Optily (formally Bionic) is the only single-click ad spend optimizer for eCommerce. Their platform assists eCommerce businesses in spending smarter with instant recommendations across Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, YouTube & Google Display Network.

To help them launch this innovative new platform and expand into the US market, the team at Bionic tasked WONDR to help them realise a 360° rebrand, encompassing naming, identity, visual language and digital experience.

The result is a new digital platform that has been built on WONDR’s CMS which enables the Optily team to editorialise their site as they see fit. WONDR also provided a design system that inspired and guided Optily’s internal teams. It is now used as a guide to design their wider suite of products, from videos to social advertising.

You can see the full details of the project here.

Arnotts are a well known Irish brand who have been around for a long time but with a little help from ourselves at WONDR, they have significantly increased their online revenue while transitioning to a new e-commerce​ system.

While many e-commerce projects focus on the system, we as a team also spent a significant amount of time focused on the role that the brand needed to play. Our Director of Creative Brand Strategy, Oisín Hurst, reflected on what it took to revamp the brand through the new ‘Salesforce E-Commerce Cloud’ platform.

Where did you start?

From a creative standpoint, working into a system like Salesforce E-Commerce Cloud is an interesting challenge. It’s a beast of system. It’s very established, robust and complex. It’s serious stuff. So one of the first things we did was to look for benchmark examples.

To see what brands and websites that had taken this technology, this platform, and created truly exceptional, branded experiences. That was our aspiration for ourselves and for Arnotts. So as a starting point yeah, benchmarking seemed to make sense.

‘Seemed to’ sounds like it didn’t pan out.

Well, it did and it didn’t. What we found was very few brands were achieving anything remarkable. Instead the platform was constricting them creatively. They were system shells. Pure merchandising and little else. The brands, even luxury ones, just poured in imagery, type and colour. It’s a little bit daunting to be honest.

When you see famous brands fall into this trap it certainly gives you pause for thought. Like, if it’s good enough for these big guys…

Why isn’t it good enough? Is it really an issue given Arnotts is a retail brand?

Absolutely. Firstly, a brand should never feel like a passenger on its own website. Premium retail experiences should have depth, not a veneer of brand presence. The UX, UI and underlying technologies need to lean into each other. From a UI perspective, the brand needs to be part of the website’s DNA, it should be a part of the building blocks, not just the paint at the end.

Also, unlike the examples we were finding, we couldn’t rely on seasonal campaign assets to do all the heavy lifting. Instead we needed to have a scaleable branding asset. Something that could work as a building block and extend into a full and rich design language. But it had to be very flexible.

It had to work during sales and promotions, integrate with imagery, act as a texture, be a box, be a pattern, be loud, be subtle, work online, work on social. It had to work for €4k earrings and a €10 potato peeler with equal credibility.

You’re talking about the ‘chisel’.

It’s an awful name for it, but yes.

Where did it come from?

From the store. Literally it came from the physical store. We were looking around for a piece of visual heritage or inspiration to help us. We couldn’t build from the brandmark because at the time that was being redesigned by another team, so we went to the store and just walked around, looking.

What did you see?

Well for the first while nothing popped out. It’s a really interesting building. On the Henry Street side its architecture is Victorian, on the Abbey Street side it was originally Art Deco, but it’s been heavily reworked.

It’s like these two different eras had been smashed together and then hollowed out. But still dotted around the store, from both sides, there was one shape that kept on repeating. This kind of chamfered, or chiseled shape.

So we decided to take it for a walk. I got back to the office with a few sketches and just started to play with it, as a ribbon, a box, a border, as glass, as 3D etc etc. As a creative solution it quickly proved its potential.

In the end I think it worked for two reasons. Firstly, because it was literally ‘of the store’ it reflects, and connects to the physical experience of Arnotts. The website feels like the brand, not an extension of it, or the digital side of it, but just the brand.

And secondly?

It was so simple.

In the week that WONDR celebrated its 7th birthday, we were recognised by the Insititute of Designers of Ireland as having designed the best website at their annual IDI Awards 2020.

The awards showcase exceptional Irish design across digital, fashion/textiles, product, visual comms, structures & spaces. Due to the current pandemic there was no physical awards ceremony, however there are plans for a meetup later in the year.

We’ll be picking up our specially crafted IDI Winner trophy next week.

The Institute of Designers Ireland (IDI) has shortlisted 4 of our entries in the #IDIAWARDS2020. The awards showcase the best in Irish design across fashion/textiles, product, digital, visual comms, structures & spaces.

We’re obviously honoured to be shortlisted and we’re looking forward to the awards night itself.

Econsultancy recently shared a post called ‘Four online experiences that impressed me during lockdown (and what brands can learn from them)’ and our client Pet Drugs Online were listed as one of the four.

We’ve worked with this brand for a number of years to reimagine their digital brand experience which led to the design of their eCommerce platform built on Magento.

Considerable thought was given on improving the whole user experience and it was a delight to see the author to pick up on the details we worked hard on and that have delivered such strong results for the brand that made them the No 1 Pet Care brand in the UK.

If you want to know a little more behind the project you can read a more detailed interview on the story behind it all. Alternatively you can view the case study where there’s plenty of lovely pictures of pets.

Whilst we intend to enter some of our stand out work from the last year, we were keen to get involved in events and contribute to promoting Irish design talent at a local level.

This year, the IDI Awards will showcase exceptional design using a digital platform. Awards will cover fashion/textiles, product, digital, visual comms, structures & spaces.

Due to the current pandemic there will be no physical awards event, however that won’t stop everyone enjoying the moment to celebrate the best design work in Ireland with awards announced live on instagram.

Our support for the IDI follows on from our recent collaboration with CCSDA on their global Website of the Year Awards, which had over a million visits, to celebrate the best in web design so it’s a good time to follow this on with something local too.

For more on the IDI Awards 2020 you can visit the site or search for the IDI on the social channel of your choice. You should also check out the WOTY site here, it’s pretty cool.

Like millions of others across the world, we’re big fans of Star Wars. The 4th of May is recognised globally as #StarWarsDay and to mark the occasion our creative Jedi, Oisin, paid tribute with a series of video posts he made.

Everything from a Rancor strolling outside outside our window in Dublin, to a little Jawa racer to the latest in sour snacks from Papa Palpatine’s Pickled Snokes (organic & gluten free).

Lots more to see here on our dedicated page for Star Wars Day, enjoy.

We designed a new application tool to manage the power grid as well as trade electricity in real time. This best-in-class monitoring interface allows ESB plant managers to update themselves on the commercial position of their plants in a clear, quick and accurate way.

We worked closely with the leadership team to define the product using our design sprint methodology, resulting in a high fidelity prototype fully user tested and validated. We went onto do full product definition, design & development phases. This product manages complex data so the key was creating an interface that simplified but also allowed managers to deep dive where necessary.

The application is now live and being used by power plant managers across Ireland.

Peter McVerry Trust is a national housing and homeless charity committed to reducing homelessness and the harm caused by substance misuse and social disadvantage.

This is a cause close to our hearts, so we were delighted to collaborate on a project that would make a difference to help them increase their digital fundraising. We worked with the team to reimagine their website with a focus around stories and putting people at the heart of the message.

We worked closely with the client team through discovery sessions to gather insights and define technology needed to make this happen. We worked through UX/ UI design phases and we trained the team on how to pour content into our custom-build CMS.

Digital donations through the website have never been higher, and we are proud to be part of the effort to help society’s most vulnerable.

Hopefully you appreciate the work and will donate to Peter McVerry Trust who will continue to help those in need during this Covid crisis. 90% of your donation is used for services.

We worked recently to design & develop a new website for Google to support their promotion of their Cloud products & services in the Netherlands. The site acts as the invite and content hub for the event which brings businesses together to share their learning and knowledge on cloud services and beyond.

Working closely with the strategy & content friends in ftrprf, we have created a structure that enables them to re-use the site for multiple events by creating a visual symbiosis between Google and the partner brand. The site has already been used for partner events with Atos & Accenture, with more to follow.

Expect to hear lots more about google Cloud as they look grow their cloud service revenue to over $20 billion a year.