As a new brand, our client needed a comprehensive brand guide. In addition to information on the brandmark, symbol usage, color palette, and typography, we laid out plans for color usage giving the Shift team base colors and guidance on proportion use with the sub-dominant colors. The guide also included a visual style for illustrations, graphics, and icons, which were particularly important in the early stages of the company before on-site photography could fill their website and marketing materials.
Step two: the website. How do you make Shift’s co-warehousing concept clear to users when the first location isn’t built out yet? Illustrations and animations. From a homepage hero animation showing a space expanding and reconfiguring to illustrations showcasing the types of spaces available all in simple black and white line drawings, we were able to do two things: showcase different space uses and prompt the users’ imaginations to begin applying their own configurations and brand to the spaces. The rest of the site was brought to life with relevant photography, a few bold color blocks, and the strategic use of a vivid orange for calls to action.
Shift plans to start in one city with one location and then grow to properties around the country, sometimes multiple within a city. So developing the site to grow with the company — much like Shift grows within a space for their customers — was vital. The WordPress site includes custom areas to allow users to see the cities Shift is currently in and where they’re soon expanding. The city pages themselves are set up to function with one property or multiple, with interactive maps to quickly orient a user to finding a space in an area that works best for them. And the property pages are individualized to include details pertinent to a specific location, including unique features of the property and the on-site support team.
