Historical Blog-Based Web Design for North Bend’s The Iron Duck
The Iron Duck is a restaurant and bar that allows people to enjoy food, beer, wine, and spirits you thought could only be found in the big cities. It’s an environment to relax and enjoy time with friends and family.
The Problem
The Iron Duck Public House faced the challenge of every new business – new customers. Despite the Iron Duck being third in a line of successful restaurants, its established customer base meant that its expectations were set higher. Making matters even trickier, Iron Duck took a family-friendly approach, potentially discouraging its 21+ base. What’s more, the new restaurant was a mere 15-minute drive from its predecessors. Current customers could be disappointed when they found a variation on its brother restaurant.
The Solution
Fingerprint took the brand’s previous success as a jumping off point, capitalizing related businesses, e.g., “Black Duck Cask & Bottle: offering beer in casks, specializing in whiskey pours, writing with a relatable, easy tone. A gorgeous, duck-inspired logo and an industrial aesthetic was incorporated throughout the site design, adding bright, stark imagery with masculine fonts.
The website also took a few left turns, zeroing in on the restaurant proprietor’s relationship to the location and his choice for opening in North Bend. Being that Iron Duck is operated on a historical landmark, a blog was launched in an effort to capture the history and ambition of the restaurant. The blog serves as a channel to describe the brand’s new, family-friendly approach, and as a way to blend itself in with the established locals while introducing the restaurant to curious outsiders.
The final outcome is approachable, minimal and in harmony with its related restaurant sites, yet provides the material and depth needed to establish the new brand in this further endeavor.
We are now working with The Iron Duck on website maintenance which means security, updates, backups, support, hosting, search engine optimization, and peace of mind.