Nordwake
Nine years of a wordmark drawn in a hurry, and a product that had long outgrown it. A system, a site, and something the sales team stopped apologizing for.
| Service | Websites |
|---|---|
| Disciplines | Identity · Product interface · Sales collateral |
| Duration | Fourteen weeks, brand and site run back to back |
| Shipped | Identity system, product interface direction, website, guidance |
| Sectors | Software, B2B, Product |
From the brief: "Our sales team apologises for the website before they show it. We would like them to stop doing that."
🖼️
The original wordmark now hangs framed in the Amsterdam studio, and that was the deal. Replacing something a founder drew is a political problem before it is a design one — the mark needed somewhere respectful to go before anyone could discuss what replaced it.
What we made
Websites — the nine weeks, and everything they shipped.
Running brand and site back to back is why the interface direction and the identity share a colour logic rather than approximating each other. It is also why the sales team saw the site in week eleven rather than in month nine.
- A redrawn wordmark, with construction and clear-space specified
- Design system — type scale, colour roles, spacing and component rules
- Website design and build, on the new system, running on a real URL in week four
- CMS and a training session, so the team edits it themselves
- Accessibility evidence — contrast, focus order and keyboard paths, written down
- A sales deck the team stopped apologising for
- Trade-stand graphics for two shows
