Foster + Partners – Miles Unwin

An Encyclopaedia Of Architecture_____

Foster + Partners is a global studio for sustainable architecture, urbanism, engineering and design, founded by Norman Foster in 1967. Timed with the unveiling of Apple’s new Steve Jobs Theatre, designed by Foster + Partners, AKQA were honoured to launch the fully reimagined fosterandpartners.com platform for the architecture firm.

With simplicity, modernity and innovation at its core, users are welcomed with a cinematic video experience leading seamlessly into an intuitive site architecture designed to reflect the practice in form and function. The studio's phenomenal portfolio is brought to life with unprecedented depth and detail which earned AKQA the exceptional feedback ‘AKQA have created an Encyclopaedia of Architecture’ from Norman Foster himself.

As group creative director, my role spanned from concept to delivery; leading the multidisciplinary team that impressively won fosterandpartners.com top prize at the Archiboo Web Awards, which celebrate architecture companies with outstanding websites. The new platform halved load time, doubled engagement, and increased lead generation by 1800%.

Agency_____

AKQA

Awards_____

Archiboo Gold

Services_____

Brand Guidelines
Creative Concept
Creative Consultancy
Creative Direction
Creative Leadership
Digital Design
Design Production
Design System
Iconography
Prototyping
User Interface Design
User Experience
Visual Identity
Website Design
Wireframing

Typography and palette_____

The sans-serif typeface Open Sans designed by Steve Matteson and released by Google in 2011 is well suited to an architectural aesthetic. Predominantly a screen font, it features wide apertures and large x-heights on lower-case letters making it highly legible at small sizes; perfect for long-form information and technical specifications.

The dynamic palette automatically generates background colours to reflect featured photography - a world first for architecture websites.