The run down

Designing a website for Zaha Hadid Architects comes with a bit of pressure. Their buildings are some of the most recognisable on the planet, and the site had to hold its own next to them.

The brief was simple: make it easy to find their projects and meet the people behind them. A refreshed brand was being developed alongside, built around the idea of a “living legacy”, and my job was to bring that to life on screen. It behaves less like a corporate site, and more like a building you move through: layered, dynamic and easy to navigate.

The fun challenge was colour. Every project is tagged with typologies and expertise, each with its own colour, and some projects carry a lot of tags. Showing all of that without it turning into a rainbow mess took some thought. The answer was a moving gradient generated for each project, built from its tags. It shifts as you hover through the listing grid, then carries into the hero on the project page.

It’s subtle, but it brings the brand in and gives every project its own personality.