Website Redesign

As Founders continued to grow and expand, we mutually recognized the need for their website to follow suit. This led to a back-end site rebuild with increased functionality for the Founders team. We also made updates to the overall style and design of the website.

Founders Brewing Co., a Grand Rapids, Michigan, craft brewer with an international following, needed a major overhaul for their website. The existing site had a long and successful history, but revisions, add-ons, and older underlying systems made the site increasingly difficult to maintain. Throughout our partnership with Founders, we’d had many conversations with them about the potential scope and timing around creating a new site. As Founders opened a second physical location and sought to strengthen their e-commerce offerings, we both agreed it was time to act.

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Choosing a Trusted Partner

Having worked successfully with Founders on their site for many years, Blue Flame Thinking was a trusted choice for the rebuild that needed to be done. Over the course of our partnership with the brewer, they knew we’d gained a deep understanding of their site and their business evolution. So, Founders was confident that the Blue Flame Thinking team could accomplish the transformation.

Step One: Rebuild the Back End of the Website

We started by removing many older, unused systems in the back end, including outdated page templates, header formats, and other systems. There was much to leave in place, including the site’s core structure and design, our component-based page-building systems, and recently developed features like Founders’ Cadre member registry, event management, and international sites.

For several years during routine site maintenance with Founders, we actually worked to make this task easier by strategically separating new functionality from older code. When the time came for a full back-end upgrade, this proactive, forward-looking work allowed for a more efficient process that delivered the new site to Founders faster.

Enhancing UX & Content Management

A part of Founder’s site rebuild was the addition and refinement of page templates and content that ensured users found the information they were coming for, plus some. This included providing full details for Founders’ multiple locations, improved pages to provide rich information on every Founders beer brand, and a fully rebuilt calendar that keeps customers updated on beer availability throughout the year. We also re-imagined the site’s “About” section with a detailed timeline full of company history content.

An abundance of upgraded, component-based page templates gave the Founders marketing team enhanced capabilities to manage content and build new pages.

Creating Robust E-Commerce Solutions

Founders’ retail space expansion and growing distribution required a new solution for e-commerce. We replaced their existing WooCommerce WordPress plug-in with the faster and more powerful Magento platform.

As we separated e-commerce functionality from the content management system, we also helped Founders wire it directly into their new retail enterprise resource planning system. Doing this made inventory management seamless and gave Founders’ store employees more time to focus on building consumer relationships and providing great customer service.