The Hurst Conference Center website redesign brings an air of elegance to the venue. Currently catering to corporate meeting planners, social event coordinators and brides-to-be, the website needed to provide specific information that was relevant to each target audience. This was achieved through intuitive navigation and individualized content.
The website leads with beautiful photography of the venue and, most notably, their fiber-optic chandelier. The refreshed design reflects high-end clientele and more aptly represents the quality of service the Hurst Conference Center offers.
Utilizing grid structures for organizational clarity, every aspect of the redesign provides a hassle-free planning process for potential clients. Each interior page has responsive menus that display room capacities, technical offerings and floor plans. With all the details carefully thought out, the quality of online service now mirrors the level of customer service the Hurst Conference Center provides.
Here’s a riddle: What says “You’re important, come to this tasting event and here’s a bribe?” You guessed it, a foil-stamped invitation with a gold fork and mini chocolate cake inside.
Client Hurst Conference Center hosted an event for local event planners to show off all their amenities, including adaptable spaces and a full-service kitchen. Since the event would include a tasting menu prepared by their on-staff chef, we decided to tempt attendees with a taste of what was to come.
“The good stuff is in the middle” relates to Hurst’s prime location in the heart of the metroplex, but of course it always applies to desserts. Of course, we being the thorough and thoughtful partners that we are did diligently sample a range of desserts to pick the one that was most likely to attract a crowd. All in a day’s work.
This year, the Hurst Conference Center came to us with a problem. As always, we came back with a solution.
Problem: How can we increase our wedding and reception bookings and overcome the negative perceptions that engaged couples have of a conference center as a wedding venue?
Solution: Develop a unique brand and identity for the Hurst Conference Center’s bridal market that sets it apart from competitors.
Our first step was to evaluate the local bridal market, the competitors and the unique attributes of the conference center. We then crafted the venue’s unique positioning, which guided us through the naming and identity development process. Our strategy was to develop an identity that conveyed simple elegance while highlighting the unique attributes of the grand ballroom while giving it a name that would sound good on wedding invitations. We developed several different names and designs and, in partnership with the client, landed on a name that highlighted the iconic fiber optic star-field chandelier located in the grand ballroom – Lumiere Ballroom at the Hurst Conference Center.
With the bridal identity developed, we executed the new brand in several collateral pieces to introduce it into the marketplace. Our goal was to differentiate the bridal marketing elements from the rest of the Hurst corporate/meeting planner marketing pieces. This meant pulling away from the traditional red and orange colors.
The bridal identity is set apart from the corporate HCC brand through the photography style and limited use of colors. De-saturated photography added an element of refined elegance to the space, while the use of black allowed the chandelier to stand out as a focal point within the venue. However, the corporate/meeting HCC brand and the bridal identity are tied together through the use of photography and the type family (Helvetica).
