Garage Project

Strong brand identity, rich visual assets; Garage Project had fast become a key member of New Zealand’s craft beer scene. Online, however, it was a different story.

Based in Te Aro, Wellington, Garage Project’s eye-catching aesthetic and reputation for fantastic beer was winning them fans throughout New Zealand. Unfortunately, their e-commerce platform was seriously letting the team down. With a complex information architecture, poor brand connection and a clunky purchase process, it was a poor representation of the dynamic brewery behind it and their business was suffering as a result.

Redesigning Garage Project’s website to optimise for a rich yet simple flavour.

With a focus on maximising Garage Project’s distinct voice and style, the new website exercises serious restraint so that the visual content can shine. This means no structural clutter or unnecessary ornamentation, and a focus on showcasing an eclectic aesthetic within the context of a functional online store. Incorporating product artwork as backgrounds adds a unique feel to each page, while simultaneously representing the profile of each beer.

Refining and simplifying the site goes beyond emphasising Garage Project’s designs however. From a user experience perspective, a rigorous approach to removing as many barriers to purchase as possible means that the number of clicks from homepage to ‘add to cart’ have been reduced from seven to two.

This doesn’t mean it can’t have fun though, with motion built into page ambience and transition states injecting the site with heaps of character and giving it the rich flavour it deserves.

Driving business growth.

The new site design helped increase online sales by 41% year-on-year. This provides a strong foundation to build upon as we continue to look for ways to bring the Garage Project brand to life online and encourage people to buy their award-winning beer.