Amelie Sophia Rehm - Best Workspaces

Best Workspaces

Best Workspaces is a digital platform and showcase for smart working environments. It collects and promotes the most inspiring workspaces from companies all around the world. As first architectural award of its kind it hosts a jury which is independent and composed by a wide variety of experts, planners, manufacturers and opinion-leaders of the sector.

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE

A challenge was to find a design system and page structure that would be immediately recognizable and that would stand out as a brand without overshadowing the participant’s submitted projects.

To ensure consistency across all platforms and provide a frame through which each project could unfold its own personal character we kept the layout strong but not rigid. Especially the home page is characterized by its seemingly open alignment of projects.
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RESPONSIVENESS

Being a source of information and inspiration for architects, companies and manufacturers the client wanted to focus mainly on user access over desktops. Nevertheless, it was important for the interface to be responsive and permit an easy translation to tablet and phone. Not only because these are the preferred ways of web browsing but because it is necessary to create a seamless, responsive experience for all clients.

BRANDING

The brand’s tone of voice should reflect the forward-thinking approach of the jury, the award itself and those who planned and developed these innovative working environments. Complimentary to the wordmark, we designed an icon which is used on the award medals as well. Yet flat and formed by simple shapes the logo represents space. Its animation hints at the variety and flexibility of space and the categories the award is assessed by.

Simple but bold the color palette consists of black and white and two highlighting colours. We chose a vibrant orange for the medal, announcements and areas to be set in focus and a military green gradient to highlight the magazine section.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Working on this project I learned a lot about communication and user feedback. Even if the overall interface and feel of the first prototype was good, it did not seem to validate the context of its purpose. Exploring alternative layouts and working together as a team resulted in a better solution for a website, that grows gradually over time and expands in its functions.