Brief
With its first Sydney location newly opened, Lanzhou noodle concept Ox Lan needed a new website to establish its digital presence and introduce the brand to customers.
The initial brief was for a simple, food-led website covering the menu, ingredients, brand story, community and employment opportunities, with no need for online ordering.
Working from the existing Ox Lan brand, Creatik was engaged to plan, design and build the new website, creating a digital experience that could showcase the food while helping customers understand what makes Ox Lan different.
As the project developed, it became clear that strong original imagery would be critical to bringing that experience to life. Creatik also planned and directed a dedicated food photography shoot, creating a visual library specifically for the website.
Challenge
Ox Lan was new to the Sydney market, so its website needed to do more than provide practical restaurant information.
It needed to introduce the experience.
Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles have a rich tradition and distinctive preparation process, while Ox Lan's proposition also places emphasis on fresh ingredients, Australian beef, protein-enriched Australian flour and transparency around what goes into its food.
The challenge was to bring these different messages together without overcomplicating the experience.
Customers needed to quickly see the food, understand what made it different, explore the menu and find the information they needed to visit.
And with no existing library of food photography, the visual content and website needed to be created together.
Solution
Creatik approached the project as one connected digital experience.
We began by planning the site structure and content requirements, mapping the customer journey across the menu, food and ingredients, brand story, employment and contact information.
From there, we developed the wireframes and website concept before rolling the design across the complete site and managing the build, testing and refinements through to launch.
The experience was deliberately kept simple and food-led. Strong imagery draws people into the menu, while supporting content provides more depth around the ingredients, preparation and thinking behind Ox Lan.
The result is a website that works at two levels: giving customers the practical information they need quickly, while providing enough of the story to understand what makes the Ox Lan experience different.
Creating the imagery
For a food brand, the photography needed to work just as hard as the website itself.
Rather than designing the site first and finding imagery to fit afterwards, Creatik planned the photography alongside the digital experience.
We developed the moodboard, shot list and visual direction around what the website actually needed, capturing the process of crafting the noodles, hero menu combinations, individual dishes, ingredients and food details.
The shoot also considered how individual menu items would need to work within the digital design, with imagery planned across noodle soups, dry and tossed noodles and supporting dishes.
This created a consistent visual language across the site and allowed the freshness, texture and craft of the food to become part of the storytelling.
Client outcome
The finished website gives Ox Lan a digital home that brings together its food, philosophy and restaurant experience in one clear destination.
Customers can explore the menu, understand more about the ingredients and preparation behind the food, and easily find the practical information they need to visit.
For Ox Lan, the project created more than a website. It established the digital experience and original visual content needed to introduce a new restaurant concept to the Sydney market.
By bringing website planning, UX, design, photography and build together from the beginning, every element works as part of the same experience.
One team. One visual direction. One connected experience from shoot to site.
New website from the ground up
Strategy, sitemap, UX, design and build.
Original food photography
Shoot planning, art direction and imagery created specifically for the digital experience.
End-to-end digital delivery
From initial planning and content requirements through to build, testing and launch.
One connected experience
Website and photography developed together from the beginning.
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