visual of a house next to a large pond

A new brand narrative

Conducting competitor research, a brand workshop and employee interviews, we developed the practice’s positioning in line with their long-term business objectives. As we crafted the new Ellis Hillman brand narrative, we anchored each point around one of three tenets that are core to the business: Knowledge, Excellence and Warmth.

We then developed a set of shorter key messages for the team to use across a range of media, including web copy, ad copy and printed literature. As part of this, we created a hero impact statement for the new Ellis Hillman website: Creative thinking, trusted approach. ‘Creative thinking’ helps to project innovation as the business moves forward, conveying a modern tone, while ‘trusted approach’ reinforces dependability, knowledge and experience.

Visual identity

We created the new Ellis Hillman logo, featuring an emblem encompassing the letters E and H, in a line style inspired by architectural building prints. We paired this with the company name in lower case, choosing the font Atkinson Hyperlegible for its clean, modern aesthetic.

We curated a brand colour palette that would make the business look and feel more contemporary. The Ellis Hillman Sky Blue gives the brand a modern, open and dynamic feel, with the secondary palette supporting the primary, to add further interest and decorative features to graphics, infographics and background elements.

Woman with her back to the camera speaking to another member of the Ellis Hillman team who is looking thoughtful in the background

Developing the website

Developing a new website for Ellis Hillman was the flagship piece in launching its new brand to market. It rebrands the business as a forward-thinking practice, with a wealth of professional experience, reflecting the desired balance between creativity and trustworthiness.

We designed the new site with a stronger focus on conversion rate optimisation, giving much more priority to lead generation, particularly from the domestic market. To create a more tactile and engaging user experience, we enhanced key touchpoints with custom animations and micro-interactions using Framer Motion for React. These subtle animations - like the animated hamburger menu and interactive navigation elements - not only elevate the overall user experience but also reinforce the brand’s new, more contemporary look and feel.

We prioritised the behind-the-scenes user experience as well, adopting a more structured approach to content management within the Wordpress backend. In customising the content management system (CMS) above and beyond its standard setup, we enabled the internal team at Ellis Hillman to save time with more seamless content creation and editing, while also future-proofing the site's styling and branding.

Two mobile phones side by side showing the Ellis Hillman website on a black background

Architectural line drawing from the Ellis Hillman website on a blue background with dark blue highlights

Our Work