“Mining for Talent. Talent for Mining."

Lincoln Strategic International Website

My Role: Website Designer/Creative Director
Client: Lincoln Strategic International
Project Type: Freelance
Tools: Figma, InVision
Timeline: 2 weeks
Status: Under development

Lincoln Strategic International is a human capital consulting firm with a core specialty of executive search and technical recruitment and focused exclusively on the mining and minerals industry.

LSI partners with mining companies, engineering & consulting organizations, technical services firms, private equity, and other mining industry technology providers to help them identify, evaluate, recruit, and develop world-class talent.

My client was looking to take the existing outdated company website and transform it into a more engaging and inviting platform that would better attract both job-seekers in the mining industry and companies looking to recruit talent.

I was hired as a website designer and creative director for this project. I first helped the client establish a clearer visual direction and brand identity for the new website. Once I had a clear understanding of the client’s goal’s needs, budget, and timeline, I then designed a mockup for a new landing page. Keeping budget and timeline parameters in mind, I decided that the home page mockup could serve as a pilot to guide the development of the remainder of the website.

Before

After

THE PROCESS

STEP 1 - UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT’S VISION, GOALS AND NEEDS

Initial Client Meeting Questions

1. Intro

Hi there. My name is Phoebe and I am the Designer and Creative Director working with Gray Cyan. Essentially the purpose of today’s meeting is to allow me to capture a better understanding of your brand, and the visual direction that you want to head in so that I can start to put together a mood board that will serve as inspiration for the design and development of your new website.

2. Describe your brand

What do you do?

We are highly specialized in the mining industry with a global reach
We have an extreme depth of experience; mining is all we do and all we know - this is what differentiates us from a lot of our competitors
The breadth of the network - we’re extremely well-connected and know the market better than our clients
We attend a lot of shows and are involved with many trade groups
Pedigree; everyone on the team is from the mining industry; we know their world and speak their language
Our slogan is “Mining for Talent. Talent for Mining” which describes our brand very well
We collectively have over 150 years in the mining industry - that history informs our understanding, our relationships, and our data
Our Mining data is second to none. We are industry specialists with deep networks, and our database reflects this

What are your existing brand guidelines?

3. Describe your visual style

What are some of the must-have elements of your new website?

Showing where we have done our work is important
The site must contain some visual representation of the Mining industry
Clean, simple to use, and easy to navigate
A clear delineation between Candidate-Focused information and our general company information
The “jobs” section of our site needs to allow users to easily search for jobs
Larger, more fleshed out bios for each of our consultants - quick two-sentence summaries are not compelling

What specific layout features should be incorporated into the design?

A creative/PR agency or niche product website’s look and feel
We do not want to completely abandon the aesthetics of the Mining industry, but the clean/cluttered design hallmarks of marketing/creative companies can differentiate us from our corporate competitors
Minimalist design stripped of anything non-essential
Clean and easily readable typography - one or two fonts only - needs to follow font family if possible
The minimal unobtrusive colour palette
User-friendly interface
Hidden navigation
Symmetry and balance with lots of negative space

Do you currently have any preferences for the layout of copy/content?

A key LSI goal is to continue to transition to a consulting firm with a search core competency (rather than merely a “recruitment agency”) and to move upmarket in services (retainer, RPO), while reinforcing brand potency (specialization, network, pedigree)
Gear content almost exclusively around the work we’ve done and who we’ve done it with - heavy focus on client testimonials/case studies (still to be gathered/written)
Reinforce our international capacity
Content marketing around topics in our market then pushed to relevant audiences
LESS IS MORE!!

Is there anything specific that you have seen on websites in the past that you do not like?