River Oaks Website

Role: Creative Direction and Lead Designer (Hello Amigo)
Team: Content & Copywriting - Angie Kimmel | Development - Brandon Silverstein

Overview

A major commercial real estate firm approached us to redesign their website after a brand refresh, but with extremely strict guidelines: black and white color palette only, one type family, and a rigid corporate aesthetic that could not be altered. Their existing site felt outdated and lacked the polish of their new identity, yet leadership feared any creative flexibility would dilute their brand equity. Our challenge was to create a modern, engaging digital experience that elevated the brand while honoring every rule.

Approach

As Design Lead, I treated the constraints as a creative puzzle, focusing on craft, hierarchy, and storytelling to bring the brand to life without bending guidelines.

Key actions included:

  • Leveraging large-scale photography as the visual anchor, introducing subtle warmth and dimension through real-world imagery rather than color or graphic elements.

  • Designing bold, data-forward infographics that made key business metrics feel dynamic and digestible while maintaining a refined, corporate tone.

  • Collaborating with developers to integrate motion and interactive elements, adding depth and sophistication without impacting accessibility or performance.

  • Presenting multiple creative concepts that pushed the boundaries within the rules, experimenting with refined gray tones and italic typographic accents to highlight metrics. These small, intentional deviations remained brand-aligned and earned strong client praise.

The result was a design system that elevated their brand expression while staying fully compliant with strict visual standards.

Impact

  • The redesigned website struck the ideal balance—polished, modern, and true to the brand’s identity, yet far more dynamic and memorable.

    • 25% increase in website traffic after launch

    • 20% increase in average session duration

    • Praised by leadership as the most engaging expression of their brand to date

    • Established a new creative benchmark for how strict brand guidelines could be applied across future marketing materials

    This project reinforced a key belief I bring to every collaboration: constraints can spark some of the most innovative solutions when approached with curiosity, precision, and empathy.