It was essential that the site resonated with everyday EV owners, tech buffs and the crypto crowd. But it was also important that DIMO get new partners and developers on board, too. As part of our discovery process, we outlined how DIMO should communicate with these audiences — both visually and verbally. The result was an immersive web experience that paired seamless user journeys with subtle movement and animation to create a sense of belonging, all while driving users to download the DIMO app and get connected. 

A project that puts the user at the centre

DIMO is a future-focused project, so we needed to encourage buy-in by showcasing the brand’s vision and the bigger picture. Futuristic, Web 3 projects have a tendency to feel fake and abstract, or heavily feature video game-like imagery. Instead, we used real-world photography to reflect the real-life concept and incorporated 3D visuals of vehicles to make the site more engaging and interactive. And all of this was then balanced with a set of poster illustrations (courtesy of renowned visual designer, Trajan Jia) that blended modern themes with classic car culture to give a nod to DIMO’s vision. 

Balancing real world and digital world, and present and future

DIMO had recently rebranded. But we took the opportunity to evolve and elevate things further. We introduced new assets including gradients, rounded corners, lighter typography, and signature glass phone imagery. This not only built more value in the brand, but created an authentic, high-tech look and feel that would go beyond the bespoke site — from the native driver's app and marketing materials, to DIMO’s very own design system that enabled creators and developers to build new apps on the ecosystem. 

Building a brand across an entire ecosystem

The S8-DIMO team spanned from the UK, Cyprus and Portugal to New York and California, collaborating on initial mood boards and wireframes, right through to the final animations ahead of go-live. And by staying in constant contact through workshops, weekly (and eventually daily) stand-ups, and continuous updates via Figma and Discord, we designed and developed the DIMO site — from scratch — in a matter of months.

Collaborating across time zones, from Cyprus to California

DIMO

Our main goal was to modernise the brand by introducing a new look and feel that’s playful and youthful, but still gives a nod to its core values. We paired a new palette of contrasting colours with distinctive design elements such as badge stamps and image inktraps. Then, we went big and bold with typography.

220 years young: a traditional brand with a bold new energy

British style is all about independence and eclecticism. And when your history is as inspiring as Peregrine’s, it's only right that you write with flair. We outlined a new brand voice that brings together the wit of great British humour, the authenticity of storytelling, and the straight-talking tone of a brand that’s big on sustainability. In other words, charming, honest and rugged. Definitely no wooliness. 

A voice that speaks volumes

Our discovery work revealed that almost 3 in 4 users were returning visitors. And since these users are more likely to make a purchase, it only made sense to incorporate more upsell features in both the cart and the wishlist. Shoppers now see recommended products based on what they’ve purchased in the past. Or, they’re presented with suggestions of products that (based on data from past visitors) are frequently purchased together. 

Personal(ised) shopping, from the wishlist to the checkout

Peregrine’s a British-made brand, but its products are sold all over the world. Using Shopify Markets, we built a bespoke location switcher that groups countries into regions and enables shoppers to see specific pricing based on their location. Plus, the Peregrine team can customise pages depending on the season or campaign. 

We also went the extra mile to create more seamless user journeys. Users can browse clothing by size (and only see items that are in stock), as well as product type and material. The responsive image galleries are tailored to their chosen product colour. And, we also added quick buy functionality to the collections pages and blog, so users can easily add featured products to their basket. 

Making it better to browse and easier than ever to buy

Peregrine

The visual branding was all about refinement. Acupanel’s current logo typography was uncomfortably wide, so we worked on spacing to create a more readable wordmark and clean, modern logo. We paired that with a new colour palette featuring darker shades of green as background colours alongside lighter, complementary shades. The result? A more premium look and feel that lets the product shots do the talking. 

A twist (or two) on a classic typeface

Acupanel is an industry-first, so emphasising the brand’s originality was a must. We went back to basics, running workshops with the team to outline tone, rhythm and personality. We landed on a new brand voice that’s adventurous, inspiring, and real. 

We then turned our attention to copywriting. We used pairs of headings to add a signature characteristic to the content  - plus, give a nod to the fact that Acupanel’s products are all about style and substance. We told stories about the brand’s heritage to inspire readers. And, above all things, we ensured Acupanel’s voice was warm, genuine, and reflected the fact that installing its products was reassuringly simple. Because to 'do it yourself' should mean just that. 

Showing you’re a pioneer — not just saying you are

Behind Acupanel is a team of expert craftsmen with a love of design. Its out-of-the-box panelling is an industry first,  so it only made sense that we shake up the average e-commerce store structure with something out-of-the-ordinary. 

We designed and developed an immersive, interactive website featuring layers of texture, continuous movement and animation, and striking photography. We incorporated audio clips, annotated imagery, and real-life inspiration galleries to elevate the entire user experience. Shoppers can select colours, apply finishes and calculate how many panels they’ll need with the coverage calculator. And traders can sign up for exclusive discounts through Acupanel’s partner program. Everything that shopping with a premium brand should be. 

A design that’s out of the ordinary 

Acupanel

We used continuously revolving 3D animations to reflect Fat Tuesday’s grab-and-go culture, as well as realistic film and photography, flyer-style torn edging, and bright neon signage - a nod to the fact that their Vegas stores are often first-stop vacation spots for those visiting the city. 

A brand that blends in; not tries to fit in

To increase footfall, we created an interactive map to show users where they can grab their first (or their next) drink. Cup QR codes direct users to a location finder, and we integrated with Fat Tuesday’s third-party gift voucher platform to enable users to quickly and easily check their balance online.

A user journey that keeps the party going

Research showed that visiting Fat Tuesday was usually a group activity, and almost always part of a wider experience - be that partying, sightseeing, or hitting the beach. With a selfie-worthy selection of drinks and a ready-made audience of social media users, we added a live social feed that synced with in-store screens across all locations to show the good times never stop rolling.

A space for sharing the good times

After the go-live of the new Fat Tuesday site, we set to work on overhauling the sister brand - New Orleans Original Daiquiri. The premise and concept were the same (frozen cocktails to-go, a dated online presence), but with all outlets in the state of Louisiana, and an older more local audience to appeal to, we gave the brand a small-town, neighbourly feel. Think laid-back Southern vibes, a retro typeface and photography, and a feel-good colour palette and design that says “stop by and kick back with a cold one”.

A local, Louisiana-based little sister

Fat Tuesday

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People creating websites, developing brands and building eCommerce stores for people.

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AI apps are everywhere right now. So we took some time out to separate the great from the gimmicky. Here are 9 of our faves.

A one-click-wonder for removing backgrounds. Whether you want to save as a PNG or add a new background to product photos, remove.bg has got you.

Our go-to app for creating super-resolution assets. It allows you to enlarge and enhance photos and other images in an instant.

Makes finding fonts easier than ever. Upload your font inspo photo and the app searches its database of 230,000 fonts to find the best match.

A content-based one this time – but something we use for high-fi design mock-ups. Drop in your text and Quillbot will rephrase it in seconds.

Say goodbye to superimposed mock-ups. For showcasing branding concepts on everything from swag to billboards, try Place It.

For converting 2D assets to 3D, there’s Morflax. It even lets you customise and animate 3D mock-ups, too. Think device screens, bags, bottles, and more.

TomeAI takes presentation templates one step further. Sales pitches, design portfolios – you name it, Tome helps you create it, fast.

Tiny by name, mega by nature. This one has all your general admin tools: PDF compression, image conversions, spellcheck, and more.

Great for creating simple UI mock-ups - whether you’re in need of inspiration, or want to free up time to focus on the meatier, more complex design tasks. 

Top AI apps right now: design edition

In web development, whether it be fast-paced or not, hiccups happen. Deadlines creep up, budgets fluctuate – there may even be a change in team members. All of these things can lead to development ‘shortcuts’. And this, in turn, builds up technical debt.

Basically, technical debt is all the development work that needs to be done to rectify any corner cutting that was done to keep the project moving forwards.

If a project deadline is far into the future, there’s no reason not to keep with the best practices. By this, I mean neat and tidy code, everything just looking 

, and working perfectly. Sections of code can be built upon, comments in code to document various workings are self-explanatory. It’s what every project 

But, if that deadline is brought forward, suddenly more complex sections might become a bit rougher round the edges and will take a future developer more time to maintain, fix bugs or build upon.

Shifting team members, or onboarding new ones, can occasionally rack up debt, too. If a developer comes onto the project that hasn’t had a reasonable amount of knowledge sharing, or doesn’t have the technical abilities to work on the project efficiently, they might cut corners to get things done.

For example, they might find an area in the project that looks or functions something like the end result and mould it to fit what is needed – without cleaning up any unnecessary parts of the code. What you’re left with is something that works, but is a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster.

There are a few other reasons that can come into play – some are deliberate, others not so much.

A deliberate decision could be pushing forward with development while skipping over the design phase. Developers almost “guess for themselves” as to what the end result should look and function like. Another cause of technical debt could be pushing the project live during a stage of development and being prepared to deal with any consequences afterwards.

The not-so-deliberate reasons for debt build-up could be recklessness i.e. knowingly creating technical debt due to a lack of knowledge. Or, being unaware of the mistakes that are being made along the way.

And, finally, there’s the kind of technical debt that you’re knowingly creating, i.e. after development has taken place, you become aware of a better way of doing things.

Still with me? Great. Now let’s talk about what we can do to reduce that debt.

Once technical debt is identified, it’s better to get a plan in place to clean things up as early as possible. This prevents the debt from increasing, because the more development work is factored into those areas, the harder it will be to clean up later on.

There’s been times when in order to get the project to meet the required design, front-end developers have used unsupported features in CSS files. While these use specific browser prefixes and will eventually be supported across all browsers, using these prefixes also creates a technical debt that can be dealt with later on. A good example of this would be the appearance property that currently needs prefixing with -moz-appearance and -webkit-appearance

Eventually, these prefixes won’t be needed, and can be removed to make the class more efficient and cleaner.

While we’re on the topic of stylesheets, Harry Roberts 

 a stylesheet that exists purely to keep any known trade-offs in, so that it can be easily identified as something to work with later when reducing the debt. Keeping this separated means that when a solution has been worked out to make it more efficient to the known system, it can be removed from this file and placed in an appropriate section of the stylesheet structure. On top of this, it also allows you to do a git blame to find out when, and by who, the debt was introduced.

Debt can be minimised by providing thorough documentation at the end of the design process. This can then be built upon with new components and processes as further development work. It also means new developers can use it as a guide to pick up the project.

Interactive libraries such as Storybook – a Javascript library that allows for components to be built, documentation and tested – are also extremely beneficial when it comes to reducing technical debt.

User feedback and reviews can help identify and reduce technical debt, too. A user could already have knowledge of how the project should look/interact or be completely unfamiliar with it. All feedback is valuable!

So, to sum up – technical debt happens. In some cases it’s avoidable, in others – inevitable. But, being mindful of how best to reduce it (as a team) can help limit those future headaches and promote better ways of working. Win-win right?

4 ways to reduce technical debt during front-end dev

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This year’s all about making budgets go further. But when you’re weighing up where your marketing spend will make the biggest impact, there’s one thing you really shouldn’t be cutting corners on – and that’s your branding. Here’s why.

First impressions have never counted more

If there was ever a time to show you take pride in your appearance, it's now. Research by 

 shows that people will make a judgement about your brand within the first 90 seconds – and up to 90% of that decision is based on colour alone. Saying that, it’s important to remember a logo, colour palette or symbol is just a tiny part. Your brand is also your values, your story, and your perspective. So, a stronger, more well-rounded identity shows you care – about your business, your customers, and your future.

Investing in your brand doesn’t always mean upgrading what you have. Most of the time, it’s simply about being more unified in everything you do. Consistency shows confidence in your brand identity, and confidence always inspires trust. This is something that’s never been more important when it comes to new users – especially since 

 that as many as 77% of customers would recommend a brand to a friend after a single positive experience.

You’re only as good as your team. And, when times are tough, you need the best talent behind you if you’re going to come out on top. Investing in your brand is a great way to build engagement among teammates. If everyone’s aligned, you’ll strengthen your brand image across every touchpoint.

Plus, you’ll make your brand something that your people are genuinely proud to be associated with. Do that, and you’ll have a better chance of attracting and keeping the best people, and getting better results across the board.  Win-win, right?

Loyalty will be the word on everyone’s lips this year. Across every industry, people will be shopping around for cheaper alternatives. But the stronger your brand identity, the less likely it is that your current customers will stray away.

Yes, a competitor may be cheaper – but do they really offer more value? The role of your brand identity is to remind your users of everything you stand for and why they loved shopping with you in the past. If you feel you’re out of touch or falling behind, then re-evaluating your brand can help you stay relevant. Your customers identified with you at one point in time, so there’s every chance they will in the future, too.

Impactful advertising is going to be essential for standing out. But having a strong brand identity goes a long way in making your marketing all the more powerful. We’re not saying shake things up for the sake of it – or go bolder, brighter or more playful if that’s not what you’re about. Simply tightening up your look and feel, or even just getting a fresh outlook on your creative assets, can help ensure your brand identity remains relevant, exciting and – above all things – recognisable. Your brand is your biggest asset, so push it further and make it work harder for your business. That’s what it’s there for.

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Top AI apps right now: design edition

4 ways to reduce technical debt during front-end dev

Why the last thing you should cut corners on this year is your branding

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Top AI apps right now: design edition

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Why the last thing you should cut corners on this year is your branding

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