Background

Marchday, a national property developer, wanted to create a website and intranet which enabled a conversational and interactive approach to the marketing strategy of Lingfield Point, in Darlington.

Lingfield Point is a 107 acre sustainable community comprised of a series of buildings which were once home to the Patons and Baldwins wool factory.

The developers have been keen to keep to the spirit of the original site and have worked hard to reinvent the best ideas and attributes of the original Patons and Baldwins ethos, with key values being: community spirit, sustainability and good design.

Strategy

We transformed the website from a flat portfolio style into a highly interactive blog-based platform. Emphasis was placed on finding a graphic ‘language’ that would be better represent the quirky and cool design of the built environment at Lingfield Point.

We produced a whole new suite of graphics emblematic of the buildings. The slightly kaleidoscopic effect is just right for the site which blends old, new, eccentric and functional design quite seamlessly.

As part of the website development we created a system that enabled blog posts and comments to be instantly spread across Lingfield Point’s social networks, including Twitter. To tie in with the heritage of the site we named this system, ‘Threads’.

Once the website was live we turned our attention to the intranet, creating a dynamic and attractive system. We devised a brand identity for the intranet, Lingfield Life. The intranet design reflects that of the main website, with distinctive icons developed for each of the services.

Outcomes

The website’s quirky, confident and charming character is plain to see, and it matches the nature of Lingfield Point and its staff in a way that the previous ‘corporate’ look did not.

By streamlining the Lingfield Point website, we have made the calls to action clearer, and presented users with engaging ways of discovering very real benefits of moving their business to the site.

The intranet, Lingfield Life, is now more accessible, attractive and functional than ever before, leading to increased customer satisfaction and ultimately an improved sense of community both at Lingfield Point and beyond.