ABOUT

Testing the limits of what’s possible in the built environment — Base Structures transform spaces with tensile fabric structures and rigging solutions. They design unique, immersive structures; canopies, facades, enclosures and installations, often working in iconic destinations with high-profile clients including Zaha Hadid Architects, The Science Museum, RAID Museum Denmark and Lords Cricket Ground.

A specialist in tensile fabric design and engineering, their success had resulted in a website that functioned as a comprehensive catalogue of their work to date, but reflected none of the ambitious spirit and high-stakes, high-reward energy of their team. They were ready for a better digital platform, and as the collaboration uncovered, a bolder brand too.

The Challenge

Base Structures recognised their website wasn’t presenting the scale and impact of their work. They needed a digital experience that brought the stories of their most iconic projects to life— with greater confidence, clarity and impact. All underlined by their proven track record for delivering technically complex builds.

To attract more clients with ambitious design and architectural intent; it became clear the brand needed to evolve in order to shape a new website to better meet these big ideas with creative thinking, and showcase the extraordinary nature of their projects.

Our task became two-fold: develop the existing brand elements into a fresh visual identity that mirrored the design sensibilities of their target audience, and create a striking digital platform that effectively captured their niche offering in spatial design and engineering.

Practically, it needed to communicate the broad range of applications their tensile fabric expertise was capable of delivering; from engineering one-of-a-kind installations to their range of more off-the-shelf products structures.

The idea

Site-specific design, material manufacturing and engineering, rigging at height — we were struck by the sheer nerve and creative ambition alive in the team.

The idea that ‘tension builds’ emerged from the defining forces at play and in the moments of suspense as their large-scale fabric structures are realised. This concept gave us scope to ground the new identity in this visual metaphor, and create graphic elements and motion devices that emulated the push-pull dynamics unique in tensile fabric engineering.

Visual identity

The brand idea shaped a bold, high-impact identity, that felt energetic yet focused. We evolved their existing colour palette to be digital-first, before bringing in electric blues and purple to create stronger contrasts, bright accents and gradients.

Their visual assets showcased gravity-defying builds and epic viewpoints, so the visual presence needed to be calm, but confident to ground their project imagery in the technical skills and experience required to deliver them. The gothic sans serif PP Mori typeface was chosen for its subtle character; clean, contemporary with unexpected details.

Curved linear elements that met at pinch points spoke to the idea of opposing forces in design, defining the brand's identity with the fabric structures’ complex, curved geometry.

Digital Design

The push-pull dynamics can be felt throughout the digital experience: the curved linear graphic elements warp, stretch and bounce, and subtle zoom mechanics expand titles and image widths in response to scrolling behaviour. From motion-rich interfaces to page navigation; all animation was designed to be purposeful to bring emphasis to content, reinforce messaging and build on their brand identity.

As a result, by interacting with the website, users get a real feeling of the sense of tension alive in the work for themselves.

Content design and architecture

The visual approach to content was big focus of the brief. We built a user-friendly Craft CMS platform to give the team the space and flexibility to tell the stories of how their most iconic projects came to life in a way that was both engaging and easy to manage. A functional, flexible and SEO-optimised blog section was created for the team to share their smaller wins or share expert insights.

What's more, we developed the website to be a valuable internal resource; retaining a catalogue of 150+ projects in an online archive that remained hidden from end users, but act as a valuable resource for their sales team to access when exploring, pitching and designing new project ideas to clients.

[www basestructures dot com]