That new brand family comes together for the first time in a series of websites, each with its own unique and complementary brand look, content style, and all bound to the same core centrally-managed data platform. Another classic example of how digital branding acts as the cohering approach to overall branding.

The Hammer + Sickle Vodka site establishes Klin’s flagship brand. The billboard-style design, with carefully selected images that emphasize the product’s distilled purity and ad copy headlines, give H+S a unique tone for those who are serious about authentic vodka but like a little Russian wit. The Hammer + Sickle cigars site is dedicated to this “sister” brand in the Hammer + Sickle line.  A “Try Our Vodka” button connects from here back to H+S Vodka.

See the full FINE blog post.

Their site is the first time their expanded company has been unified behind their one vision promise in one all-encompassing space. It’s a perfect example of how creating a company website is so often an act of defining the company itself.

Case in point. Some stats: 156 projects; seven market sectors (with 45 project types); 11 services; two regions; 53 offices, English and Chinese translation. All organized by a content strategy that flows from brand strategy, and then into the nitty gritty of a content management system. Massive infrastructure projects, indeed!

See the full FINE project tour.

Somewhere along the way in the year’s since then, the culture of food started changing in America. Of course, Jamie Oliver would argue that it didn’t change enough, that the Wonder Bread regime is still firmly in place. But there is also a strong and vibrant food culture that owes much to movements begun by people like Julia Child and Robert Mondavi.

A few years back, industry giant Constellation Brands bought the Robert Mondavi family of wine brands for a whopping $1.2 Billion. It made a big statement about how much equity the Mondavi name had built while Robert Mondavi was helping to build Napa Valley and the culture that surrounds it.

The new website at http://www.robertmondavi.com/ is the first true, unified reflection of what he had in mind all along. The first time his story is told, and reinforced with the brand(s) he created to form the full picture.

The new site takes you through the timeline of how his vision evolved, integrates the on-site events and educational programs that helped make his ideas accessible. It’s peppered with his quotes and ideas, and back-ended with a CMS to keep it all fresh. And above all, it creates a brand platform, using everything from color palette to navigation to content and imagery, where everyday wine and expensive wine can co-exist in a cohesive vision of gracious living.

Somewhere, Mr. Mondavi is tossing back a nice Cab and smiling. Although he probably has some suggestions for improvement.

“Page Not Found”? And yet, here we have a page.
“Wrong page”? Is there such a thing?
“Page doesn’t exist”? Then what are you seeing and reading?
“404 Error”? Wherefore art though 1-403?

It’s true. You may have ended up here, reading this, with the conscious intention of being somewhere different, reading something else. But here you are. After all the clicks, and links, and backslashes, and refreshes, and returns, after everything you’ve been through in your life up to this point, you’ve arrived here, at this page, in this time. This page, then, is not an ERROR. It is your DESTINY!

Let me tell you, my friend, there are no accidents. You will walk out of here a better man, woman, person of non-specified gender, or child.

If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that you are never more than one click away from something hilarious, shocking, revolting, enlightening, heartwearming, headscratching, or just plain odd. Perhaps this page strikes you in one of those ways. But the NEXT page you visit? Sky’s the limit.

So where do you go from here? That’s really the question. Do you go backwards, retrace your steps, and try again to go wherever it is you thought you were originally headed? Or is there someplace you really, subconsciously want to be next? Make that a conscious choice now, while you’re on a roll. Because rest assured, the next page you visit will be just as much your destiny as this one.

In closing, perhaps the old Chinese proverb says it best: “If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed”.

Welcome to where you were meant to be. Good luck with where you are headed.