Balchem began in 1967 with a group of entrepreneurs, investors, and Dr. Leslie Balassa. Since then, they have grown to over 1,400 employees and have offices in countries all over the world. Their business is incredibly diverse, but in a nutshell, focuses primarily on products for human, plant, and animal nutrition. Their offerings can range from food ingredients and flavorings to sterilization products used in the medical industry.
Putting together a website for a company like this required meetings with stakeholders from Belgium to Bali and a whole lot of learning on our part. We were tasked with merging 28 vastly different sites into one. After countless hours of content strategy and collaboration, we were able to deliver a site that symbiotically brought together the three main branches of their company. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with and be a part of the growth of such a fascinating and innovative global organization.
Balchem is a fascinating global organization that specializes in human, plant, and animal nutrition. They also leverage nutrient choline throughout all of their segments including a few industrial applications. In order to better direct the user flow, we needed to construct distinct content verticals for each branch.
Colors & Typography
Before we took on this project, Balchem had recently been rebranded. We chose to use the updated color palette with the addition of some monochromatic accents to complement the main colors.
As for type, we used SF Pro and Roboto as clean, legible, sans-serif fonts to help clearly convey all the complex information throughout the site.
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Today we are going to discuss the Gershman Mortgage Website Revamp
Closing loans for 66 years and counting
Gershman Mortgage has been an ongoing client with us for many years so when they reached out wanting to finally rebuild their main website we were excited to not only design a better user experience but also make updates to the backend of Word Press in order for them to easily update content in the future.
After looking at analytics and talking to the Gershman team, the main goal was to send potential customers to apply for the loan. This was reinforced by not only adding a call to action button under the page headline, but adding a more prominent apply button in the navigation bar.
The secondary goal was to drive users to loan pages so they can quickly find the loan perfect for them, leading to more potential applications. When the user lands on the homepage, even above the fold, they are given a glimpse of Gershman’s popular loans. They can click on the button below the featured loans to see all loans that are offered.
Randomized Loan Officers
Once a person decides what loan they would like to apply for, they are able to choose a loan officer to work with. The problem on the previous website was that loan officers were categorized by alphabetical order. This meant that those with an “A” as the first letter in their first name would always be shown at the top of the page. This led to some of the other loan officers having fewer clients than those who would appear at the top.
To solve this, any first time users coming to the site would have a randomized list of the loan officers presented to them. This gave more opportunity to those who were usually at the bottom of the page, the chance to take on more clients.
Mobile Friendly
Before we started the redesign, the Gershman team had mentioned that on mobile devices, they had issues with image sizing, spacing issues and an overall bad experience. On all projects we follow guidelines for responsive design so whether a user was using a computer, a tablet or a phone, their experience would be optimized for that device.
Colors & Typography
The Gershman Blue is iconic for their brand so we wanted to make it the stand out even more by complimenting it with Grayscale colors. Their team had made comments that their current font made the brand feel outdated so we chose Montserrat as their main font and Droid Serif as their page heading to bring the professionalism of Gershman Mortgage into the site.
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If your website could use a refresh, if you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, or you would like to submit a guest post, fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to learn more about your digital needs.
Paramount Outdoors was made for people who take their sport seriously. It was born from the idea that while there were many players within the outdoor apparel space, there’s always room to make the gear better for the people to whom it matters most. Paramount’s attention to detail, fabric selections, and construction process sets them apart in the industry and are backed by one of the largest screen printers and apparel embroiderers in the nation.
We wanted to make sure their site met the same standard as the gear, leveraging WordPress and WooCommerce to do so. We designed the site with an optimal buyer journey in mind making sure that the product pages were clean and easily navigable. We also put a huge focus on the mobile shopping experience. We also wanted to make sure that their site, just like Paramount Outdoors’ gear, was built to perform. We will tell you more in this website redesign case study.
When creating an eCommerce website, it’s important to include lifestyle photography. This can be presented in a multitude of ways but the main goal is to showcase actual people in your images. This helps to create a human connection with the user and better allows them to visualize themself using your product or service.
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If your website could use a refresh, if you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, or you would like to submit a guest post, fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to learn more about your digital needs.
Paramount Outdoors was made for people who take their sport seriously. It was born from the idea that while there were many players within the outdoor apparel space, there’s always room to make the gear better for the people to whom it matters most. Paramount’s attention to detail, fabric selections, and construction process sets them apart in the industry and are backed by one of the largest screen printers and apparel embroiderers in the nation.
We wanted to make sure their site met the same standard as the gear, leveraging WordPress and WooCommerce to do so. We designed the site with an optimal buyer journey in mind making sure that the product pages were clean and easily navigable. We also put a huge focus on the mobile shopping experience. We also wanted to make sure that their site, just like Paramount Outdoors’ gear, was built to perform. We will tell you more in this website redesign case study.
When building an eCommerce website, product shots are important but utilizing lifestyle photography is a great way to show off your products being used and is an easy way to connect your users to the product. With all the dark and saturated colors being used throughout the website, the lifestyle photos stand out and direct the user’s attention to what’s important the products.
Contact Matchbox Design Group Today!
If your website could use a refresh, if you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, or you would like to submit a guest post, fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to learn more about your digital needs.
Improving Lives Through an Improved Web Experience.
Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis believes in a world where everyone has a decent place to live. They are a nonprofit organization that builds homes, communities, and most of all, hope. They are dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally by utilizing a comprehensive program in which hard-working local families invest their time into building and purchasing their own homes.
Having had the same website for nearly a decade, they were looking to overhaul its fractured layout, cumbersome CMS, and often confusing donation form. Habitat St. Louis reached out to us to incorporate the updated branding of the national affiliate into a new, mobile-friendly site that not only reflected their mission but brought the goals of increasing donations and volunteers up to date with the rest of the nonprofit world.
The palette and typography for this project were determined by the brand standards set forth by the national organization, but have been used differently by numerous local chapters. We chose to primarily use the blue and green, with orange being used solely as an indicator for points of interaction or steps in a process, such as making a donation.
The choice to utilize mostly lowercase headlines and subheads was a direct result of this, as the goal was to bring attention to the headlines, yet not have them feel as if they were “yelling” at the user or overpowering the underlying message that they were trying to communicate.
Habitat For Humanity Donation Form Improvements
What most people don’t realize is that, while certain projects are heavily supported by the national organization, local Habitat branches get very little of their individual operating budget from the parent group. Instead, they rely almost entirely on direct donations from the community.
Amount
One of the primary goals of this site was to design and implement a donation form that would vastly improve the user experience when making a donation. Instead of utilizing one long form, we decided to break the process up into “bite-sized” steps. By doing this we have been able to drastically increase donations.
Information
Through 5 months, we have seen an average increase of 536% in donation pick-up requests via the website. Prior to the new site we were seeing an average of 30 donation requests each month via our site, since the new site launched we are averaging 161 requests per month.
Donate
We have also seen an increase of 37% more donors giving 48% more funds online since the new website went live. Improving the ease by which donors can make online gifts has had a tremendous impact on effectively using the website as a fundraising tool.
Photography
Pictures can often capture a story and evoke emotion in a way that no number of words can. With Habitat St. Louis being such a people-centric organization, it was easy to lose ourselves in the unique stories of each community member they impacted, whether they were a volunteer or family receiving a home. Everyone has a story and hearing those stories warmed our hearts and made us excited to weave them into every aspect of the site. Each and every image was mindfully selected from a library of images provided by the national chapter to portray stories that cross all demographic and psychographic boundaries to impact us at our emotional, human core.
Sweat Equity
Contrary to popular belief, Habitat branches do not simply GIVE away houses. There is a lengthy application process that results in candidates that are ready, willing, and able to put in a certain amount of “sweat equity” into their potential new home. It was important to Habitat St. Louis to clearly communicate this to their users in a way that would make the time and effort worth it for prospective applicants while reinforcing a connection to their overall goals.
It was a great choice to work with Matchbox Design Group! Various sets of donations increased substantially through the improved website. Matchbox Design Group’s dedication to the project and our team were noteworthy. Their skilled team performs responsively and delivers exceptional work. Expect an enjoyable engagement with them.
Josh Vaughn
ReStore General Manager, Habitat for Humanity St. Louis
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Located in the picturesque rolling hills of Dallas, OR, MAK Grills is truly a labor of love built with sweat, steel, and American Dreams. The company started humbly at a metalworking company as a side project to bring in some extra income and create more jobs. As a family of lifelong backyard BBQers with over 50 years of precision sheet metal fabrication experience, the decision to start manufacturing pellet grills was a no-brainer.
They had long been disappointed by models that kept falling short of what they knew a pellet grill could be. So when deciding how to construct their own model, they all agreed that precision control and the genuine smoke flavor were a top priority. At MAK, every pellet grill is engineered for optimal performance, reaching the peak balance of temperature control and that rich smoke flavor that every BBQ fanatic strives for.
Invoking a barbeque-sauce-inspired twist on the traditional red, white, and blue seemed appropriate for a veteran-owned company proud of the fact that their grills are “100% American Made.” We wanted to evoke a sense of Americana without turning the branding and design into a red, white and blue, we chose to darken and mute the red and blue a bit, and replace the white in the color scheme with a very light grey, creating a theme that balances the patriotic with the smoke and haze that comes with barbequing.
Combining that palette with a type style that strongly nods to the inherently imperfect artistry of grilling was a top priority, which is what led us to a letterpress-style main font that was simultaneously bold and organic.
Branding
One of our main goals when designing the site was to bring together a community of people who were passionate about grills and smoked foods. We wanted new users experiencing the site for the first time to feel as if they had just stepped into a neighbor’s backyard BBQ – listening to him talk up his grill while sipping a cold one. A casual feel with just the right amount of knowledge and expertise.
Photography
The one thing that all pellet grillers have in common is a deep passion for food. We wanted to capture the essence of that passion by primarily focusing our photography efforts around the food itself. Our shoots all included social gatherings that involved grilling such as BBQ parties, breakfast on the patio, or backyard grilling. We honed in on the smoke and food with people being far more ancillary and removed from the focal point of our images.
Messaging
Smoke fills the air, leaving a hazy shroud that lingers in the late afternoon air. Seasoning and juices drip slowly into the fire, sizzling as they release an aromatic bouquet as old as time. Equally spaced lines of charred texture appear, enticing the eyes as much as the mouth. It’s all there. The sights, the smell, the anticipation, all converging upon the senses at once. As rewarding as it is elusive, nothing short of pure perfection.
This is just a taste (pun intended) of some of the messaging we included on the site. Our goal was to pair visually pleasing photo elements with sensory-loaded copy to create an immersive user experience.
“The level of commitment and energy Matchbox Design Group brings to the project has really blown me away. They delivered a website that secured a high level of client satisfaction. Functionally, it lets customers contact the company directly online which yields benefits for a direct-to-consumer model. The team is diligent, driven, and responsive to all correspondence.”
Matt Tucker
Operations Manager, MAK Grills
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If your website could use a refresh, if you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, or you would like to submit a guest post, fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to learn more about your digital needs.
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