Salmond Reed Architects | Ben Hartley Design

Salmond Reed approached me to give their old website a refresh. Adding content was a clunky and arduous prospect for them, and what they had was unorganised.

They wanted the new design to be fresh and modern, but still reference their history. The projects they focus on range from heritage conservation to new design, and the style of the website reflects this dual identity. The layout is influenced by clean, modern editorial design, and the typography is ornate and traditional.

Logo concept

To create this logo concept I started with a geometric, rational sans serif for the base. I then added subtle modifications such as an upper block serif to the lowercase i to add a structural, architectural feel to the logo. Finally, I replaced the m with a three column symbol. This serves as a simplified logo and is a nod the the old arch logo.

Early logo concept

A modern approach

SRA requested I explore two options, a modern and ambitious redesign which would express the bold innovation of their new architectural design projects, and a lighter, more traditional approach closer to their current brand and website. Ultimately they went with the traditional version to maintain brand recognition, but here are some examples of the modern design.

SRA dark homepage — An early homepage concept

SRA dark project — Early Project concept

The final design

The final design gave the existing SRA identity a refresh and massively improved the usability and experience of browsing the website.

SRA project — Project page with a flexible page builder