An analogue approach to digital storytelling

Architects Hawkins\Brown have developed an enviable reputation in the industry with over 25 years of delivering great for their clients. Resulting in more success and an expanding team. Rapid growth is fantastic, but comes with its own set of challenges including keeping their own ‘online’ brand aligned to the reality of their core values and personality.

The team also had a much bigger portfolio of beautiful work that they needed help to organise and communicate in a way that would help potential clients see the range of their talents. Having a website that could communicate the essence of their brand and respond to their evolving needs had become a business critical issue.

The Hawkins\Brown team selected The Neighbourhood as a partner who understood their culture, philosophy and process for creating great architecture. Our journey began by investigating how the Hawkins\Brown digital experience could be improved through brand storytelling, design, UX and new features.

Our collaborative workshops with the client team helped us absorb their brand values and creative culture and allowed us to define a functional scope that would deliver a more future proof solution. Following a brand audit we proposed an approach to express their ethos more clearly; creating places with personality and purpose that are well-made, well-used and well-loved.

At the heart of the website we developed an idea for an animated brand film designed to bring their unique story to life. Combining over 5000 photos, 1569 digital prints. 78 custom printed boards. 20 packs of blu tack, 58 members of staff (and 2 of their kids), one bike, one scooter, a cowboy hat, a giant ampersand, and umpteen cups of tea, the stop motion video we produced was one of the most collaborative, satisfying and labour-intensive bits of filmmaking we’ve ever tackled.

The polar opposite of a typical architect’s portfolio reel, the stop motion film brought Hawkins\Brown into the process and captured what is special about their company in 2 playful minutes.