Bringing the far north closer

Sick of parking tickets, traffic jams, queues, grumpy people, rainy days?

You’re not the only one.

Borneo Investments approached us to advertise a new subdivision located in Kerikeri, New Zealand’s subtropical Northland. Renowned for sunshine, sparkling bays, glorious vistas and fruit trees, the most powerful aspect of the development was the location. We wanted to encourage city-livers to sell-up and relocate.

The subdivision, called Orchard Estate, was to house up to 80 homes in a private gated community, on what used to be an abandoned orchard. Situated on the outskirts of the village, the subdivision had a strong focus on sustainable living, from certain architectural features of the homes to the landscaping of the properties.

The target market was far flung. There were Aucklanders, motivated financially to sell up and relocate; Cantabrians escaping from earthquakes, and Britons, Europeans and Americans, all attracted by the lifestyle and idyllic surroundings coupled with a small but cosmopolitan village.

A website was in order. We needed to create a modern, inviting site that reflected the attributes of Orchard Estate and life in Kerikeri. Every element of the site, from design and copy to navigation, was selected to articulate the feeling of the architecture, the surroundings and day-to-day life at Orchard Estate.

Once our visitors arrived at the website, we wanted them to stick around. We teased them to read more with short, alluring headlines that led to warm, conversational copy and made the navigation of the site simple and user-friendly.

We used large, panoramic photographs with lush, juicy colours to draw our audience in and capture their imaginations. To frame the site and ground the brightly coloured photographs, we used a modern stone colour representative of the large stone and timber gate at the entrance to Orchard Estate. The colour of stone is also evocative of strength, trust and quality – a good choice when establishing credibility.

To communicate the architectural aesthetic and contemporary design lines of the development, we chose an elegant, restrained typeface. Ensuring the messaging was easily readable and accessible, we left plenty of space for the text and images to breathe.

Despite the fact that Orchard Estate is still in development, the website captures and conveys a feeling that makes it easy to imagine living there, and extremely inviting to do so.

If you would like to create a website that reflects your brand’s personality, call Steve Ballantyne on 09 950 2144 or 021 744 960.