Responses by Marianne Renaud, associate creative director, digital experience, LG2.

Background: Nortera, the North American leader in ready-to-cook vegetables formerly known as Bonduelle America, needed a new brand and identity. We were tasked with defining this new identity and creating a site that would demonstrate the scope of Nortera’s offer to its partners, from wholesalers and retailers to restaurants and big box stores.

Design core: Our design needed to highlight all the products processed and offered by Nortera—and there are a lot. We achieved this by creating a number of illustrations and animations that convey the scale of the company’s offer and set it apart from the competition by making the site an experience in itself. On top of showcasing the fruits and vegetables, we wanted our design to emphasize the company’s values and prove that Nortera is more than just fields and crops: it’s a cutting-edge company that truly cares about the environment.

Favorite details: If you take a moment to explore the site, you’ll find an overview of all Nortera’s products and services, as well as some of its famous vegetables jumping around in the footer of each page. Attention was paid to every detail, such as the simple yet true-to-life illustrations of vegetables and the packaging options offered. But our goal wasn’t just to look good, every element has a purpose and was designed with great care. We also had some fun with the 404 error page—it’s worth a look!

Challenges: We wanted the art direction to be consistent across every illustration and image. To keep everything seamless, the site had to support all the animations and different image formats used without becoming too heavy. Again, attention to detail was essential, so the photo research and creation of illustrations depicting Nortera’s products and environmental practices were not small tasks. It required close collaboration between Nortera and the design and motion team. In fact, collaboration with the client was essential throughout the whole development process.

Technology: Since we were dealing with a fairly complex showcase site with many forms and contact points, we thought that DatoCMS would give us the most flexibility. To bring to life all the animations on the front end, we chose a Jamstack architecture, with a front-end app developed using Vue.js and overlayed with Nuxt.