Territory

Studio

The past decade has been colossal for Territory. Formed in 2010, the creative studio began as a niche display screen graphics house. Fast forward to present day and Territory’s remit has expanded to include not only screen graphics but a variety of visual effects, motion design and digital experiences. In the process, Territory has worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as Guardians of the Galaxy; huge game titles like Horizon Zero Dawn; and Netflix hits including Mindhunter and 
The Spy.

Gaining Territory: The Challenge Ahead

Territory came to FX Digital seeking our web build expertise. From a design perspective, Territory’s website did not require a huge overhaul, but a fine-tune was in order. There were also some backend functionality issues that needed ironing out. The backend of the site was not particularly flexible and offered little opportunity for customisation. Projects could not easily be added or laid out in the way Territory’s team wanted.

Territory was keen to build on their existing success and wanted a place to showcase their awesome work to potential clients. FX Digital decided that instead of fixing the bugs, it would be more beneficial to Territory to rebuild the site.

Bringing Territory’s Website up to Speed

Territory was relatively comfortable with the design and branding of their existing site. However, there were still some tweaks for FX Digital to make. This started with a redesign of the blocks that make up each page. We aimed to create a sleek and organised aesthetic. The blocks that make-up the individual project templates were designed to allow for a high degree of flexibility. As well as updates to the designs of some static pages such as the contact page, we also designed a fresh news section that includes an archive and single post page. Finally, we added some filters to the projects and news archives to help improve UX and navigation.

FX Digital created a custom theme on the CMS WordPress that was bespoke to the Territory requirements. The variety of customisable blocks now gives the admins the ability to create new project pages, without any resource from web developers, saving both time and money.

Territory’s “News” page was designed as an area for all of Territory’s latest content, from updates to events. We decided on a tiled layout with infinite scrolling that showcases the full breadth of activity coming out of the studio. Further, we added the ability to pull in external news links into Territory’s newsfeed. This helps to keep the feed populated with regular updates.

The FX Digital team decided to implement a smooth state Javascript library to improve the transition when navigating between pages. Each page only refreshes elements it needs to, so the header is always there and content animates in and out. The way the site moves as users navigate around pages is a highly bespoke animation. This is demonstrated in the video in the following section.

A website fit for an Award-Winning Studio

The result of our rebuild is a website that provides Territory with exactly what they needed – a visually stunning website with fantastic utility. The bespoke CMS allows for customisation and provides Territory with the option to add, take away and change layout and content at their will.

FX Digital and Territory continue to work together and have plans to make further enhancements soon.