Terranova tiling

Terranova tiling | New identity, web design

Web design for attention and information. Photographs are storytellers by their nature—they are the windows into Terranova Tiling’s world. By grouping photos this characteristic is intensified to great advantage. Grouped photos create an environment which draws a reader’s undivided attention. The achievement of catching the interested customer’s eye is impressive. And it’s free. Next the reader clicks the image that catches their eye through to the short descriptive text about the project that has already caught their eye. They drill down to the project slideshow to engage with the project in detail.

Terranova tiling | New identity, web design

The attractive Terranova Tiling logo and business card. Illustrations send a powerful message. Using artwork to stir a specific feeling—in this case quality craftsmanship and attention to detail. A minimal but well crafted page layout is more professional than a flashy design poorly built.

Terranova Tiling is a firm of tile installation craftsmen headed by master tiler Camillo Schulz. Camillo was trained and worked in Germany for ten years before emigrating to New Zealand in 2001. Terranova traces its history back to 2003.

I designed the Terranova logo and a business card for Camillo when he launched the firm in 2003 and designed their brand new website (along with back-end assistance from NuWeb) in 2015. During the briefing of the website Camillo paid me the professional compliment that the Terranova logo design was perfect as it was, and that feedback from his customers and business associates assured him branding remained as contemporary today as when it was first designed.

Key to the rationale behind the portfolio website design was to encourage the client to obtain high quality original imagery of his work that had appeared in various architectural, building, and interiors magazines. These had been shot in the course of being entered into bathroom and building awards by his clients, dating back to 2007. Terranova’s work has been recognised by his industry peers for many years as award winning so it made sense for the web design to be centred on quality imagery of the work. It was reasoned that this would appeal to their discerning ultimate clientele of homeowners, many of them affluent, and to the architects and interior designers who in pursuit of the best architecture design projects centre on stylish interiors.Terranova’s faultlessly accurate tiling craft showcases the geometry and art of architectural and interior design.

The flex imagery of the full-screen slider of their best work on the homepage creates a strong and memorable first impression centred on the utmost quality of Terranova’s work. The purely visual landing page was a conscious strategy to first show, not tell. The Projects page tiled Mosaic unfolds an elegantly staged, lean presentation of the client’s work. It is also designed for best optical appeal with its pared-back aesthetic and pragmatic descriptions and credits. The overall result is a minimalist design feel that is plain speaking, direct, and showcases their work functionally and beautifully.

The Journal/blog provides the objective documentary evidence to back Terranova’s claims of expertise and and industry benchmark standards of finish (whilst serving the need to update the site content regularly in order for it to continue to rank consistently well in the search engines).

A significant amount of research and image processing love went into this web design project as well as thorough domestic and international research into appropriate keywords and phrases to ensure the site is search engine optimised. I look forward to updating the site each year with Terranova’s annual crop of Master Builders’ plus Kitchen and Bathroom awards.

The website is responsive and I took great care with the design to ensure that it will age well as Terranova commissions me to add more great news items to the Journal awards showcase, and to add Terranova’s fantastic award winning projects to the Projects mosaic.

“Hi Shaun.

OMG it looks absolutely fantastic.

…I’m very happy.

Its crisp, its clear and very balanced.

All details and image choice and fine tuning can be done once I’m back in NZ, as discussed .

Fantasic job, my friend.

Big smile Camillo”

—Camillo Schulz, Terranova Tiling

Credits

Web coding and CMS customisation: nuweb designs