Case study: Staufer& Hasler Architekten

The award winning Staufer & Hasler Architekten (Frauenfeld, Switzerland) challenged us to redesign their website for the modern mobile era. It had to respect the incredibly strong existing brand and aesthetic principles whilst being capable of scaling to accommodate their diverse portfolio. The site needed to be future proof in terms of updatability.

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The brief

This project was all about the subtleties, ensuring the minimalist style was respected, with maximum focus on attention to detail. We were chosen for our specialism in typography - Less was definitely more (We love this brief!). A variety of stakeholders had to be convinced of our design solution.

We had to capture the essence of the desktop when viewed on other devices but ensure that navigation was intuitive. The site needed to cater for the addition of new projects and publications whilst being manageable by the in-house team. Finally, we had to simplify the structure and user journeys with less distractions and more intuitive interaction.

The challenges

Being a well respected and well-known Swiss architect firm, we had to safeguard their aesthetics principle and ensure good brand equity. Staufer & Hasler Architekten did not want a flash website with lots of functionality and animation. They were incredibly demanding down the tiniest detail to ensure a superbly executed portfolio site.

The target audience, apart from the obviously commercial one, included potential future staff members. It was critical they were able to understand the philosophy, mission and vision of the firm. Not only by the project work, but also the presentation of the site itself.

The solution

We used carefully structured white space to let the images take the focus, the buildings speak the story.

Strong typography assisted the layout by consciously and subtly defining the templates, whilst reducing the furniture of the site structure to a minimum.

We established a matrix for the project listings template and associated project pages that confirmed the user journeys.

The result maintains one of the key requirements: being a tool to list calmly and precisely the work undertaken over the years in an understated yet powerful manner. Being strongly persuasive without the trappings of an obvious digital marketing platform.

“We don't build clouds and then attempt somehow to translate them into reality. Rather we imagine in advance how it will be physically realised, how it will stand there. ”

Astrid Staufer, Staufer & Hasler Architekten