In September 2022, the Square Eye and Gatehouse Chambers teams were delighted to receive a Legal Standard of Excellence award at the WebAwards 2022 for their work on the Gatehouse website.
The site was the result of a four-month project in 2021 including a rebrand, as Gatehouse Chambers became the new name for the long-established set Hardwicke.
Project objectives
Complete rebrand
In early 2021 Hardwicke, a leading set of barristers specialising in commercial, construction, insurance and property law, took the decision to change their name, to sever links with Lord Hardwicke (co-author of a 1729 decision relied on by slave owners), and because they planned to move out of Hardwicke Building and into new premises. They decided on Gatehouse Chambers as the new name.
Square Eye was selected from a field of multiple agencies to create the new branding, website and other materials.
Hard deadline
The new website was required to launch in time for the move into the new premises at 1 Lady Hale Gate. This meant we had just four months for the complete branding & website project.
Solutions
We started with our usual branding process of research, discovery, moodboards and iterative design, working closely with the Gatehouse Marketing Committee to create a new logo and brand.
We created their new logo & branding, and designed and built their new site, working closely with the Marketing Committee at Gatehouse to navigate the project efficiently and meet their hard deadline. Our illustrator created a series of original images for use onsite and on social media. Before on the left, after on the right.
New logo & branding
Our work started with the rebranding process, an iterative and exploratory process involving the Square Eye team and the chambers’ marketing committee.
The rebrand included an extensive overhaul of all marketing collateral; from business cards to downloadable PDFs and from headed paper to PowerPoint presentation templates, the same design elements were woven throughout every tangible and digital touchpoint. Consistency of application and presentation ensures both recognition and integrity of the new brand.
Illustrations
Before its refurbishment was complete, our photographer visited the new Gatehouse Chambers premises to take shots of its rooms, roof terrace and views across Holborn and London. Our illustrator then used them as inspiration, combined with an Art Deco style, to create a memorable set of original imagery for use across the website and social media.
Website
We designed the Gatehouse website using the new brand colour palette to produce a calm, clean and premium feel. Clutter was reduced, navigation made clearer, and more attention drawn to key messaging.
Gatehouse Chambers is a regular producer of written, audio and video content, and organises many events. These sections of the website needed to be organised, attractive and easy to use. The News and Barristers sections below combine clean, usable layouts with advanced search-filter features.
Cross-referencing is used across the site to ensure people, news, events, practice areas and other content are all linked. In this practice area profile, a tabbed interface in the sidebar allows easy navigation of the related content.
“We were very pleased that our striking new website was recognised by the WebAwards. It means a lot that an objective judging body has found the site to be worthy of recognition in this way. Particularly given that the judging criteria encompassed such a wide range of areas – these included design, innovation, ease of use, content and interactivity, to name a few.
The design route was certainly a departure from the chambers norm, and this did require a leap of faith from us and our members. It is great to see that putting your faith in great design can pay off.”
Ashely Allen, Head of Marketing, Gatehouse Chambers
About the Web Marketing Association WebAwards
Since 1997, the Web Marketing Association’s annual WebAward Competition has been setting the standard of excellence for Website development. Independent expert judges from around the world review sites in 86 industries. Only the best are recognised with a WebAward. The WebAward Competition is the premier award recognition program for Website developers and the online marketing community.