NEWS
A handcrafted website for a luxurious B2B artisan brand ambassador
Key Takeaways:
- e9digital built a user-friendly website for The Hērē’s Guild with a custom retailer portal.
- The site highlights THG’s services, clients, and premier NYC location.
- The design features gold gradients, immersive photography, and animations.
Ever think about who makes the plates, silverware, and other decor on your dining room table? The people who design, distribute, and sell these items comprise the “tabletop industry.” And it has its unique challenges. For example, there is often a disconnect between heritage brands and retailers.
The founders behind The Hērē’s Guild wanted to remove barriers to entry for these artisan products and help stores find the perfect additions for their customers. That’s why Peter Themistocoles and Liz Fodera started THG, creating a one-of-a-kind boutique brand management agency that partners with heritage-rich brands and artisans of international housewares to establish their roots in the market.
Showing, not saying, luxury
The problem with marketing for luxury brands is that the more an agency says in the copy that it’s a “luxury brand,” the less it feels like a luxury brand. The website has to look and feel luxurious, and the copy must indicate why the brand is so. It’s like why saying you’re an Olympic gold medalist feels so much less powerful than seeing an athlete win a gold medal.
For THG, they sent us a brand presentation, and our designer used that as a foundation to build the site and craft a strong voice. The look and feel of the website were critical: these global brands needed to know that THG put them in the best possible light with retailers.
To bring out the gold in their logo, we implemented a gradient for a three-dimensional appeal and used the same gold throughout the website to draw attention to CTAs (call to action). We followed e9digital’s UX best practices for the home page, giving these houseware brands a peek behind the curtain of what they can expect working with The Hērē’s Guild:
- A powerful hero image with short, enticing copy that catches a tabletop brand’s attention.
- An about section that details the experiences of co-founders Liz Fodera and Peter Themistocles.
- A services section that outlines the competitive advantages of THG, enticing brands to read interior pages.
- A brand section that highlights their current clients, helping potential clients feel assured of THG’s capabilities.
- A testimonial section that provides social proof of the benefits of working with THG.
- A news and press section that showcases THG and their clients’s appearances in the media.
- A final CTA (call to action) that invites brands and retailers to connect and learn more.
However, for every website design client, we stray slightly from our best practices to ensure that we meet the target market’s needs. THG has a premiere location: inside the famous New York Merchandise Mart. Adding a section about their location on the homepage helps establish their reputation as a premiere brand. Show, don’t tell.
“A confused customer is a non-existent customer. You need to communicate your value in 10 seconds or less. If not, you’ll lose people’s attention and they’ll head to your competitor!” - Conrad Strabone, President of e9digital
52% of people are less likely to engage with a company that doesn’t optimize for mobile
Every part of an e9digital website works on a phone–even our custom creations. For The Hērē’s Guild, our developers created a unique retailer portal for the site. They are a B2B company. Retailers look to THG for high-end tableware. For a streamlined shopping experience, the retailer portal features all of THG’s artisan brands. Each brand has its own page in the portal, with a gallery, a brief description of the brand, and the option to download its PDF catalog of products.
THG wanted the perfect wording on the website to communicate to retailers about these artisan brands. Our copywriters worked closely with Peter and Liz to create enticing descriptions of each brand, encouraging retailers to download product catalogs.
Our developers had to create a user-friendly interface to create an account within the portal and simplify user management for THG. Working closely with the company, we included necessary user fields to give THG all the information they need about the retailer. Then, THG receives an email to approve or disapprove the account. Once approved, the retailer receives an email with login information for the portal. Easy as pie!
“I love the gallery for each brand. I think it’s great, it’s inspirational, and it highlights the artisans.” – Peter Themistocles, Co-Founder | The Hērē’s Guild
Pictures can improve people’s ability to recall information by 65%
Photography was crucial for THG’s website–they wanted to create a lasting impression of the specialized creations from their international artisans, easily available for retailers to view in their NYC showroom. Plus, photos are a universal language and communicate without words, which is necessary when the artisans may not speak English.
Our team helped THG assemble a recommended shot list for the site, along with technical specs. The company was able to share this with their photographer and capture the ideal imagery to showcase their fantastic brands–and they turned out great!
We utilized photography throughout the site in the backgrounds of sections to create a textural filling. We outlined photography and sections with a mix of thin gold bars and thick dark blue ones, drawing the target market’s eyes to sections to read and images to enjoy.
“I love the use of the transparent workshop images, that really drives home the artisans behind the work.” - Peter Themistocles, Co-Founder | The Hērē’s Guild
Modernizing the logo interaction for brand consistency
The Hērē’s Guild goes by the name THG as well for easy understanding with brands and retailers. They asked us to create a design where, as the visitor scrolled down the page, the logo at the top transformed from “The Hērē’s Guild” to “THG.” Our designers love it when clients come in with fantastic ideas for us to implement. We created their vision, which added an exciting, interactive touch to the website.
Delivering websites on time every time
Have you ever tried to give feedback on a website design? You have to say things like, “Halfway down the About page in the right-hand column, please make the second image slightly bigger.” It’s convoluted, confusing, and creates costly delays.
While this was a comprehensive project, e9digital made every deadline and moved the project along due to the consistent processes our project manager has in place. We utilize Pastel to make it easy for our clients to give feedback and for us to implement it promptly—critical for a successful website launch. Clients can click on website elements like images, sections, or logos and leave comments. Then, we know exactly what they’re talking about.
The Hērē’s Guild was particularly concerned with their website’s language. Patel allows you to mark up the copy, like redlining a Word document. This allows them to treat the site like a copy doc, and they get a preview of how it will look once we update the code. Then, our designers and developers can copy the edits from Pastel and paste them into the actual back-end of the site.
“The objective was to design a website that best reflects The Here’s Guild brand. What the company has is so unique, and we were excited to deliver a site that educated their target market with their signature, high-end look.” - Jesse Cohen, Creative Director | e9digital
The collaboration between The Hērē’s Guild and e9digital resulted in the perfect blend of upscale design and strategic functionality. By creating a luxurious, user-friendly website and custom retailer portal, e9digital helped THG showcase their unique value in the B2B housewares market to attract artisans. From the gold gradients in the logo to the immersive photography and seamless mobile experience, every element was thoughtfully designed to reflect the high-end brands they represent.
Looking to increase awareness for your brand with a website that combines stunning design and functionality? Our website design services can be customized to meet the needs of any niche market. Contact e9digital today to learn how we can create a one-of-a-kind website design that drives conversions today.
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