Koto

Co-creating an optimistic new website for global branding studio Koto.

Over the years, together we’ve developed a deep knowledge around how the Koto site is used internally — and to speak to a broad audience including current and potential clients, industry peers and new talent.

We’ve used this knowledge to push the site further in its latest iteration — as a showcase and a new business tool. The site merges Koto’s rigor and charisma with ON’s understanding of modern web capabilities.

We worked closely with Koto to rapidly prototype and create builds that tested layouts using real content, enabling a better understanding of design needs by seeing elements in situ.

The site has been developed with a powerful modular architecture using modern technologies — enabling a blazingly fast experience.

Many traditional sites take the approach of using dynamic systems to serve pages. A more modern approach is to decouple the server and the front-end.

This enables highly scalable architecture that can be evolved more easily — enabling Koto and ON to iterate on front-end and back-end independently, or replace the CMS without impacting the front-end.

The Koto website is a portfolio — lots of images and videos. Optimization matters. We use responsive image sizing and global delivery so users receive the closest appropriate size for their device, reducing payload while keeping quality high.

Not only are the images fast to load but they are also beautiful — covering a wide gamut of colours. We developed a custom approach to get the most out of modern display capabilities so the work lands the way it should.

A modular approach means content can be reused across pages, and editorial freedom stays high. Modules combine content + configuration so Koto can evolve the site at the speed they move.