Our work for Stafford Group

Stafford Group website

20 June 2007

Following on from our corporate identity for Stafford Group, a family-owned private company with interests in energy, retail and shipping, we were commissioned to create their new website. Their existing web presence was minimal: a few pages of text linking off one of their company sites. The new corporate site we were creating was never going to be a high-traffic site. Its role was to provide relevant corporate information about the group and its activities: financial statements, director biographies and such-like. As such, its audience was the broader business community business, from financial institutions and potential partners to business journalists.
Our role was to structure the site by defining its web-page architecture. We thought about what needed to be included within the site, and where should it go. We generated content wire-frames and site maps. Once these were agreed, they formed the basis for the user interface design we developed. Our aim was to keep the aesthetic as simple as possible: this is not a complex website and shouldn't look it. Our new corporate identity formed the basis of the interface. Strata3 built the complete site from our visualisations and following our technical specification documentation.
This new website benefits Stafford Group because it provides a comprehensive corporate information resource accessible by other businesses involved in transactions, or potential transactions, with the group.

Stafford Group corporate identity

02 October 2006

We have created a new corporate identity for the Stafford Group, a family-owned private company operating in energy, shipping, sports retail and property sectors. The group's former identity was a version of an old Stafford Oil retail brand identity which had been retired in 2005 when Stafford Oil was rebranded as Campus Oil, a brand identity also created by BFK. As such, the group identity was no longer in alignment with the positioning of the group and its business objectives.
We worked closely with the management team to develop the new identity. Though a family-owned private company, the objective was to present Stafford Group as one of Ireland's most professionally run organisations, operating strictly to the standards of a plc while retaining the benefits of ownership by a family committed to long-term success.
Our design solution is based around a sophisticated, understated word-mark. The group's reputation and name being their key attribute, typography was the optimal choice here. Adding a symbol would have only detracted from this identity. Restrained colours communicate professionalism.

This was an atypical identity project, in that only a small number of applications were required, though it was essential that each be of the highest quality. A suite of well-considered stationery and presentation resources were the key deliverables. We considered tactile qualities carefully and, for example, business cards were printed on heavy, uncoated stock with the word-mark raised on an embossed panel.

We have also designed the appearance and site architecture for the group’s new corporate website.

This new corporate identity benefits the Stafford Group by reflecting accurately the desired corporate positioning. It presents a consistent professional message in all of their corporate encounters.