The new Machins Solicitors website is here and it’s already making a huge impact – offering an innovative, informative user experience.

These long-established local solicitors have boosted their online presence with a complete rebrand and visual overhaul.

Machins Solicitors LLP has operated under the name of “Machins” since 1920 and can trace its roots back to a law firm that had opened for business in the late 1800s. Having just celebrated their 100 year anniversary, they felt it was an appropriate time to modernised and refresh their image with a re-brand and align this with a new website project and launch.

The firm recognised that, in this competitive market, it is important to stand out from the crowd and be perceived as a highly experienced legal team, knowledgeable in achieving the best possible outcomes, and a firm with a long-established heritage that continues to modernise and build on its solid foundations. To better understand individuals requirements and to support the growth of the business, there was a need to emotionally connect with existing customers and establish stronger relationships with new audiences.
A brand new look and feel

The Machins brand presence had dated over the years, design trends and use of palette had weakened the brand’s strength. Importantly, the business strategy had changed due to the inclusion of new services and focus on a greater number of target audience types. To refocus the digital strategy and launch new service areas, it became clear there was a strong requirement to differentiate the firm in a crowded marketplace, to strengthen its awareness and gain a competitive advantage.

Often, website development projects mean that a company’s existing logo does not work as well as it could on screens, or adapt to the environment of responsive websites. In this case, with the outer square containing the business name, the typography was reduced in its size and lost its clarity and legibility as a result. Clearly, this undermined the brand’s recognition and, its presence and usability when placed in the navigation bar.
It was time to think outside the box!

The word Machins was released from its container. Once living outside the box, the imbalance could be addressed. The square, which was previously oversized, could be decreased in size and re-balanced to match the Machins name and typographical solution. This strengthened the logo and improves the recognition of the name.

Further developments of the new brand were designed specifically included to address the firm‘s two main audiences – individuals and businesses.

New sub-brand colours were introduced, each assigned to an operational area of the business. The previously very limited colour palette was replaced with a larger vibrant colour palette – for each of the client‘s key areas of expertise. To make it easier to navigate throughout the site and enhance the customer journey by making it easier to identify services and departments.

As with any rebrand, every element used has an important part to play and key consideration throughout the project was given to every asset and brand element. VI sourced new high quality, emotive images to represent each of Machins‘ services. The image bank created followed a distinct theme and treatment, in order to unify the image library and portray the same look and feel throughout the website and promotional material, including their social media channels.
A new online presence

The new development, means we have taken Machins from a restrictive CMS onto a completely bespoke website, giving the client the ability to control every aspect of their online presence.

VI are masters of transformation, as shown by images of the previous desktop website (below), which had become outdated, becoming more of just an online ’brochure‘ than a conversion tool, that had to operate with a reduced mobile version of the website with only 5 service-specific landing pages.

The new website is the perfect mix of functionality, beauty and engaging user experience – it works perfectly on every device and screen size. Delivering an immersive user journey with a ton of bespoke functionality and custom elements developed convert visitors from browsers to enquirers.

Marketing Collateral

In line with the new brand look, VI rolled out the new ‘look and feel’ to a variety of promotional requirements and company collateral. We redesigned all the existing collateral, such as new stationery items, brand guidelines, leaflets and promotional items, all revitalised to incorporate new brand elements – giving the firm a consistent brand identity across their communications, each business services and department area.

The work doesn’t end here – this is just the beginning of the VI and Machins partnership. We continue to work together to develop the brand and communications by supporting the client to embrace new technologies and marketing solutions.

Like what you see? If you’re looking for a similar refresh, get in touch to arrange a discussion today. We’d love to be a part of your next project.

We’re very proud of this project! Check out the website here: https://www.machins.co.uk/