TRIAS

Website Redesign

2022

  • Identity,

  • Website

Architecture has continually been a rich source of inspiration for us. In particular, we have often admired the work of Sydney based studio TRIAS from afar. Started by Casey Bryant, Jennifer McMaster, and Jonathan Donnelly, TRIAS is founded on three principles: to create buildings that are solid, simple and beautiful. Sustainability and beauty are intrinsically intertwined in all of their work. This foundational aspect of their work is what inspires us as designers—to always go beyond the surface and approach each project with a holistic design perspective.

When Casey, Jennifer and Jonathan reached out to us during their lockdown in September of 2021 to explore a new website, we were thrilled to finally connect and work together.

Reference of cover from TM RSI SGM Issue 1, 1963, designed by Felix Berman

Brand Identity

While the main component of this project was the new website, our studio also provided a brief evaluation of the current brand identity and proposed a new wordmark and brand typography. From our discovery phase, we established TRIAS as passionate advocates for the present and future of architecture—being equally devoted to their work and also the sharing of knowledge to grow a better and more sustainable future. We wanted to establish the same dedication, intentionality and approachability through their brand typography. Through this lens, we selected Heldane and Untitled Sans to work cohesively as the visual tone of voice for the TRIAS brand. Heldane provided the warmth and approachability we were looking for while Untitled Sans offered the robust, precise and neutral qualities to balance with Heldane.

Excerpt from brand guideline considering layout and content hierarchy.

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    Wordmark and text treatment for event poster

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    Wordmark application to technical drawings

The window placement of some building designs became the inspiration for the image arrangement on the TRIAS homepage.

Website Design & Development

Within our studio, the analogy between building a website and building a house is often used to describe the extensive process involved. In our case with the TRIAS website however, this comparison could not be more true. In many ways, our team drew inspiration from the way our client approached each house they designed, seeking out the most sustainable methods available to build responsibly and lessen their carbon footprint. “Beautiful and sustainable” is the TRIAS mantra that we also strived for.

Our team proposed to build the new TRIAS site using a headless framework while utilizing WordPress as the content management system. This allows for faster and more efficient transferring of data while reducing energy consumption when rendering web pages.

The website design sits upon a 12 column grid which give us enough structure for content layout while providing flexibility to play with alignment and emphasis on the negative space surrounding the content.

For the project page, we created a content layout module with 9+ variations, allowing the TRIAS team to bring a unique approach to each project on their site.