In honour of World Gin Day, we thought we’d take a look back on one of our favourite projects: building the new website for The City of London Gin Distillery.
Back in 2015, an existing client referred The City of London Distillery to us as they needed a new website. With a new gin about to be launched, a popular bar and in-demand distillery tours and classes, COLD needed a website that could take table bookings, tour bookings and sell their multiple award-winning bottles of gin.
Our process started by wireframing the website layout; planning the structure of each page and the key user journeys. With the blueprints agreed, the design of the website then begins, starting first with the homepage and then rolling out the concept to the rest of the website.
Key to the new website was having fantastic imagery and videos. Our Creative Director James Nixon is passionate about great photography and art directed a two day shoot. Key images are the bottle shots with the City of London itself in the background and in-situ photos from around the distillery. We try to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to design trends and when this website launched, video was just becoming popular. We created a series of videos used on the homepage that really set the scene; users instantly get a feel for what City of London Distillery is all about.
Our development team work very closely with our design team. We feel that the interaction between design and dev is what’s missing from a lot of agencies as it’s how we guarantee that a site will not only look great, but will work seamlessly too. We’re particularly proud of the checkout on the Gin Distillery website which is really easy to use on mobile and encourages users to move through the site quickly and easily.
Once the site was built, an intensive testing period followed: what happens if a user wants to book a table, a class and a buy a bottle of gin? Our dedicated QA team put the website through its paces making sure it was ready for launch.
When the new website launched, sales of gin rose by 50%. We’re always looking for ways we can improve and enhance our sites so are still working with COLD to make sure their website remains fresh and up to date. You can read more about the work we did here.
Check the site out here: http://www.cityoflondondistillery.com/ and why not pour yourself a G&T whilst you’re at it? It is World Gin Day after all!
