Since 2014, Buffalo, NY, has been a major player in the startup ecosystem. Businesses worldwide are invited to participate in 43North’s accelerator program, which offers millions of dollars in funding and a system of support and resources each year to help emerging enterprises scale. After ten years of hard work and countless success stories, 43North was ready to refresh its tone and look, starting with redesigning and developing a new, custom website.
When our team began the project, we examined who the work needed to speak to, why we needed to speak to them, and, importantly, in what scenarios the messaging would reach them. 43North has three key audiences: business founders, capital investors, and the local Western New York community. When done alongside a full brand audit and an analysis of key competitors, it allowed us to inform the new website’s architecture.
The outcome is an updated brand guide for 43North, defining new fonts, graphic styles, patterns, and colorways for the brand. In creating an updated website design, our task was to think beyond the website in our work’s earliest stages to set up future marketing efforts for success. The new website design offers clear user journeys for each audience, shortening and streamlining each group’s user journey and marketing funnel.
In addition to improved information architecture and a fresh aesthetic, we upgraded several of the website’s features to give 43North a site their portfolio of innovative founders could take pride in. The most data-heavy section of the website showcases 43North’s portfolio of investments and their founders. Now, it includes a dynamic sort and search feature for viewing the growing list of accelerator participants by criteria, including fields like industry type and cohort year. We also improved the event section of the site, making it clearer who the event host is and each event’s location and details.
Amber Rampino – Creative Director
Brian Battenfeld – Lead Developer
Hannah Lin – Lead Designer
Christa Glennie – Senior Copywriter
Marley McCormick – Brand Manager
Gina Schmidt – Project Coordinator
Bob Henry – Director of Digital Experience
Samantha Epps – Digital Marketing Specialist
