It’s a brand-spanking, shiny new year, and there are so many exciting things to look forward to. But sometimes, before jumping ahead, it’s a good idea to look back on what went well for you in the previous year. For us, there were loads of highlights, but some of the most fun were the website transformations and brand-new sites KAYBE created. In this post, we’ll take a look at a few of our favourites from the past 12 months, break down what makes them great web designs, and talk you through our thought process for each.
Best web design #1: TALOS
The brief:
- To create a sleek web design that would showcase their incredible range of cars and customisations.
First on our list is the magnificent Talos, the motorsport and luxury vehicle customisation experts. They wanted a brilliant new website to highlight their impressive range of cars and customisations. To get the lowdown on what makes the Talos site great – and why he enjoyed working on it so much – I spoke with Chris Oliver, KAYBE’s Creative Director. He explains,
“Coming from a motor industry background, I was excited to be taking on this project, and it was even more interesting than I imagined it would be.
What makes Talos great is the fact they’ve got an excellent image and video library. They’ve obviously got a professional photographer taking the photos and a videographer in there as well who’s creating the footage for them. It makes a huge difference to have that in your arsenal.
Obviously, we can always make a site look good with stock images; we can make a site look good no matter what. But if the client’s got an actual professional photographer taking pictures and videos, it makes all the difference, because they know it helps the direction of what it is they’re trying to sell. Once I received all the assets, it was then my job to put it in place and showcase the assets in the best way possible.
The team at Talos was really helpful, too. For instance, if we needed anything from them, they’d get it to us quickly. It was a great collaboration.
They’ve actually put money into making their brand as impressive as possible. With their range of impressive cars, their site needs to look impressive and do the cars justice, and it does.
One strong correlation between what Talos do and what we did for them with their web design is this: everything put onto a car, there’s a reason for it. There’s no fluff; it’s just purposeful. It’s still got all the mods and all the tech, but there’s a reason for everything that’s been put on there. With their website site, it’s the same—mainly the imagery and the videos. There’s no need for fancy animations or anything like that. The imagery speaks for itself, really, and it’s a very sleek and structured site.
Best web design #2: Walls of Glass
The brief:
- To create a colour scheme and design a brand-new website that was more sleek and professional.
Next on our list of great web design examples is Walls of Glass – professional interior glazing experts – who came to us in need of a new website design.
Chris explains,
“Walls of Glass had a previous website which they weren’t happy with, and wanted a new direction—something much sleeker. They started to build themselves a new site using a web design template, and when I met them, they explained that this was the sort of direction they wanted to go in. On top of this, they also needed a new colour scheme and fonts, so I wanted to make sure anything I chose would fit their brand and style well
Their offering is glass partitioning, like the ones you see in big offices and car dealerships, which are very sleek and professional looking, and the owner wanted a website that basically represented that sleek and professional feel.
While they didn’t have professional imagery, we were able to showcase smaller images through the use of moving galleries and a slider on the homepage.
Their original site featured whites and blues, while the site they had started to build themselves was darker in colour, with lots of purple in there. Knowing this was the direction they wanted to go in, I kept the darker feel, adding purple buttons and introducing turquoise, too, to complement the site as an additional third colour.
All in all, we’ve created a much more professional vibe that complements exactly what Walls of Glass offer, taking what they’d begun to build for themselves and elevating it to the next level.”
Best web design #3: Guided Weight Loss
The brief:
- To design a site that was positive, professional, informative and welcoming.
Guided Weight Loss is a business that’s centred around helping people lose weight safely, particularly with the aim of alleviating health concerns, such as PCOS, diabetes and pre-diabetes. They came to KAYBE with a logo they’d previously had created, and wanted a website that would perfectly sum up what they do as a business.
Chris says,
For me, as always, it was really important to get a good understanding of what the business was offering. It’s a website aimed at helping people reach a healthy weight – not for vanity but, rather, to help improve overall health and develop better eating habits. They have tonnes of interesting information about the correlation between food and diabetes, pre-diabetes, and PCOS, and the aim was very much to place emphasis on this information being available to everyone and showing that the goal wasn’t about getting ripped but to live a healthier lifestyle for your health, not your ego. It was all about empowering and informing people, and creating a positive space for them.
This is where the vibrant colours and imagery were really important, and because they already had a logo, this was very simple to figure out. It was essential for the client to show a range of different people with different body types that are relatable, unlike the toned, unattainable bodies that you often see on weight loss sites. It’s a really positive site that serves to help people get going on their own journey to better health.
The client provided the content, and we showcased it in an engaging way, being sure to get the tone right, and making it friendly and inviting. It was important for us to ensure we were using the right imagery and icons so we could appropriately depict health issues such as PCOS and pre-diabetes, so we did lots of research to ensure we were well-informed.
Best web design #4: IDL
The brief:
- To design a strong, bold site for a new podcast about business movers and shakers.
When KAYBE CEO Kris Britton requested a web design and branding for a new business-related podcast, we jumped at the chance to show our metal. And the great thing was that we had full creative control over it, making it incredibly fun to work on.
Chris explains,
We knew from the off which direction we wanted to go with the IDL site. We had a strong colour scheme and a strong brand, and we kept it consistent throughout. A site doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. That’s not to say that it’s simple, but what I mean by this is that it doesn’t need to be gimmicky or have too many elements for it to be effective.
We have a strong homepage and a section where the podcast episodes live, and we kept it really simple but effective, incorporating the vibrant colours along with the timeless black and white, which work so well together. There’s a very clear theme, and you would know what site you were on regardless of which page you landed on, which I think is always a good sign of a strong website.
We didn’t want anything too sort of wishy-washy; it was all about strong characters, because the podcast is all about strong individuals and strong business ideas. So, we didn’t want something that would look washed out. It’s bold and in your face, and it’s about people who are breaking the mould. It had to be visually striking, but at the same time a little bit have a bit of a cool vibe to it.
The fluorescent brings it all together and really makes it pop.
Chris Oliver: And I think obviously it’s got the lights that shine onto that as well. It created almost a bit of a fluorescent effect. This idea came from the foliage wall that Kris has in his podcast studio. When the lights shine on it, it has a slight fluorescent tinge to it, which is what inspired the zingy green, but it took some sampling to make sure we’d chosen the right colour.
Because we had full creative control over it, everything linked and styled correctly – from the youtube link to the Spotify channel; it’s all branded accordingly with the right thumbnails and everything tied together. Nothing looks out of place or as though the podcast had been created a long time before the other elements like on some sites you visit, where they have a fancy new website, but nothing looks quite right because the other elements are much older.
Best web design #5: Dorian & Co.
The brief:
- To create a solicitor website that stood out from the crowd, making it clean, clear and professional.
When Dorian & Co, a solicitors firm offering a range of services, came to us in need of a new website, we were excited to take on the web design project.
Chris says,
“Whenever you search for a law-related site online, you constantly come up against scales or a judge and hammer, and it’s so cliché. With Dorian & Co., we wanted to steer clear of that perspective and yet make sure it looked professional and very clear what the firm was offering.
To do this, we used images of professional office buildings, giving them and overlay effect to tie in with the firm’s branding and colours. Then we gave it a pop of purple to ensure it wasn’t all black and white, and we made sure the images we used gave a personal feel, showing people talking and making it very clear that Dorian & Co. work closely with clients.
This was the first solicitors firm we had created a web design for, so it was nice to dip our toes in and diversify. We’re very adept at creating not just quirky, fun websites, but corporate and professional websites too.
For me, the Dorian & Co website is a clean and consistent. It isn’t stuffy or over-filled with content. It does exactly what it’s meant to do, not over-complicating – just professional. And it keeps your attention, which is not always the case with law-focused websites.
Another key thing for us when creating this website design was keeping the idea of trust in mind. Potential clients want to know that they can trust a solicitor, so it was really important for us to make it clean and professional in order to help increase that trust level.”
Best web design #6: Unite Students
The brief:
- To design a mini website aimed at young professionals, paying close attention to the client’s existing colour scheme and fonts.
With a new business area in tow, Unite Students came to us looking for a mini website – 180 Stratford. Aimed at young professionals with an interest in community, they wanted this site to feel fresh, modern and welcoming.
Chris explains,
“This client gave us the logo along with their brand guidelines, which included nice geometric shapes, a colour scheme and fonts. Our job was to create a site, using these assets, that was visually impactful. To do this, I took the angles of the shapes that they provided to create this collage effect that you see as you enter the site. So, rather than it just been a grid of squared images, which we could easily have just done, it gave a more impactful, look that’s a bit quirkier. It was a really interesting way to display the images rather than just having a grid effect or a gallery in there. It was like it just gave it another level.
The photos you see on the site were taken as part of a professional photo shoot and were provided to us to use on the site. It was down to us to showcase these images in the best possible way, and the collage effect really allowed them to stand out.
We also made a point of putting a lot of call to actions on the site, because, obviously, the key driver is to get people to register interest, try and book viewings, or simply get in touch about the apartments. So, we incorporated a lot of call to actions throughout the site, along with lots of nice little bits of information about the types of apartments they offer. We kept it nice and clean.
One of my favourite parts on the 180 Stratford site is the dynamic section that shows the distance to various locations via bike, car, bus, train, or on foot. It’s informative, and is a neat addition to the website, and the client really saw the value in it.
All in all, the website is clean, crisp, and uniformed – just like their apartments. It contains lots of call to actions and useful information without being overwhelming, and it’s so easy to navigate.”
Here’s to another year of great web design
And these are just a handful of the incredible web design projects we’ve taken on in the past 12 months. Great variety, great clients, great fun. We can’t wait to see what the best web designs of 2025 will be!
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