Calcinotto

Make Studio and Calcinotto have enjoyed a long and successful partnership, with Make launching the first iteration of Calcinotto’s website in 2009. Over the past ten years, Calcinotto have significantly grown in size and reputation, and have worked with Make throughout their expansion. The practice needed to showcase their offering to a wider national and international audience, whilst still remaining open to local opportunities.

Company founder Julian Calcinotto wanted to ensure that the look-and-feel of his engineering firm appealed to a premium architectural and construction target market. Our brief encapsulated strategic brand guidance for all prospects and current client touch points across the brand, including photography, website and guidance on the office interiors.

Make Studio began this engagement with immersive, in-depth research of Calcinotto’s competitors and customers to fully understand the market and how we might establish a unique position within this competitive space. Through a series of workshops involving the full board, it was apparent that a new communication strategy for the business was required, kicking off with an original branding piece to reflect Calcinotto’s position within the market, and maximise opportunities for growth.

We explored a wide range of colour directions for the brand but, given the need to highlight the portfolio, a neutral colour palette was selected to provide a subtle backdrop to the project showcase. The existing website was now outdated, and a new, mobile compatible, responsive web offering was required. In addition, Calcinotto welcomed our concept of a studio restyle, to update their physical space and bring more contemporary, consistent styling across all internal and external touch points for the business.

Make Studio began by working with senior Calcinotto stakeholders to solidify the core business values of quality, creativity, collaboration and integrity. This process led us to the design of the brand mark, centred around an elegant Serif font, selected as an appropriate match for the company name and to create a premium, classic-yet-contemporary look.

The brand styling followed suit with a structured stencil effect to the font, aligned to gridded structures synonymous with engineering practice, and creating a connection to the buildings created through Calcinotto’s work. This distinctive new branding was rolled out across business stationary, presentations, print and full office branding to create a unified style.

The digital build was structured around the company project portfolio, requiring each project to be exquisitely photographed to showcase the work and create a connected presentation. The highly-visual website was developed using a WordPress platform, with each service and sector-specific project tagged to enable simple navigation, with a CMS created mindful of a need to maintain and grow the website.

Finally, the Calcinotto studio space was updated with a neutral palette of whites, greys and glass alongside new office furnishings and finishes. This final, crucial touch ensured a truly holistic brand experience for both clients and the internal Calcinotto team.