Young + Wright Architectural
Young and Wright Architectural is one of the most well-known architecture firms in Western New York—and not just because they’re the biggest Bills fans around. They work with schools, businesses, and communities throughout the region and design innovative spaces that inspire and blend functionality with creativity.
They were among my very first clients when I started my business in February 2020. I’ve gotten to know them well over the last few years and I absolutely adore them. So when Elissa D’Alessandro, their Marketing Manager, reached out to ask if we could talk about redesigning their website, the answer was an easy “hell yes!”
Designed by an architect on their staff, their current website was functional but needed some spit ‘n polish. They wanted a new website that would showcase their energetic, dynamic company culture, spotlight their best work, show off their talented team, and align with their brand and company values.
Done and done!
Their old website
Their old website was perfectly functional and had worked for them for several years. But as time went on, it showed its age—like all websites do.
The design wasn’t brand aligned and didn’t put their work front-and-center. It was built on Squarespace’s old 7.1 builder, and the lack of design flexibility showed. It was time-consuming to update and the staff member managing it frequently found themselves spending lots of time hunting around on Google for code solutions. Over time, the back-end had become bloated and difficult to manage, too.
Last but not least, the site’s SEO was off. Google was having a hard time understanding the firm and what it offered, so Young and Wright wasn’t as visible in search results as they wanted to be. And with the advent of AI summaries in search results, we needed to make sure that AI would be able to easily find and pull information for the site.
To give you an idea of where we started, here’s a look at their old website’s home page:
The web design process
Time for some spit ‘n polish!
Because we were taking the website “down to the studs” and revamping it from the ground up, I started the process by building wireframes of some of the more important pages—the Home page, the Firm page, and a Project Portfolio page. Wireframes are lightly designed examples that use placeholders for stuff like wording and photos. They’re intended to give clients the opportunity to try on the new “look and feel.”
The Young and Wright team made a couple rounds of minor edits on the wireframes. With their approval, we were off to the races!
I provided the team with a wording outline so they could rewrite the entire website to align with their brand’s voice. Along they way, they identified almost 30 projects that they’d like to keep in their portfolio and rewrote the wording for each one.
Naturally, the Young and Wright team wanted the site to spotlight their work. But because prospective employees are one of their most important online audiences, they felt that it was especially important that their company culture to shine through. They carefully curated every photo we used on the website and made sure the site represented as many different staff members as possible.
Once their content was ready to go, it was time for the fun part!
I had a blast creating a pared back, minimalist design that includes lots of white space for the eye to rest. I relied heavily on black-and-white, strategically using their brand green as an accent. Their logo was the inspiration behind the shape of photos and section dividers used throughout the design.
I sprinkled in some custom code to zhuzh up the site with some fun hover effects, too. I love the subtle zoom on their portfolio items and the way their staff photos turn full-color on mouse hover.
Speaking of those portfolio items, each one now features the awards each project earned, a lengthy project description, a project gallery, and links to media coverage where appropriate.
Perhaps most importantly of all, the site’s SEO and AIO have improved significantly. The site now uses appropriate, consistent keywords in its headings and paragraphs, so Google knows where Young and Wright belongs in search results. And the new portfolio pages provide Google with plenty of additional context about Young and Wright. We also added several FAQ-style accordions with clear information that AI can use to create summaries.
Take a look at their new website home page and their staff page!
