Project: Branding & Resposive website design
Client: Castello di Ugento
Agency: Furthermore
What I worked on: Concept Development, User Experience, Interaction design, Visual design & Branding.
After designing the full online presence for the the luxury boutique hotel Castello di Ugento we go asked to do the same for their daughter hotel Masseria Le Mandorle. The hotel is a lovely old farmhouse, restored and revamped with all the latest amenities for a luxurious stay in Puglia, the heel of Italy.
We created a stylish and modern website with a simple navigation that lets the beautiful imagery speak for the hotels lovely offerings. The site is built with different modules so the client can quickly and often update their content and imagery. The hotel has since launch been rewarded with a 5-star rating, you can check out (or why not book your stay) the website here.
THE PROCESS
We started out with a research sprint where we collected visual and functional inspiration through moodboards and as part of a wider landscape review. As we needed to work remotely, we used Invision’s ‘boards’ so we could easily create a creative guideline which included a selection of appropriate tone, mood, colours, typography and interactions we felt met the brief.
In the next sprint we focused on creating two user personas and their stories through an empathy mapping workshop. That was followed by a customer journey framework where we could map out their different "stays" at the hotel, and how Masseria Le Mandorle would be there to suit all of the differing user needs.
We opted for a simple yet elegant responsive website design that allows the visuals of the hotel's attributes to speak for itself. By incorporating large visual images with strong headlines we could highlight the hotel's features without cluttering the interface.
We combined this with playful illustrations that compliment the logotype. The design is modular and scalable and enables the client team to easily update, rearrange differing components to reflect their changing priorities and proposition from off-peak to peak.
To tie Masseria Le Mandorle together with Castello di Ugento we inverted the font styling to try and achieve a mother and daughter aesthetic. The body font at Castello di Ugento became headline font for the masseria. The logo and colour choices was based on the natural palette of Salento, the blue from the ocean and the light and sandy tones from the Ugento houses and Puglia's historic landscape. Alongside the mobile-first website design, we were also commissioned to visualise key branding components for within the hotel.
THE RESULT
The result was a responsive website with large imagery and a luxury feel. The client was more than happy and got awarded with a 5 star rating a few weeks after it went live. I personally can't wait to visit.
