OddsIndex is a US based betting platform that enables its customers to find and compare the best odds from market leading betting providers.
We created a new brand, website design and user experience for the business.
- Lead time:
- 6 Weeks
- Sector:
- Sports & Betting
- Target Type:
- B2C
- Website Goal:
- Create a market leading user experience
- Services:
- UX Design, Web Design, Branding
The challenge
Sports betting can be complex and involves the management of a huge amount of data. Our challenge was to create a seamless and engaging user experience that utilises data in a way that can be consumed by visitors.
From a visual design perspective, we needed to create a brand and website design with limited imagery. We needed to display information and comparison tables in an appealing way that maintained the integrity of the data.
The brand
We created a new brand identity for OddsIndex, including a new logo, typography, colour palette and design system. The brand needed to be vibrant and flexible while achieving a high quality design finish.
We created 3 brand concepts for the betting company, approaching the brief from a few different directions. Our designers worked closely with the client to build a brand and design system that reflects the business and their customers.
The website
Our design team created the new website, using OddsIndex’s new brand identity to elevate the look and feel of the interface. The user journeys are optimised to create a streamlined conversion path that enables users to find the best betting odds and bonuses.
OddsIndex have an ambitious in-house marketing team that were managing the SEO of the website. We collaborated throughout the web design process to ensure that the new design supported their SEO strategy and enabled them to continually improve their search engine visibility.
- Scope
- User Journey Mapping
- Adobe XD Wireframe Prototypes
- Adobe XD Prototypes
- Brand Identity
- Resource
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x UX Designer
- 1 x Website Designer
- 1 x Project Manager
Related work
D.Law is a California based law firm that specialises in employment law.
Having recognised that the legal sector digitally lags behind other industries, they challenged us to combine professional legal services and marketing in a way that hadn’t been done before. Their team asked us to overhaul their brand, website and digital footprint.
- Lead time:
- 5 Months
- Sector:
- Law
- Target Type:
- B2C
- Website Goal:
- Reposition visual brand, Generate new enquiries
- Services:
- Branding, Web Design, WordPress, Web Development, Digital Marketing
- Scope
- Brand Identity
- Figma Wireframe Prototypes
- Figma Design Prototypes
- WordPress Development
- SEO Strategy
- Resource
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x Website Designer
- 1 x WordPress Developer
- 1 x Quality Assurance Tester
- 1 x Project Manager
- 1 x SEO Strategist
The challenge
Having identified an opportunity to lead their market by combining their established reputation with great marketing, D.Law commissioned us to transform their visual brand and website.
Outwardly, they looked like every other corporate law firm, with no clear point of difference or visual alignment with the clients that they wanted to attract. They challenged us to draw inspiration from forward-thinking disruptors in industries such as insurance and banking that are leading in-industry change.
D.Law is authoritative, approachable and empathetic, and that needed to be reflected in the new designs. They wanted to utilise video content within their site and increase new enquiries by growing their search engine rankings and organic traffic.
The brand
D.Law offer an at-need service and many of their clients find them during a period of distress in the workplace. They wanted to create a feeling of safety for prospective clients where they felt understood and trusted that D.Law had the ability to win their case.
We created an approachable and professional brand by overhauling their colour palette, logo, typography, shape and form, and imagery.
The new brand delivers a high level of flexibility, giving D.Law’s marketing team the ability to create new brand assets seamlessly
Brand concept creation
D.Law’s brief was that they wanted to be authoritative while also fun, cool and approachable. Our first step was to calibrate these traits and understand the balance – were D.Law more serious and authoritative or were they fun and soft?
Our brand concept phase explored 2 different visual expressions of the brief in a mood boarding process. One concept was a more serious expression of the brief and the other was a softer approach.
This visual calibration enabled us to better understand the brief and client vision for the brand.
The logo
We delivered a new responsive logo that can be simplified to a ‘D’ icon on smaller screens and social media.
Colour palette
We selected an approachable colour palette of greens and earth tones that can be accented by a bold grapefruit colour.
Typography
We selected a serifed font as a nod to the traditional roots of the legal sector and to convey authority and confidence.
Imagery
We selected authentic imagery that showcases the real people that D.Law serves. The imagery is clean, simple and positive.
Shape & form
We drew inspiration from the new logo to develop brand devices that create design depth. The . from the logo is used as an image device that holds mini profile pictures. These are accompanied by names and stand for representation and impact.
The hard and soft lines of the font feed into the slightly rounded boxes that are used throughout the site. These shapes break up content, highlight text and create a sense of togetherness within the content and design framework.
The website
D.Law’s new website needed to increase their search engine visibility and generate new business for the law firm.
To achieve this, we delivered a new website around a digital strategy that combined keyword research with website structure, landing page recommendations and entry and exit point reviews.
The website design utilises the new brand and incorporates video content to achieve an approachable feel while demonstrating knowledge and communicating key messages.
We developed the website in WordPress, providing the D.Law team with a flexible CMS that they can use to continue managing and editing their website content.
The SEO strategy
D.Law had domain metrics that could be competitive for a number of keywords. They were competing against some very well established businesses with extremely competitive positioning. Our job was to assess the keyword battles that D.Law had a statistical chance of success with, focusing their resources on strategic targets.
The new website was designed and built with SEO best practice at it’s centre, feeding into every touch point of the design and development.
Domain migration
D.Law made the business decision to change their domain name as part of their rebrand. Changing domain can be a risky process if incorrectly managed and it’s important that an experienced team handles the process.
Our marketing team managed the domain migration, ensuring that a best practice process was followed and that the client’s domain metrics and competitive position were seamlessly transferred with the launch of the new site.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Plug & Play. They delivered a sector-leading brand, website and marketing strategy for us, capturing the empathetic nature of our business while also producing something bold and authoritative.
Their team is outcomes driven (like us) and they immediately understood what we were looking to achieve. I’d definitely work with them again in the future.”
Related work
Integr8 is an internationally recognised bunker fuel management provider that is transforming fuel procurement for the shipping industry. They needed a new brand identity, SEO strategy and website to stand out as the market leader.
- Lead time:
- 16 Weeks
- Sector:
- Shipping & Finance
- Target Type:
- B2B
- Demographic
- Senior Operations & Procurement Mangers
- Website Goal:
- Reflect position in market & improve SEO
- Services:
- Branding, Web Design, WordPress, Web Development, Digital Marketing
- Scope
- Brand Identity
- SEO Strategy
- Adobe XD Wireframe Prototypes
- Adobe XD Design Prototypes
- WordPress Development
- Hubspot Integration
- Integration with engine.online for fuel grading and pricing data
- Resource
- 1 x SEO Strategist
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x Website Designer
- 1 x WordPress Developer
- 1 x Quality Assurance Tester
- 1 x Project Manager
The challenge
As leaders in their market, Integr8 recognised that their website was holding them back. They wanted to stand out in their market and move away from the stereotypical shipping industry branding of blue colour palettes and pictures of the sea and ships.
The site needed to represent their company traits, which were innovative, tech-enabled, data/results-driven, forward-thinking and client-focused
Their goals were to establish a unique brand, outrank their competitors in search engines and deliver key messages as part of optimised user journeys.
The brand
We created a modern, engaging brand that would set Integr8 apart from competitors. The client was ready for a complete brand overhaul, retaining only the basic shape and typography of the logo. Using a dark theme at the base of the brand, we introduced a new colour palette, including gradients to achieve depth.
We created a set of brand shapes including a primary wave shape with a number of supporting graphics. These could be used in a dynamic or still form to achieve a slick and high impact visual.
We introduced a new set of typographies to provide a flexible set of fonts to deliver key messages of the business.
The website
The goal of Integr8’s new website was to position themselves as the market leader in the bunker fuel industry. They wanted an engaging website that was visually different to their competitors.
The shipping industry can be traditional and our challenge was to push the boundaries of the industry, while keeping the design simple, engaging and clear.
We utilised the new brand work to establish a flexible design system for the new website design. The design system combined the brand assets to produce a distinct eye catching design that also provided the Integr8 team with the flexibility to manage and edit their content.
Our developers built the website in WordPress, using a component based approach to provide the best content management. The components were codified with the new brand guidelines, ensuring that internal teams could continue to implement the brand consistently.
The SEO strategy
Integr8 operate within a low volume, high value industry. Search volumes of their target keywords are typically low compared to other markets, however they are highly specific and extremely valuable. In markets like these, capturing opportunities by ranking well and effectively converting traffic into new business is critical to success.
Our SEO team assessed hundreds of keywords to identify the keywords that Integr8 had the best statistical chance of ranking for, and were most likely to generate high quality traffic for the business. Once the keywords had been selected, the website was optimised to enable the website to begin climbing the rankings.
Integr8’s SEO strategy feeds into all elements of the project and interlocked with the design and development processes. To maximise their search engine rankings, it was important that the SEO strategy was completed at the start of the project so a holistic approach could be taken to the implementation.
In the chart above, blue bars represent positions 1-3 in Google, green represents rankings on the rest of page 1 and purple represents page 2 rankings.
You can see that rankings immediately rose following launch and have continued to climb, generating huge increases in visibility and organic traffic for Integr8.
Related work
Keelvar provides market leading procurement software to enterprise organisations, helping them to source at scale. Their combination of groundbreaking technology and an agile business approach has positioned them as disruptors in their market.
They needed a new brand and website to differentiate them from competitors and enable their marketing team to move quickly.
- Lead time:
- 16 Weeks
- Sector:
- Technology
- Target Type:
- B2B
- Demographic
- Procurement Managers in Enterprise Organisations
- Website Goal:
- Reflect position in market & increase enquiries
- Services:
- Branding, Web Design, Webflow, Web Development, Digital Marketing
- Scope
- Brand Identity
- SEO Strategy
- Adobe XD Wireframe Prototypes
- Adobe XD Design Prototypes
- Webflow Development
- Resource
- 1 x SEO Strategist
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x Website Designer
- 1 x Webflow Developer
- 1 x Quality Assurance Tester
- 1 x Project Manager
The challenge
As disruptors in their industry, Keelvar pushes the boundary of what has been done before in their market. Where their competitors are slow-moving and corporate, they are modern, flexible and able to move quickly. They needed a new brand and website to reflect their market position and to visually set them apart.
The new website needed to enable their marketing team with a flexible CMS that could be used to independently create and manage content. Their goal was to drive business performance by increasing search engine rankings and converting more visitors into enquiries.
The brand
We developed a unique and vibrant brand that reflects the high tech nature of the business and the products they offer. Their offering is groundbreaking in their field and the brand needed to showcase the same innovative, forward-thinking and modern themes.
The new brand identity combines new typography, colours, shape and form, and imagery to produce a polished, trustworthy feel that is consistent and flexible.
Our team drew inspiration from technology companies and the fintech industry to deliver a bold result that represents the business.
The website
Keelvar’s new website needed to generate new enquiries for the business by increasing search engine rankings, increasing organic traffic, and by improving the website conversion rate.
To deliver this, we created a digital strategy that highlighted key opportunities to increase search engine visibility and optimise the website. We combined the digital strategy outcomes with conversion design best practice to produce a high performance website that Keelvar’s marketing team could leverage as part of their broader marketing ecosystem.
The new brand was utilised within the new website design and was brought to life using dynamic assets and animations.
We developed the website in Webflow which enables easy content management for the marketing team.
The SEO strategy
Keelvar had good domain metrics which gave them a fantastic start point to improve their organic rankings. They had a lot of potential but their existing website wasn’t developed and optimised in a way that encouraged rankings.
Our team delivered an SEO strategy that assessed a huge number of keywords that were relevant to the business. We selected high value and high intent keywords that Keelvar has a statistical chance of ranking for, to invest in as part of the optimisation process, delivering the greatest return for the business.
In the chart above, blue bars represent positions 1-3 in Google, green represents rankings on the rest of page 1, purple represents page 2 rankings and orange shows pages 3-5.
You can see that rankings immediately rose in the month following launch. We’ll be continuing to track the website results over the coming months.
“This is my second time working with Plug and Play on a company rebrand and website redesign project and I was again thrilled with the outcome. They are a pleasure to work with, very organized, super creative and work to an extremely high standard. Clear communication and a transparent process ensures all stakeholders are aligned, we keep on track to deadlines and the project runs smoothly. They also listen carefully to our goals and objectives and take on feedback very effectively.
Its often hard to make the case internally to justify projects like these especially outsourcing to a third party that is unknown to internal decision makers. Each time I’ve worked with Plug & Play all stakeholders have been blown away and have said after the project that Plug and Play surpassed expectations.
I will continue to work with them again and again on future projects.”
Related work
Hightekers supports businesses that are recruiting for fixed term contracts by streamlining the onboarding and management process. They provide a smooth hiring process for the business and the perks of full time employment to their contractors.
They had secured great market exposure in France and were ready to strategically increase their global exposure by targeting new European territories. They had ambitious growth targets and challenged us to deliver a brand, website and digital strategy that would help them to achieve their global revenue goals.
- Lead time:
- 20 Weeks
- Sector:
- Recruitment
- Target Type:
- B2B
- Demographic
- IT Consultants, Businesses hiring in IT
- Website Goal:
- Increase international market penetration
- Services:
- Branding, Web Design, WordPress, Multilingual, Web Development, Digital Marketing
- Scope
- Brand Strategy
- Customer Persona Development
- Key Messaging Development
- Brand Identity
- SEO Strategy
- Adobe XD Wireframe Prototypes
- Adobe XD Design Prototypes
- WordPress Development
- Multilingual Website
- Copywriting
- Resource
- 2 x Marketing Strategists
- 1 x Digital Strategist
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x Website Designer
- 1 x Website Developer
- 1 x Quality Assurance Tester
- 1 x Project Manager
- 1 x Copywriter
Brand strategy
The brand process kicked off with a number of brand workshops that were led by our marketing team. We utilised the customer and business insights gained during this process to build a new brand framework for Hightekers.
In collaboration with their marketing team, we developed a new value proposition and defined their target audience personas and archetypes. This enabled us to curate an aligned messaging framework for each archetype, tapping into their motivators and pain points.
The brand strategy formed the backbone of the project, guiding the design direction and messaging, and enabling the Highteker’s team to produce consistent and effective marketing materials.
Brand identity
Drawing on the brand strategy, we evolved Highteker’s brand identity to create a fresh visual design system with the flexibility to be utilised across Hightekers’ business ecosystem.
The existing brand had some good components but was dated and missing depth and consistency. We implemented a new colour palette including a secondary set of colours to provide additional dexterity with soft and bold colour options. We also drew inspiration from the logo to introduce a new brand pattern. The pattern brings energy and direction to the brand and adds depth and visual interest.
The key to the success of the Hightekers brand is the way that the different brand elements including imagery, typography, colour, shape and form are combined in a way that is distinctly theirs. The outcome is a unique and vibrant brand that enables Hightekers to be bold and stand out.
The website
We delivered an international website with 7 different territories and 5 languages.
To effectively target Hightekers’ new territories, we created a global website that enables Hightekers to deliver regional content in different languages to their target markets. This approach means that each new territory benefits from the already established French domain, giving them a head start upon launch.
Market exposure was critical to the success of the project which is why our team delivered an SEO strategy that was designed to grow Hightekers’ organic rankings in search engines and enable the website team to create an optimised website structure.
SEO strategy
The new website was designed and built in line with SEO and user experience best practice. Our strategic marketing team created an SEO strategy that would enable Hightekers to leverage their new website rank more effectively in regional search engines.
In the chart above, blue bars represent positions 1-3 in Google, green represents rankings on the rest of page 1, and purple represents page 2 rankings.
Following the launch of the new website, Hightekers began to secure new page 1 search engine rankings. They have almost tripled the number of keywords in the top 3 positions and they continue to climb.
“Plug & Play immediately understood what we were looking to achieve with the project and we were impressed by their knowledge of best practice for international websites and their ability to demonstrate performance outcomes.
We really enjoyed the process and seeing our new brand come to life through the website, which has been really exciting!
Upon launch, we very quickly saw an increase in search engine visibility and our keyword rankings are continuing to climb. The team at Plug & Play have been lovely to work with, with quick turnarounds and high quality design and development. If you’re looking for a new brand and website, we’d recommend partnering with Plug & Play.”
Related work
Bond Global is an embedded recruitment agency that works with innovative CleanTech, DeepTech, BioTech and Enterprise organisations to transform the planet with new technology. Their unique subscription model for recruitment provides scaling businesses rapid access to the best talent.
They challenged us to deliver a new brand strategy and identity, and create a slick new website to attract new business.
- Lead time:
- 20 Weeks
- Sector:
- Recruitment
- Target Type:
- B2B & B2C
- Website Goal:
- Reposition the business & attract new clients
- Services:
- Branding, Web Design, Web Development, Marketing Strategy, SEO, Copywriting
- Scope
- Brand Strategy
- Customer Persona Development
- Key Messaging Development
- Brand Identity
- SEO Strategy
- Adobe XD Wireframe Prototypes
- Adobe XD Design Prototypes
- WordPress CMS
- Copywriting
- Resource
- 2 x Marketing Strategists
- 1 x Digital Strategist
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x Website Designer
- 1 x Website Developer
- 1 x Quality Assurance Tester
- 1 x Project Manager
- 1 x Copywriter
The challenge
Bond Global is a dynamic and innovative recruitment agency that works with some of the best global talent, however this wasn’t reflected in their existing brand or website. They challenged us to update their website design and messaging to resonate with their target clients. They were ready to reposition themselves in their market and set themselves apart from other recruitment agencies.
Alongside their rebrand and website redesign, they commissioned us to deliver an SEO strategy that would improve their rankings in search engines and enable new clients to discover them organically.
The brand strategy
Using insights from stakeholders in the business, we created a brand strategy that is faithful to Bond’s values and attracts highly aligned clients. Their new strategy provides the central thread that connects the reason that Bond exists and the reason that their client companies exist. For example, Bond’s new key messages include bold statements like “We’re here for the visionaries” and “There’s no planet B”. These statements speak directly to their clients who work in renewables, clean energy and environmentally positive technology companies that are innovating to clean up the planet.
Bond’s refreshed messaging aligns with their target clients, reflects their USPs and provides their team with a framework of how to speak about the business and communicate in their marketing.
The brand identity
We evolved Bond’s existing brand identity in line with the new strategy and the businesses that they wanted to attract. The use of dark base colours with vibrant pops of colour represent their key brand themes – technology, futuristic, environmental, big picture mindset.
The final visual brand achieves a technical and futuristic feel that resonates with Bond’s clients and the work they do.
The website
Our website team created a fresh new website design that incorporated the new brand and messaging. The primary goal of the website is to attract and convert new clients, opening up a new channel of lead generation for the business.
Our digital marketing specialists created an SEO strategy that focused on increasing Bond’s search engine visibility for high value search terms, enabling them to be found by businesses looking for their services. We built and optimised the site around the SEO strategy, laying the foundations for continued growth and visibility.
Bond’s new brand identity combines colour, typography, shape, form and imagery to deliver an impactful and unique experience.
The new website design is fresh and utilises white space to heighten the impact of copy.
Bond’s new messaging framework sets them apart in their market with a clear and emotive style.
SEO strategy
Prior to the new website launch, the only keywords that the website ranked for in Google were very specific brand terms and a couple of broad terms that were buried deep into page 4 of the search results.
We focused on specific areas of Bond’s recruitment offering to secure new rankings for highly aligned keywords. This enabled them to gain greater visibility for specific terms that would generate new business without wasting resource chasing after competitive and less relevant broad terms.
In the chart above, blue bars represent positions 1-3 in Google, green represents rankings on the rest of page 1, purple represents page 2 rankings and orange shows pages 3-5.
You can see that rankings immediately rose in the week following launch. You can see that the page 1 rankings (green and blue) are growing and the page 2+ (purple and orange) rankings reduce as the keywords climb through the rankings in the weeks following launch.
“We worked with P&P to rebrand and build a website from scratch. We have been inundated with positive feedback on the look and feel of the Bond brand. The project management side of things and communication was first class. P&P are able to respond to passionate involvement from a client”
Related work
Delcon specialises in the construction of luxury residential, retail and commercial properties. They challenged us to deliver a new brand and website that reflected the quality of their work.
- Lead time:
- 12 weeks
- Sector:
- Construction
- Target Type:
- B2B & B2C
- Services:
- Brand Identity & Website
The challenge
The Delcon team identified that their customers were using the appearance of their website and brand to infer the quality of their construction work. With a dated website design and user experience that didn’t reflect their high quality and precise work, Delcon was ready to invest in their site to connect with their customers and reflect their position in the market.
Our approach
Delcon wanted to retain their reputation as an exclusive business that operated almost exclusively on referrals. Their new website needed to reflect their quality and exclusivity while converting referrals into enquires.
As per the brief, we took an image-led approach to the website design and used imagery to reflect Delcon’s design style. The design pairs raw construction elements with refined finishes, focusing on small and detailed touch points such as sleek loading animations and interactive elements.
Dynamic design
We created a website design with subtle movement and interaction that produces a premium feel. These interactions include parallax animations where elements on the page scroll at slightly different speeds. We also created an expansion and narrowing effect on the screen as the user interacts with the page. This directs the user’s attention and signposts the user journey.
We introduced ambient video footage into the design to create depth and visual interest.
The development
We developed the website using WordPress to provide a flexible content management system for the Delcon marketing team. The new site gives them a high level of customisation while also enforcing their new brand guidelines.
Image showcase
The site is designed to show glimpses of Delcon’s work and materials, while maintaining client confidentiality which is required on the majority of Delcon’s projects.
Team
An interactive component was created to showcase the Delcon team.
Balance
The new website harnesses the balance between form & function, and between raw & refined. These concepts are at the heart of Decon’s brand.
The brand
We evolved the Delcon brand, creating a new colour palette, typography and image guidelines. The brand was rolled out to the new website and portfolio ‘look book’ and was prepared to be implemented on hoardings and on-site materials.
Related work
Delcon is a high-end construction company that specialises in luxury retail and residential properties. They needed a new brand identity to attract new customers and elevate themselves above the competition. They wanted to be the construction company of choice for exclusive construction projects.
- Lead time:
- 8 weeks
- Sector:
- Construction
- Target Type:
- B2B & B2C
- Services:
- Brand Identity & Website
The challenge
Delcon’s existing brand was dated and didn’t represent the quality of work that they delivered. They challenged us to refresh their visual identity and align their brand with their target customers.
The new brand needed to help prospective customers self-identify as a good fit by highlighting Delcon’s attention to detail and quality of work. Delcon wanted to take a minimalist image-led approach, showing their customers what they do rather than telling them.
Imagery
Delcon’s imagery balances form & function, and raw & refined, using raw and finished materials in contrast with each other. For example, marble walls and lava-stone showers.
Typography
To select the typography, we assessed a number of high fashion brands such as Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and Rolls Royce. These brands use simple and delicate lettering that create a luxury and understated feeling to the copy. We replicated this style, selecting a simplistic but impactful combination of fonts to reflect the Delcon brand.
Logo
We created a bold and authoritative logo that reflects a confident and established business. The carefully constructed letter forms balance boldness with intricacy.
Colour palette
The Delcon colour palette is subtle and understated to enable the imagery to stand out.
Raw and Refined
Raw and refined imagery is used side by side to showcase the craftsmanship of Delcon’s work.
The website
Following the rebrand, we collaborated with Delcon to create a fresh new website design. We delivered an interactive design that engages users and directs users through to conversion. The website uses best practice code, loads quickly and incorporates sleek animations.
Related work
Give A Grad A Go is a recruitment agency that specialises in the recruitment of graduates and young professionals. The company is bold, vibrant and playful but their brand identity was starting to look dated and was holding them back from attracting the right talent.
They challenged us to create a new visual brand that would attract their target audience and represent the business.
- Lead time:
- 8 weeks
- Sector:
- Recruitment
- Target Type:
- B2B & B2C
- Services:
- Brand Identity, Digital Marketing, Website, Recruitment Portal
The brief
Give a Grad a Go challenged us to overhaul their brand identity to produce a flexible visual framework for their team. They needed a fresh new identity that would accurately represent the business and their values to the market. The client was ready to use brand and good design to connect with their audience and become the agency of choice to employers and candidates.
Give a Grad is a vibrant brand and it was important to capture this as part of the new identity. People should intuitively feel what Give A Grad is like to work with just by interacting with their brand.
A targeted brand
A challenge that many recruitment agencies face is the need to balance 2 different audiences on their website: the candidates and the employers. This challenge was particularly relevant to Give A Grad A Go due to the broad gap between the personas and the young demographic of candidates. The new brand needed to be cool and lively to attract candidates but still demonstrate competence and performance to employers.
The website project included a detailed user journey mapping process to ensure that both audiences were directed to the relevant content based on their goals. From a brand perspective, we used colour signposting to create a visual distinction between content for the 2 audiences.
Logo
The main visual of the logo uses a speech bubble as a metaphor for Give A Grad A Go’s open and friendly communication style. Drawing on inspiration from brands such as Whatsapp, the speech bubble is familiar within Give A Grad’s target audience and represents approachability and the ‘keeping in touch’ culture.
The use of lowercase letters in the logo creates a personable feel in contrast to the corporate image presented by many competitor brands.
Shape and form
We created a series of fun shapes to compliment the shape of the new Give A Grad logo. The shapes represent the young and friendly nature of the company and act like physical stickers. We encourage adding and overlapping the stickers when applying the brand to break up layouts and create depth. The goal of the shape and form is to create a playful visual look that is unique to Give A Grad. We provided guidelines on how they should be used for the best outcome and to ensure consistency of application.
Patterns
We created 4 core branded patterns that are a nod to sketchbook aesthetics. They are a great visual tool for Give A Grad to add texture to large areas. They pair well with the curated brand shapes and together, elevate simple content into something fresh and interesting.
Colour palette
We created a colour palette containing a mixture of vibrant dark and light colours that produce a fresh and engaging feel when combined. We delivered a set of colour pairing guidelines to enable the Give A Grad team to consistently apply the brand colours while also retaining a broad and flexible colour palette.
Gradients
We created colour gradients to provide a fresh and modern way to break up content. The gradients are easily identifiable as Give A Grad A Go’s and create a digital feel to the brand identity. They can be used to fill shapes, backgrounds and sometimes text and are a great way to create an edge and draw attention in a design.
Typography
We selected rounded fonts that fit well with the rounded shape and form of the brand. The typography has a bright and fun feel to it which reflects the company culture and values.
Imagery
We use imagery to add a human element to Give A Grad’s new brand. People are at the core of what they do and this needed to be reflected throughout the site. We curated an image style that is professional and friendly, yet fun. Images should mostly be set in a business environment and avoid the typical corporate style eg. candid headshots on a plain background.
Logo
The full logo can be simplified down to just the speech mark icon for use cases in which a horizontal logo would not work such as a favicon or profile picture.
Brand Guidelines
We formalised the new brand identity in a brand book to enable Give A Grad to faithfully implement the brand.
Easy implementation
We delivered a compact brand that was simple to implement but provided a high level of flexibility.
The broader project
Alongside their brand, Give A Grad A Go also commissioned us to redesign and build their website and jobs portal. We implemented the new brand across the client’s digital ecosystem, improving the user experience and helping them to reach a new part of the market.
‘We’ve had a brilliant experience working with Plug & Play — I wouldn’t have trusted this project to any other of the agencies we initially spoke to.’
Related work
Give A Grad A Go is the UK’s top graduate recruitment agency. They challenged our team to completely overhaul their digital infrastructure and marketing. They had ambitious plans for their website and broader online ecosystem.
- Lead time:
- 28 weeks
- Sector:
- Recruitment
- Target Type:
- B2B & B2C
- Demographic
- Employers & Graduate Candidates
- Website Goal:
- Increase pool of employers and graduates, improve Google rankings, enable marketing team
- Services:
- Branding, Digital Marketing, Web Design, Web Development, eCommerce, WordPress, Laravel
- Scope
- Adobe XD Wireframe Prototypes
- Adobe XD Design Prototypes
- WordPress Development
- Laravel Development
- Website & Portal
- Multi-territory
- International SEO Strategy
- Brand Identity
- Resource
- 1 x Lead Designer
- 1 x UX Designer
- 1 x Brand Designer
- 1 x Technical Lead
- 1 x Laravel Developer
- 1 x WordPress Developer
- 1 x Digital Marketing Specialist
- 1 x Quality Assurance Tester
- 1 x Project Manager
The challenge
The Give A Grad team wanted to launch a sector leading website that would showcase their offering and attract graduate employers and job seekers. To become the recruiter of choice, Give A Grad knew that they needed to overhaul their brand identity and provide an industry leading user experience.
In addition to delivering a new website, Give A Grad wanted to create a recruitment portal that would enable them to start offering self-service recruitment alongside their existing managed recruitment offering. They challenged us to create a portal where employers could manage career vacancies and applications, and candidates could apply for positions.
Our approach
We created a digital strategy to improve Give A Grad A Go’s search engine rankings. This informed the new website structure and user journeys to ensure that new users could discover the website and land on the appropriate content.
Our brand team overhauled Give A Grad’s brand identity, creating a flexible visual toolkit for the marketing team to apply across their marketing and literature. Our website designers implemented the new brand within a fresh new website design and our WordPress developers coded the site to optimise performance.
Alongside this, our UX team created the user experience for the new recruitment portal, building user journeys to reduce friction and maximise engagement. The portal was built using Laravel, providing a flexible framework with plenty of scope for future growth.
Job search
As the powerhouse of the new website, it was critical to innovate when it came to the job search functionality. The ease of browsing jobs would impact the number of graduates searching on the site, which in turn would impact the number of employers posting jobs.
We introduced a number of new features to provide a seamless and engaging user experience.
- We created a split screen view, with the list of job ads on the left and a preview of the selected advert on the right
- We designed an optimised text layout for the job specs and utilised emojis to increase the skim-ability of text
- We implemented a tagging structure to highlight key job benefits
- We introduced a map view on the job search to visually represent the location of roles
Multi-territory targeting
The new website launched with 2 territories available: the UK and Australia. Each territory hosts its own content and SEO strategy that is tailored to the regional audience. Our multi-territory WordPress approach maximises SEO opportunities and enables Give A Grad A Go to adapt their services and strategy for each location. Give A Grad also have the option to create additional territories in the future.
Resource hub
We increased the accessibility of article content by grouping articles into user friendly guides. This provides a relevant and continuous user journey that encourages content consumption and keeps users on the site.
Design style
We created a playful website design that would appeal to Give A Grad’s target demographic.
A multi-platform experience
We overhauled Give A Grad’s digital ecosystem to provide a consistent and engaging user experience.
Contact us UX
Give A Grad’s ‘contact us’ user flow was complex and heavy, with a wide range of content, contact details and FAQs to communicate. We implemented an effective filtering system to guide users to the relevant content.
Developing the brand
Give A Grad’s old brand was looking dated and no longer reflected the business size and position in the market. They needed a new brand identity that would provide greater flexibility to their marketing team and could continue to grow with the business.
As a brand that targets graduates, Give A Grad challenged us to create a playful and bold brand that also looked trustworthy and reliable to employers. Balancing the two main audience types was critical to producing a successful brand.
Jobs portal
We delivered a brand new jobs portal for Give A Grad which enables employers and candidates to manage job ads and applications. The goal of the portal was to open up a new self-service recruitment offering to employers, enabling Give A Grad to capture a greater percentage of the recruitment market.
For candidates, the portal needed to provide a seamless transfer to and from the website, and a smooth application process. The success of the portal was dependent on the ease of use compared to competitors in the market.
We constructed optimised UX designs and user flows to deliver a high performance portal. Our developers coded the portal using Laravel which provides Give A Grad with a flexible framework that can be expanded as the business need grows.
‘We’ve had a brilliant experience working with Plug & Play — I wouldn’t have trusted this project to any other of the agencies we initially spoke to.’
