Our client for this project is called Loherb (日光綠築)̌, a company from Taipei, Taiwan but with most of their business in the scenic west coast region of Yilan. Their business is broken down into four parts: a hotel, a restaurant, property development and more recently a french patisserie. When they approached us to standardise all of these businesses through branding and make individual websites for each one we were certainly excited by the vast amount skills we'd need to bring to the table. We knew it would be a big project and take a long time but it was exactly the challenge we were up for.
The number one issue Loherb was facing was how to make all of their various divisions align. At the time the hotel and restaurant were one, the estate business barely had a face and the patisserie didn't exist just then. Each needed their own distinct identity, yet all undoubtedly belong to the Loherb group.
A brand alignment
Loherb already had a logo but it was encompassing all of the brands so none of them stood out as their own unique business. Furthermore the businesses weren't really even separate at this point. This needed to change. Each one had to be its own entity and not overlap. Many options were available for the logo design in various intensities - design a new logo for each; modify the current logo to suit each business; keep the logo the same - but in the end it was just a small, yet important, change that distinguished each of the brands. We took the logo, modified it slightly, and added the name of each business to it in a uniform typeface. This meant two things - firstly, each business was now named and it became own individual entity (a massive breakthrough in how everything fell into place going forward), and secondly, there was not only the distinct brands but it made it easy for more to be added at any time in the future. The logo was now dynamic and looking very smart. In addition, we dedicated a unique colour palette to each of the brands, further distinguishing them from each other and really setting the tone of who and what Loherb was. The businesses are clearly divided and a family is born. The websites
Next up was the design and creation of the websites. A massive task, as five were needed (four for each business and one as a 'mother' site - an all encompassing launchpad to the four unique businesses). We tackled the Villa and Cuisine websites first as these were the most heaviest in content and features. From the outset the design of the website needed to allow for the other businesses (and any future business) to look like they belonged to the same company group, so stylistic choices needed to be carefully chosen. The typography and colour schemes needed to transcend from site to site seamlessly, and the layout needed to allow all businesses to adequately present their services and products. Not only this but all websites are multi-lingual in Chinese and English, they all include a blog and they all use a Facebook Messenger bot.
A family of websites is born. The Villa Website
The Loherb Villa is a luxurious building featuring 7 exquisite rooms, so we really wanted to bring this to the forefront of the website and allow the viewer to experience this elegance through the website. Each room is beautifully presented and showcases all the space and features of the room in an easy to scroll through manner. A person could then book that room from there. You can view the Villa website here which is a worthwhile experience.
We also took care of all of the English copywriting, further adding a sense of elegance and comfort to Loherb Villa. It was important to us that the rooms were showcased clearly and in a user-friendly manner.Reviews were made to auto slide so as to enhance these excellent selling points. And we thought a live weather update set in beautiful type would be just the right touch of elegance this website deserves.
The Cuisine Website
With the Villa website in place we could progress nicely into the Cuisine website, however certain challenges still presented themselves. The Cuisine website has a menu for their restaurant offering all kinds of delicious choices, but the layout and presentation of it required both elegance and logic, because as we all know, reading a menu is such an important part of a dining experience. You can view the Cuisine website here.
The Menu page in all its glory. A good blend of sophistication and a user-friendly experience. The other websites
The Estate and Patiserrie websites were less in-depth but are still wonderfully intertwined into the Loherb fabric and all the familiar attributes occur while uniquely expressing their own business functions. You can view the Estate website here and the Patisserie website here. The Main Loherb website is a well presented portal to all of the websites as well as giving a nice, stylish overview of Loherb. You can view it here.
A section of the Estate website. The Patisserie website looking decadent and yummy. Overall the Loherb branding and websites have come such a long way since we were first approached for this project and we are very happy and proud to have been a part of this project, work with such friendly and professional people, and have such a fine outcome both in our minds, Loherb's minds, and most importantly in Loherb's prospective client's minds. The websites currently garner thousands of views and has increased awareness and business for Loherb hugely.
