Higgles unique, artisan ice cream is a small shop located on Main Street in popular mountain resort city, Breckenridge, Colorado. Higgles prides themselves on creating small batch artisanal, as "organic-as-possible" ice cream, sorbet and vegan ice cream, while using local ingredients and rotating their 24 flavors daily.
To step up their brand and to stand out from the other ice cream shops in town, Higgles realized they needed some help with their brand-efforts, voice, content and most importantly, their website. Specifically, Higgles wanted their website to allow their most loyal patrons to be able to stay in the know with flavors as they became available in-shop.
As there were a few “sacred cows” to take into consideration: the logo, the font: ITC Avant Garde Gothic, and the color: Process Blue, we had a significant opportunity to establishing an updated and cohesive brand look and feel.
To start, we wanted to create an ad set, which tonally appealed to their existing and anticipated client base: those on dates, those on the north side of town and coming back from a hike, and those who love the nostalgia of ice cream. We came up with the following headlines and applied this tonality through the creation of the website and content creation:
Next, as their brand-typeface was an untouchable, we found a complimentary typewriter-esque, Adobe serif font, “Adelle” to give the brand typography a bit more contrast and life. In addition to this, we curated a color palette which included their primary brand color (process blue) but utilized it sparingly, letting the updated colors guide the users visual flow.
Once the look and feel was established, we came in to the shop for a content shoot to ensure that the update brand look wouldn’t fall short. As the space in their shop allows a significant amount of natural light and contains a variety of textures, ranging from wood, to marble to polished metal and tile, we utilized as much of these as we could in the aesthetic of the website design and product staging for photography. To play off the hand-illustrated cone icon, previously done by owner Anna Higgins, we also created a hand-drawn sprinkle pattern to add an additional organic element for utilization throughout the website design.
Utilizing WordPress as the CMS and WooCommerce for user favoriting and automated email notifications, we created a very fluid and user-friendly website where up-to-date flavors would always be displayed. All flavors (available in-store and unavailable) would be “Flavoritable” (a word we came up with for user’s “Favorites” plus “Flavors”) so notifications could be received once available in-store. Imagery, allergens and product descriptions would also be available for the user to view while browsing the site on a product level.
A significant evolution was created for the Higgles brand. Higgles now can confidently offer their customers real-time updates on favorite flavors as well as giving return and new customers alike a central “hub” where they can learn about and effortlessly peruse the amazingly delicious products that Higgles Ice Cream offers. From a technology aspect, Higgles game is significantly elevated, especially for an ice cream shop in a mountain resort city and continues to thrive, but now with an added edge and buttoned up, modern brand.
Brent reached out to me to update my homemade website for my very small ice cream store in Breckenridge. I have always backed away from spending money on a website because I didn’t think that customers found me by searching the web. I also didn’t realize the value of keeping my customers updated to the ever-changing flavors we had in our scooping cabinets. I found quickly that I was mistaken!
Having a unique website, instead of a contrived site made from a stock template for an unrelated business, has helped my customers seamlessly see my daily offerings and receive up to the minute changes to the flavors we are scooping. I can actually see my customers waiting in line scrolling on their phones to see our changing flavor board. It has facilitated our ordering process immensely.
Brent himself, is such a great person to work with. He keeps things moving along when I otherwise would put the website on the backburner. He and his team of specialists completed the project way before I thought I needed it. He is smart, thinking ahead, and always in a positive mood! All attributes that I appreciate as a one-person show. It was like having an in-house dedicated designer - very decadent yet absolutely necessary. Thank you, Brent! Anna Higgins - Higgles Ice Cream