Previously known as Les Ruchers Promiel, Château-Richer, Québec–based honey production company Naturoney has been producing high-quality honey for more than 25 years, and prepared itself for a generational change in management during a period of steady growth. Wanting to showcase its product lines and offer visitors a new digital hub for its rebrand, Naturoney tapped the Montréal office of Canadian ad agency lg2 to create a site that would consistently communicate the beekeepers’ passion for honey. The resulting site features a clean design with elegant, refined elements. Visitors can walk through the process of harvesting honey, as well as learn some useful facts about its chemical composition, how to store it and how beekeeping helps save bees. An “About” page introduces the team behind Naturoney, and a store locator enables visitors to search for the closest retailer to them—and can be filterable by Naturoney’s product lines. 

Designing for multiple languages is nothing new for the ad agency, but when Naturoney’s brief included a request for Japanese and Mandarin translations—reflecting its most popular foreign markets—lg2 entered the new territory of developing with East Asian languages. “Working with Japanese and simplified Mandarin did not cause any technical hurdles,” says Alexandre Normand, digital group director at lg2. “But the typographic switch did require a couple of days of research. Note to all developers out there: use Unicode everywhere!” Built in Python3 and MySQL, the site’s custom-made CMS properly handles English, French, Japanese and simplified Mandarin simultaneously, while providing room for Naturoney to continue uploading new product lines. 

Another important feature is the inclusion of a searchable database that enables visitors to meet Naturoney’s beekeepers. “Consumers nowadays want to know the origins of the products they eat,” says Normand. “It was important to the client that the site would celebrate the people behind the product.” Consumers can type in the serial number on the lid of their Naturoney bottle to call up a page of the beekeepers responsible for their honey.