I was approached to design and build a new website for DMA. Their old site lacked a CMS, with only the news section built in WordPress, so they were unable to edit most of the site. This meant most of the content, especially the projects, had fallen out of date. It also needed a fresh new look and there was an opportunity to tweak the brand identity too.

The new website needed to visually communicate that, for DMA, technical competence is as important as design. They also wanted it to look different from other architect websites.

A key element to achieve these goals was to include their interactive 3D models. While they appeared on their old site, the client needed to be able to update the models themselves. Their presentation and interaction needed a bit of an update, while still using the legacy model images for older projects. This was the most difficult aspect of the project but also the most rewarding. It meant researching and prototyping various ways to show the 3D models before production began. The second challenge was allowing for different views within each model, creating icons for each, and including a set of overrides. These allowed variations in speed and direction for viewing each model, all controllable within the CMS. I also meticulously tested and documented the process of how to add new models to the site.

In terms of the look and feel, part of my brief was to look to the work of Dieter Rams and potentially the legacy branding of Future Systems. This was an architectural practice where several of the senior architects began their careers, and which formed part of the DMA identity.

Once the project was live, I also worked on site for a day to help the team roll out the updated identity across other materials and digital channels.

The holistic nature of my role in this project, and the close collaboration with the client throughout, made it a fantastic one to work on.