Once we sampled the dishes, we knew Etta had something special, and it was our job to make sure the brand told the right story. We went to work to create a brand that was as warm and approachable as the dishes from the hearth. We used rough serif typography and hand-drawn illustrations with simple, elegant applications. The Etta brand is sophisticated and timeless, whether made of tile, stitched on clothing or die-cut out of steel.

Brand creation for a contemporary casual restaurant.

etta

Extensive user testing was essential to establishing the best possible experience. We quickly realized that to get the most useful feedback, we would need to wear the Metria IH1 for a seven-day period ourselves. This provided a valuable immersion into the data and allowed us to create a truly human-centered interface.

The Metria IH1 application needed to give users easy access to a range of data from their last wear period, including calories, burned, steps taken, sleep duration, and more. It was important that the interface be simple, despite the detail of the data that the device collects. At the same time, medical researchers and health professionals needed access to the full range of data points. We iterated through multiple interface options before reaching a solution that successfully accommodated both use cases.

Among the technical challenges of the Metria project was the connection between the device data and the application interface. We wrote a custom API to connect the two and established an OAuth 2 server for authenticating with the custom API. This allowed only authorized developers to use Metria data in their own applications.

Web development was a true collaboration: WHQ brought a modern front-end stack to the table, and Metria brought a solid backend infrastructure. The site is built in Laravel, one of two frameworks we prefer to work with. Laravel pulls in data to build a static, single-directory, serverless website that can be deployed to S3 or a CDN for optimal performance.

WHQ provided expertise in usability and workflow to improve the brand experience on our desktop and mobile app. Their deep understanding of architecture and design always impresses me.

Metria, a wearable sensor from Vancive Medical Technologies, collects health and fitness data with greater accuracy than any other device on the market. Applications in medical research, health insurance, and day-to-day life, along with ease of use and disposability, make Metria IH1 an exciting next-generation lifestyle product. We partnered with the Vancive team to design and develop an application that visualizes the collected data, provides insightful lifestyle suggestions to users, and measures up to the breakthrough nature of the product itself.

Designing a UI for a wearable sensor

Metria

Dick’s Sporting Goods called, next REI, then Modell’s, and quickly the Big 5 Sporting Goods planned to stock Spikeball. In a welcome to the big-time moment, Spikeball realized it needed to up their POP game. They tasked WHQ with creating a box that would remind current ballers how amazing the game is and show potential ballers the excitement of the product. A photoshoot with professional Spikeball players (yes, it’s a thing) gave us the assets to show the game in action on the box. Functionally, the product was loose in the packaging, so our engineering team went to work to define a simple structure and slide-out form to present the product to its new owner. Yeah, we Spiked it.

VP of Marketing & Recovering Corporate American

We've partnered with WHQ on everything from establishing our packaging architecture to designing a line of apparel. Their deep understanding of our brand and audience always shines through the thoughtful, impactful work.

What started as a competitive lawn game has quickly grown into one of America’s most popular sports. Spikeball has taken over parks and beaches across the country. To be taken seriously in any industry, a new company needs a brand that breaks the mold and embodies its newfound audience’s energy. Spikeball is no different and remains the perfect example of a company that’s achieved the near-impossible, an iconic brand that becomes widely known worldwide.

We worked with the team at Spikeball to design a brand that resonates with people in the same irreverent manner of the sport. We created a dynamic, reverberating icon that captured the movement and energy of the game. The logotype and its mark work when paired but are equally impactful on their own. From Spikeball Pro jerseys to Shark Tank to ESPN, our team takes pride in seeing how pervasive the mark has become.

The fastest-growing sport in America

Spikeball

A large volume of Arktura’s customers needed a way to easily share their products to prospective clients. Through interviews and testing sessions with key team members, WHQ developed a fully-realized product sharing application integrated into the website. Users are able to save collections of Arktura products and share them as digital slideshows, or download full quality images and cut sheets. This tool ultimately provided faster conversions and new opportunities for revenue.

Architectural products company Arktura, a true innovator of form and function, is known for combining mathematics and art to create stunning wall and ceiling systems. With their focus on developing future products and growing current offerings, marketing had taken a back seat. With us, they found a partner that could not only define their digital presence but also turn their website into a sales tool that would ultimately transform the way they do business.

We jumped in and became a part of the Arktura team. Conversations and collaboration with ownership and marketing produced a strategy and vision that would fit their business and excite sales and customers. Using powerful imagery and active messaging shows how Arktura’s products transform commercial spaces. We implemented a user-focused and responsive design methodology from UX explorations to high fidelity page templates to final coded pages. Our ownership of both the design and development processes brought consistency and quality to the site to match Arktura’s own exacting standards.

Modern design meets modular solutions.

Arktura

E-commerce has become one of the most essential ways for a brand to tell its story. The Unison site does just that. Clean, contemporary photography shows off their bright and bold products. We worked to create a system of colors, layouts and typography that would show off Unison’s personality, while keeping the product as the hero.

The primary sales vehicle for Unison is their quarterly printed catalog. We collaborated closely to conceptualize and design each issue — everything from selecting the products, to creating shot lists and directing photo shoots, to iterating through layout options. The catalogs continue to make a strong design statement in the home textiles space and drive sales for the company.

We worked to design and build flexible, branded templates for print and email marketing campaigns, and train the Unison staff in using them. The result — a branded line of printed and digital communication that stays true to the brand while letting Unison determine ongoing content.

Sometimes you get the pleasure of helping build a brand from the ground up. Unison is one of those cases. We began consulting with a small textile group, but as we discovered the reach of their vision, their design bloodline, and their grasp of the industry, we realized we were dealing with something much bigger. In collaboration with their talented team, we created a fresh, modern brand that truly reflects the products and personality of the company.

A way of working together from day one

Unison

We focused on creating a solid logotype and a fresh logo. These marks stand on their own or work together to create a brand that works everywhere, from store windows to the web and other digital products.

We knew when we met the founders of Foxtrot that their business was a game-changer. The convenience store was tired and was not keeping up with the taste of the modern consumer. Thanks to the team at Foxtrot, that was about to change. They created an evolution of the corner store filled with a mix of daily essentials and thoughtful local products. All of this ordered via their app and delivered via bike messenger.

The concept was spot-on, and they needed a brand experience to match. That's where we came in. We obsessed over every touchpoint of the brand - the positioning, the symbol, digital experience, packaging, and more. We created moments of surprise and delight around every corner.

WHQ defines the Foxtrot positioning and brand look and feel for a company that is on the hunt for unque and amazing.

On the hunt for unique and amazing.

Foxtrot

Consumers are everywhere, and every brand must be there for them with content that informs, engages, and converts. ItemMaster creates that content for some of the world’s most recognizable brands, providing the visibility they need to turn shoppers into buyers—both online and off. They came to WHQ to design a brand and online presence that would clearly communicate their unique value proposition and position them as a category leader. Together we wrote the ItemMaster story and created a fresh visual brand. We completed a full WordPress integration, providing the ItemMaster team the ability to edit every piece of content on their site, and devised a template system for them to continue to add pages and content without sacrificing brand integrity.

A design system for a content master.

ItemMaster

The brand name and identity are effortless because the mission is clear. We worked with the team to name the business. After defining the brand attributes — trustworthy, honest, proactive, and caring — we provided multiple naming concepts. One stood out from the crowd, fitting the friendly but professional character of the company — Lendr. The identity paired a contemporary typeface that feels financial and friendly with an emotive icon that represents the growth of customers' businesses.

It was essential that the loan application process be as painless as possible for everyone, both the customer and the review team at Lendr. We began with a workflow following a user’s path step-by-step through the application, while detailing external dependencies and internal logic at each point. This was followed by a design process that produced a clean, functional interface which removed barriers to application submission and increased customer conversions.

In an economy where it’s almost impossible for small businesses to get traditional loans, Lendr offers fast, friction-free cash advances to help small- and medium-sized businesses grow. Lendr’s unique approach is one that considers customers’ complete business picture—the health of their business, real-time performance, and long-term potential, in order to better customize a plan that works for them.

WHQ was tasked with naming and branding. Our goal was to make a trustworthy modern brand that would bring simplicity to the business of lending.

Making borrowing responsible

Lendr

Sloan introduced a new line of connected faucets and flushometers to reduce installation, service and maintenance time by 50%. Sloan tasked WHQ with developing an intuitive mobile app for maintenance and facility managers to monitor, update and manage their commercial restroom products with one tool… their phone.

A smarter way to run water.

Sloan Connect

Juice NV is a boutique retail store offering cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices, superfood smoothies, and gourmet raw and prepared foods. Their mission: to bring healthier lifestyle options to the Las Vegas Valley through artisanal fast food and individualized nutrition programs.

We worked with the team at Juice NV to create a unique farmstand brand in an urban environment. Positioning Juice NV as “Las Vegas’ First Urban Farmstand,” we designed a hand-honed brand that evokes the mixing of flavors and health benefits on their menu.

Branding Las Vegas’ first urban farmstand

Juice NV

The identity is inspired by the core of their restaurant, a Pastaficio, or pasta factory where artisans make made-to-order fresh pasta. An energetic circle of pasta forming the letter “M” feels hand done and authentic, just like the restaurant itself.

Monteverde is a concept of award-winning chef Sarah Grueneberg based in Chicago’s west town. The restaurant blends Italian culture traditions and cooking with influences from Chef Sarah Grueneberg's trips around the world and her family heritage. Monteverde is best known for hand-crafted, simple ingredients and made to order fresh pasta.

WHQ was tasked with positioning the restaurant visually and verbally through branding, packaging, and storytelling.

Branding a top chef’s Italian restaurant and pastaficio

Monteverde

User personas to guide the design process

A solid foundational strategy, created in collaboration with Sloan, was important given the scope of the project. While we aligned ourselves with the vision of key stakeholders, we also conducted extensive user interviews to build representative personas for each of Sloan’s primary customer groups. This would prove an invaluable resource for vetting design decisions throughout the process and ensuring that all user needs were being met.

Through multiple iterations, we crafted an aesthetic that would appeal to Sloan’s target audience — designers and architects — while remaining as fast and functional as engineers required. We created a core set of web components that could be reused throughout all of Sloan’s web projects, enabling faster deployment and greater brand consistency. Beautiful typography with a clear hierarchy was an important element, as was the eye-catching use of brand colors. Yet all of this was in service of the true star, Sloan’s products, which took center stage in stunning, full-screen imagery.

As the project progressed, it became clear that there was a lack of high-quality product imagery and iconography that would play a major role in the site’s success. We proposed a brand asset creation project that involved 3D product renderings, case study photography, and flat iconography. We provided art direction for the renderings, creative oversight on case study photoshoots, and execution of the icons — all to ensure a consistency of quality and brand character that comes through in the final site.

Sloan, a 110-year-old global company and leading name in sustainable restroom design, felt that their former website did not adequately address the needs of their key customers and failed to reflect the global and sustainable nature of their brand. We listened and delivered a re-vamped company website that was worthy of a worldwide industry leader.

Owning the whole commercial restroom.

Sloan

We built a glowing identity that feels both opulent and classic. One of BLVD’s design concepts is to reveal the restaurant after you enter through a small narrow opening into the great room. We captured this idea of mystery and excitement with the mark through repetition of the letterforms. The rounded forms in a champagne palette remind us of the golden era brought to the modern-day.

BLVD is a Chicago restaurant inspired by Hollywood’s Sunset Blvd—the golden era’s famed strip of dining and entertainment establishments. With a fantastic concept and interior design plan, the team reached out to us to complete the picture with a mark and brand that fit the story.

Branding a 50’s Hollywood dinning experience.

BLVD

Through several collaborative work sessions with the Maple & Ash team, we created an aesthetic that feels part classic steakhouse, part fashion brand. The mark is a monogram, reminiscent of a cattle brand, the very origin of the word brand, yet drawn with sophistication as if it exists on a finely tailored suit. The clean lines and sharp corners form a modern, geometric shape that is symmetrical yet deviant — a strong yet sexy base upon which to build the brand.

With menu items like baller seafood platters and the “I Don’t Give a F*@k” tasting menu that kicks off with caviar bumps and champagne shots, Maple & Ash celebrates classic conventions in unexpected and delightful ways, all in the name of creating celebratory and memorable moments for their guests. We strove to echo this in all aspects of the design, from refined art-deco inspired patterns to bold typographic combinations, to playful illustration and imagery.

Maple & Ash has been praised as the hottest restaurant in Chicago by Conde Nast and has received numerous other accolades from top national publications, including Wallpaper, Wall Street Journal, and Eater.

Maple & Ash, named for the two woods used to fire steaks, chops, and everything else Chef Danny Grant can think of, came to us for help developing the brand for their innovative steakhouse. After a competitive audit and in-depth conversations with the Maple & Ash team, we concluded that the spirit of the restaurant was authentic, celebratory, and bold. These guiding principles would inform every design decision as we set out to create a world-class brand.

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etta

Metria

Spikeball

Arktura

Unison

Foxtrot

ItemMaster

Lendr

Sloan Connect

Juice NV

Monteverde

Sloan

BLVD

Maple and Ash

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etta

Metria

Spikeball

Arktura

Unison

Foxtrot

ItemMaster

Lendr

Sloan Connect

Juice NV

Monteverde

Sloan

BLVD

Maple and Ash

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