Portfolio

Berkeley Yeast

A biotech startup that’s poised to shake up the beer and wine industry, Berkeley Yeast gets a new website designed to launch them towards their lofty ambitions.

Website redesign

berkeley-yeast-hero-square

The Partnership

Berkeley Yeast was started by Charles Denby, the CEO, and a small team of world-class scientists, each with sterling academic credentials and a list of accomplishments to match. Now one might imagine that putting these scientists in a (virtual) room with seasoned designers to build a website would be a setup for comically awkward meetings. In fact, they were anything but.

Charles and Nick Harris, another co-founder, arrived at every meeting fully engaged, respectful of the creative process, and willing to do whatever it took to get the job done. (It’s not often that a CEO is willing to walk around his facilities and take test photographs for us.) It’s easy to root for people who are as kind and dedicated as they are smart and ambitious. It’s a dream to work with them, too.

The Challenge

In its first few years, Berkeley Yeast, like many startups, directed their dollars and attention to critical matters: calibrating their business model, fine tuning their products, hiring the right staff, and building crucial industry relationships. A website was built quickly and inexpensively as a temporary digital home until they felt ready to announce themselves more officially with the confidence of a company that was running on all cylinders. When that moment arrived, they came to Dayspring with the goal of building a website that properly showcased their game-changing innovation but was anchored to their values.

The Project

Service

Berkeley Yeast’s first website focused on the intense flavors achieved by brewers when using their yeast strains. Bright colors and graphic illustrations of fruits featured heavinly on the website but little pointed to the transformative science and technology underlying the company’s work. We knew from the start that the key landing pages had to immediately convey that something extraordinary was brewing at Berkeley Yeast. Our solution was to use vivid, fluid, and abstract videos to create a sense of wonder and transformation–perfectly apt for bioengineering technology that not too long ago would have sounded like science fiction. These videos were counterbalanced by clean, tight page laoyouts to help organize a large body of content in the practical, sensible manner that one might associate with scientists.

The clients had also asked us to design labels for their suite of products, a list of about fifteen yeast strains that fall under five categories. Taking cues from videos, a system of distinct abstract image sets were created, each corresonding to a product category that would serve as a quick cue for both the customers and the Berkeley Yeast staff responsible for packing and shipping each order. These labels were also used for the online catalog–providing another point of vivid and dynamic imagery for the website–as well as in their printed sales collateral and trade show designs. By refocusing the design strategy and taking a holistic approach to multiple platforms, Berkeley Yeast’s brand presence is now compelling and cohesive–just in time for the next stage of growth.

Although the client had said that they wanted to retain their brand logo, we couldn’t resist recommending a slight refresh that would still leave the original concept intact in preparation for a new website. The bright, punchy colors and italic slant were abandoned in favor of black or white and bolder weights, resulting in a stronger and more timeless revision.

BEFORE

AFTER

Let’s talk

Looking for a software development partner? Get in touch with us to start a conversation.

415.247.9421 Ext. 102