With mobile wall systems of the highest quality and durability, Espero is an established name in the Netherlands and operates in as many as 35 others. However, it was looking for an online brand experience of similar quality, one that would appeal to an international audience. Working closely with impact strategy agency The Terrace, we designed a new online presence to better reflect Espero's core values, give their product an appropriate stage and support their international ambitions.
Creating space for all
Espero sees itself as the partner of the architect and his or her imagination: helping them use space flexibly in order to increase its value for the people who use it. However, it is not only architects who decide which solutions are used in the development of buildings and spaces. Facility managers, project managers and general managers, they all have their needs, interests and influence. To understand how this context best translates to the future website, we developed personas and mapped their individual customer journeys.
Communicating with decision makers and influencers.
Driven by design and functionality, architects seek confirmation in a supplier's appearance and product quality even before delving into specifications or options for customization. Other audiences have a more general interest in the product and need to see it in context to determine if it fits their project. After validating the assumptions with customer interviews, we started sketching out the platform, a blueprint that would allow our designers and developers to create something beautiful, functional and future-proof.
We created a module that would allow users to compare different states of the walls.
It's a portfolio, but not as we know it
To satisfy diverse users and diverse information needs, we created an interactive and layered portfolio site. However, all users needed to be immediately drawn into a "rich" visual experience with powerful copy. Once in the right frame of mind, users are invited to explore the products, be inspired by their application in reference projects, delve into specifications and then request additional information or a quote. A customer journey that should lead to the right "brain position:" Espero is the leader in high-end mobile wall systems.
Designing a premium online brand experience for an international audience
After we structured the content, we got to work on visualization. Building on The Terrace's new brand design, we developed a sleek digital design that showcases Espero's premium product. For example, to highlight both their functional and aesthetic value, we used high-quality imagery of the wall systems at the center of the architectural masterpieces they sometimes become part of.
Visual building blocks to increase communication team effectiveness
To make Espero's investment as sustainable as possible, we needed to enable their communications team to create their own new pages to promote new products and cases. But with the high standard of the new brand guide, this was still not easy. So we created a compact design system of reusable components; paragraphs with layouts in which typography, image grids and hyperlinks ensure consistency and a stunning presentation on screens large and small.
A headless CMS to last for years to come
Since brand experience took priority over complex functionality, we decided to use the Drupal CMS with a "headless" React set-up. With the gained flexibility in presentation, we were able to design animations for the components from the design system. For example, Espero's tagline "Creating space for all" is used in page transitions. An "image slider" that lets users compare the different positions of a wall in its environment is another good example of how we use animation to enrich rather than distract from the brand experience.
From local leader to world class
With leading architects as our main target audience, the bar was high for our design team. Yet with The Terrace, we managed to design an online presence that brings Espero's new identity to life and proudly reflects its growing international success.