Your website acts as a store front for your brand, and as such it should reflect your brand’s look and feel and send the same message as your real-world letterhead and logos.
A good website has killer content, which is used both for information purposes and for content marketing as well as a design that reflects the brand in question.
Here are a few examples of great website designs that reinforce the brands in question:
1. Starbucks
The Starbucks website features the iconic logo and the instantly recognisable green color scheme. The layout is something that is recognised the world over. What makes this layout particularly noteworthy is that the word ‘Starbucks’ does not appear in the header, and yet almost everyone in the western world would recognise the website at first glance.
2. Yelp
Yelp’s logo is instantly recognisable, and the red and white color scheme is iconic too. The layout differs significantly between the desktop website, the mobile site and the app, but it is still clear enough to most people.
3. Ubuntu
The free and open source operating system is a household name among tech enthusiasts and their website has gone through several iterations as the brand has evolved. Their consistent use of typography is particularly noteworthy, as is their use of color. There are several websites in the Ubuntu family, and they all manage to achieve consistency.
4. UK Government website
The .gov.uk website properties are some of the most information dense websites that they average person is likely to access on the web. The most important things for those websites are achieving consistency and presenting information clearly and accurately. They achieve this through consistent layouts and relatively minimalistic color schemes, as well as offering clearly visible search features. The websites are not flashy or fancy, but they are robust, easy to understand, and do their jobs very well.
5. The Guardian
The website of the UK newspaper The Guardian is a great example of taking a long-standing real-world brand and moving it online. The website takes the typography, layout, logo and feel of the physical newspaper, and puts it into a digital form with great success. It is clear, easy to navigate, and has been designed in a way that encourages the reader to hop from page to page on the website, generating lots of page views. The website’s similarity to the look of the newspaper ensures that readers of the physical product feel instantly at home when they are reading the online paper.
If you are looking for a great website design, or brand renovation consider working with http://www.blondideasgroup.com/. Its combination of local knowledge and creativity make it the ideal choice for any business. From the latest trends, such as flat design and parallax scrolling to more traditional text-heady websites, the experts do it all.
Remember that your website should always reflect your brand as it stands today. If you change your store front or your letterhead, you should look at changing our website too, otherwise your customers may get the wrong impression of your brand.