The toolworks.org website launch completes our rebrand for Toolworks, a self-supporting nonprofit that is devoted to helping people with disabilities connect with the opportunities in their community. After redesigning their identity and stationery system, we created templates for their day to day operational needs, brand guidelines and began work on bringing their brand to life through their website.

With a stream-lined site structure and media-rich content, the new website enables Toolworks to spotlight their client success stories. Our strong attention to accessibility ensures past, present and future clients and supporters will also be able to navigate the site with ease. We built the site on top of WordPress, an easy to use content management system, to allow Toolworks the flexibility to maintain the website themselves, with support from Iron when needed.

The new website allows Toolworks to focus on running and promoting the social ventures that allow them to provide social services to over 500 individuals with disabilities every year. Their latest endeavor, Bakeworks, was featured on Huffington Post San Francisco.

Last week, we were honored by the Interactive Media Council with an Outstanding Achievement Award for excellence in design and usability of the Dockers Macy’s micro site.

This robust online shop-in-shop experience is one of our finest achievements in ecommerce design and usability. Utilizing elements from the new Dockers brand launched by DraftFCB, we were able to design a micro site that spoke to the khaki retailer’s target of 35+ males, and enticed them with entertaining interactive features, including a “Fit Guide” and “Style Finder Survey.”

From the day of its launch, the micro site captured attention and interest in a way that transcended the standard online retail experience – encouraging Dockers shoppers to explore the full range of Dockers products, and bettering the likelihood of a sale.

It’s an honor to have our work recognized by the IMA, and even more so to have been given the opportunity to work with two terrifically talented and savvy teams at Dockers and Macy’s.  We’d like to personally thank Dockers for bringing us aboard, as well as Macy’s for their development prowess!

For international brands it can be a challenge to introduce themselves to new and unfamiliar markets. A new market often demands a new perspective on the brand – a new take on what is being offered or how it is being presented, based on what people respond to in that particular region.

Take Bticino – an extremely large Italian manufacturer of high-end light switches, wall plates and other electrical device peripherals – as an example. They contacted Iron in 2009, as they began the process of introducing their products to the US market. Given the brand’s prominence in Europe, the company had plenty of experience framing its message of sophistication in different languages – but where the company was struggling was translating their VISUAL language. While European countries can often share an aesthetic sensibility, the US is isolated from that cultural network. In short, to customers in the US, Bticino’s marketing materials seemed strange rather than sophisticated.

Over the course of a year, we set about translating Bticino’s message of sophistication both literally and visually, redesigning the company’s website, brochure, catalog, print ads and every other consumer touch point (see a small sample of our work below). With a cohesive marketing arsenal, the company has been able to expand target market saturation from San Francisco to Los Angeles and is in the planning stages of opening an office in New York. We’re excited about how the work turned out and are looking forward to our next international challenge!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our first major digital collaboration with Dockers. Earlier this month the new Dockers microsite went live on macys.com, fusing branded content with a robust e-commerce engine.

The Dockers microsite features an interactive fit guide, a quiz to help users find the pants for every occasion, as well as news on the latest products. The Flash-based application seamlessly integrates with the macys.com backend, giving customers an immersive brand experience and then direct access to the products of their choosing.

After helping Levi’s kick-start its wholesale interactive business, Iron was seen as the natural choice to design the experience. The microsite is part of a major brand overhaul for Dockers, as the San Francisco khaki company reinvigorates its entire product line, targeting a younger, more progressive audience. We’ll follow up with news on Dockers micro-sites at JCPenney and Kohl’s soon!

NewSchools Venture Fund is a nonprofit venture philanthropy firm working to transform public education for low-income children. Our challenge was to build a digital presence that would stand tall among Silicon Valley audiences and reflect the innovation and transformative results for which they are known. The site needed to portray the true face of NewSchools and tell a narrative to potential entrepreneurs, funders and the thousands that will visit. The new site has an integrated array of features including a blog, picture galleries, videos and other key resources. You’ll also find case studies of the great work NewSchools ventures have done.

This month we launched the brand new La Cornue USA web site, telling the company’s illustrious history and developing a rich interactive experience that reflects the passion that has driven the brand for over 3 generations.

Today, over a century after its first appearance, La Cornue remains without rival and their new site places the peerless products at the center of a compelling brand experience. As well as marveling at the beauty of the products on display, users can design their own range (see screenshot above), order from a selection of gorgeous accessories, or find a dealer near them. The new site has helped keep the brand in high demand in challenging times for many luxury products.

As an international marketing force, Specialized adheres to exacting brand standards. However, many of its product lines need to have a life of their own. The Designs for Women section of the company’s web site embodied the challenge – the need to separate the offering from a male-dominated brand backdrop, while maintaining enough consistency to leverage the basic brand values.

The Solution? By making subtle design adjustments, we set the Designs for Women section apart from the rest of the site. And by prominently featuring bold, empowering visuals and copy, we made the female target feel welcome.

Read more about our interactive projects.

The campaign, which showcased the city’s incredible summer of art, featured national print ads, online banner ads, a micro site, rack cards and posters throughout SFO. Our fingers are crossed!

Read more about our advertising work

That was pretty much the case when Ocarina Networks contacted us. They had a fully functioning site. It just wasn’t representing their brand values any more. So they commissioned us to give their old site a facelift. They also wanted the new site to be built using a fully functioning content management system (CMS), and they threw in an ultra fast turnaround time for good measure!

In just 8 weeks we restructured their old architecture, sourced a suitable CMS (joomla), designed and deployed their new site. Check out the result here.

This is our second Web project for TWP and it continues our excellent relationship with the firm and the wider financial industry.

• View the new site here
• Read more about our financial services work