Cititec: Design and Marketing work to Reinvigorate Brand & Operations.

The Challenge: A Disjointed Brand & User Experience

Cititec was struggling with what the new CEO saw as an ineffective brand identity and digital presence crafted by an external agency. Their website and marketing materials lacked clear structure and organisation. The CEO believed the overall tone, style, visuals, and copy failed to resonate with potential customers, creating a disjointed online experience and misrepresenting the company's value.

The Mission: As a Design Lead, to lead a comprehensive brand overhaul and a new design and build of the company website. A secondary job was to establish a new internal communications platform.

Design & Strategic Definition

My role was to diagnose the core issues and lead the design of new, effective solutions.

• Discovery & UX Research: I led the discovery phase, conducting stakeholder interviews with the CEO and business leads. This research helped define the brand's challenges, business goals, user needs (internal and external), and strategic goals.

• Information Architecture & Wireframing: I created the new IA and wireframes for the new website.

• Brand Identity & UI Direction:

• Visuals & Tone: I collaborated with a graphic designer on the new visual identity and worked with the CEO (a former journalist) to establish the right tone of voice and messaging guidelines, ensuring brand consistency.

• Intranet Strategy & Implementation:

• Needs Assessment & Tool Selection: I guided the Head of Operations in scoping their intranet needs, evaluating tools (including Google Sites), and ultimately selecting Happeo.

• Initial Design & Build: I then led the creation of the initial intranet versions, working with business leads to understand their requirements and structure the platform accordingly.

The work

• Link to wireframes.

• Link to v01 website design.

• Link to brand guidelines.

• Link to current website.

Next Steps

Once we had, we moved to development and deployment.

• Website Development Oversight: I selected WordPress for its usability, recruited a developer, and co-defined the project scope. My focus was on creating an easily maintainable site with user-friendly content sections.

• Marketing Team Enablement: With the CEO, I hired a new marketing manager and subsequently acted as a fractional marketing director, providing design and strategic leadership until the marketing manager was ready for me to leave.

• After hiring the Marketing Manager, we identified a key challenge: weak senior-level relationships due to Cititec's recent transition. Together, we implemented a strategy to rebuild these crucial relationships through marketing initiatives. For example, we used our 250k LinkedIn followers to create high-level content through spotlights and interviews. The idea for our own 'Commodities Leaders Awards' went viral, engaging previously unreachable leaders.

• Strategic Facilitation: My leadership extended to facilitating strategic meetings with senior leadership (e.g., in 2024) to help them define a new business direction and create and deliver cohesive execution plans to get there.

Transformed Experiences & Measurable Impact

The initiatives led to a revitalised brand, improved digital platforms, and enhanced operational efficiency.

Qualitative Impact:

• Happy CEO: After getting through a tough 2023, the business is thriving.

Quantitative Impact):

• Increased Website Visits: from 4.7K Jan-April 2023 to 7k Jan–April 2025

• Increased Lead Gen for Senior Leaders: from 0 to 4-5 monthly leads.  

Key Takeaways & My Impact

I drove Cititec's design and brand transformation by applying user-centered design principles from discovery through to implementation. I believe this project showcases my ability to lead digital projects that align design with business strategy, and my marketing understanding helped me creat more website users.