Studio Curva
Website Design & Development
In early 2023, I took on the challenge of designing a website for Studio Curva—one of Brazil's top creative agencies known for their iconic work in motion graphics, scenography, interaction design, and film. With only a logo as a guideline, I set out to create a digital experience that matched their exceptional reputation and showcased their artistry to the world.
A Website as Bold as Their Work
Studio Curva is one of Brazil's premier creative agencies. They are renowned for their exceptional work with top pop artists and brands, but despite their reputation, the agency had no formal visual guidelines beyond a logo.
How could I create a website that reflects the quality of their work without clear design direction?
High-Level Goals
Develop the website in a way that allowed Studio Curva to update their projects without my support.
Create an outstanding website that showcases Studio Curva's work and capabilities.
Ensure the website is user-friendly, allowing visitors to navigate Studio Curva's portfolio and experience immersive design elements easily.
Starting From Nothing
At the project's beginning, we held several meetings to explore visual references and websites that appealed to Studio Curva. While this provided a starting point, it didn't address the core issue of the missing visual guidelines. That's when I delved into their work and made an intriguing discovery:
Studio Curva doesn't have visual identity guidelines because it doesn't need one.
Showcasing Studio Curva's Creativity
As puzzling as it initially seemed, the answer was surprisingly clear. Studio Curva's focus had always been on aligning with their clients' visual identities, rather than establishing their own. It took some time for this realization to sink in, but once it did, everything fell into place. I decided to base my approach on two fundamental principles:
Restrict the color scheme to black and white, in line with their logo, the only piece of branding available;
Design the website to highlight their work. This meant creating a somewhat chaotic layout to accommodate the diverse visual identities of their clients. Interestingly, this chaotic yet highly organized and quality-driven aesthetic mirrored the atmosphere of their physical office, and that's what I tried to make their website feel like.
After finalizing the font selection with Studio Curva, I opted for a blend of techniques to achieve a balance of chaos and cleanliness. This meant pairing a highly stylized font with an extremely simple one. A website designed with entirely rectangular elements, placing Studio Curva's uniquely curved, unexpected, and unusually shaped work at the center of every screen. Additionally, I used a Difference blend mode on elements placed above videos to ensure they remained highly visible, creating a striking contrast with the background.
I completed the "Projects" page, which was the most crucial section, by featuring eight images and videos in the center. I added a Zoom-In effect to the video that activated as users scrolled down, creating the sensation of "stepping into" the video. Most users absolutely loved the immersive feeling this interaction had.
I made creative use of black and white contrast throughout the website. A highlight was the interaction between the Menu (with a white background) and the Footer (with a black background). Clicking on the Menu would reveal an almost mirrored version of the Footer, creating a visually striking effect similar to the behavior of the Difference blend mode when interacting with opposite colors.
Major Achievements
Made in Webflow: Designed, built, and delivered a website that enables administrators to easily customize pages and add new projects through a Content Management System (CMS).
Embracing their adaptable nature: Recognizing that Studio Curva's lack of brand guidelines came from their client-centric approach, I crafted a website that truly embodies the essence of their agency. A harmonious blend of order, creativity and chaos.
Awwwards Nomination: The website received a nomination for Awwwards, a significant milestone I've always aspired to achieve and am immensely proud of. You can see the Nomination page here.