OPTIMAL
Brand narrative
Branding
Content strategy
IA&UX design
UI design
Development
Illustrations
Animations

Optimal is a US-based digital media company born in 2022 from the merger of four well established media companies (DSPolitical, Optimad, UNTU and Effective Spend) each of which specializes in a different industry. Vicine came in to help define their brand strategy and narrative, create a new visual identity, and design a website that would effectively communicate their message while providing a seamless user experience.

Vicine was tasked with bringing us together as one company with a comprehensive brand strategy, stunning visual design, compelling content, new marketing materials, and a new website - which launched on time and on budget. Working with Vicine is a pleasure. They are brilliant, talented, creative, and kind professionals who communicate proactively, think strategically, and produce beautiful and effective work. I look forward to continuing to work with Vicine long into the future and would recommend them to anyone without reservation.

Michael A. Bassik
President - Optimal

Strategy
Defining the new narrative 

The merger of multiple companies presented the challenge of finding a brand narrative that effectively incorporated the values of each while being fresh and unique. By working alongside the different stakeholders, Vicine was able to define a new brand personality, set of values, and narrative.

This step was crucial to help us create a coherent brand identity, shape the website experience and write its content (which we did in close collaboration with our copywriter Laura Nee and Optimal’s CEO, Michael Bassik).

IA&UX
Website requirements
User journeys & sitemap
UX wireframes

1. Website requirements
Once the brand narrative was established, it was important to understand the website requirements:
- We discussed extensively and defined the business and marketing goals
- We learned about target audiences, and studied their characteristics, needs and objectives

2. User journeys and sitemap
By understanding the target audience and their needs, Vicine was able to write user stories and design user journeys. In parallel, we analyzed over 10 different competitors’ websites and visual communication systems. Gathering all this information allowed us to draft the website sitemap.

3. Shaping the website
With the sitemap defined, we moved on to create UX wireframes.
These wireframes served as a blueprint for the website, allowing us to prototype and iterate until we arrived at the best user experience.
Throughout this process, we also defined the information architecture, deciding what kind of content should go where on the site, and drafted the copy.

Branding
Make purposeful growth happen

The brand identity we designed for Optimal focuses on the concept of purposeful growth, with a flexible visual language that can adapt to convey various messages. The logo can morph into several shapes to reflect the different aspects of the company values of purpose, change, impact, growth, and action. The brand identity also includes five main symbols that exist both as part of the logo and as magnified graphic elements throughout the company's materials.

Website Design 
Performance brought to life

The brand identity was taken one step further through the website’s UI, which came to life with custom illustrations and animations. The website was developed using a headless approach with WordPress and Node.js to ensure optimal performance. The website just received an honorable mention from Awwwards, further confirming the strength of the brand. It was Certified Super Green by Website Carbon Calculator.

winwithoptimal.com