BASIC / DEPT

Desktop Metal was founded by visionaries in advanced manufacturing, metallurgy, and robotics. Its mission is to reinvent the way engineering teams produce metal and composite parts. As the world stands on the verge of the next Industrial Revolution, rapid innovation of 3D printing is a key driver in our collective future. BASIC’s challenge was to shift the perception of the field from an emerging industry to a necessary component in the future of manufacturing.

The company had a world-class team but a website that was difficult to navigate, so our goal was to create a digital experience that’s simple to use and accessible to all.

Before our collaboration, the brand found success with its in-person sales process but struggled to translate this experience to the digital space. BASIC’s focus was to establish a robust design system, content strategy, and simplified site architecture derived from its face-to-face customer interactions.

Through an immersive and strategic design exercise, we harnessed storytelling, reimagined navigation, and brought contextual examples to life—surfacing opportunities for a diverse audience of both massive companies and hobbyists. Our new experience serves up relevant content, demonstrates what’s possible, and gives users the ability to scan details at a high level or dive deep.

Length: 5 Months

Desktop Metal’s digital strategy was being led by Alyssa Hopcus at the time. As one of few women employed at Desktop Metal, Alyssa’s perspective and knowledge of the business was unmatched. Her partnership in understanding modern design & metal design helped intertwine these two worlds and we produced something I am incredibly proud of.

Because the site was built with modules containing complex, nested interactive content that often needed to be repurposed on multiple page templates, content management risked becoming time-consuming and obtuse. We worked with the internal teams at Desktop Metal to test multiple approaches of module administration and developed a streamlined technique leveraging Craft presets.

The website is still up and functioning today 4 years later with many additional pages still being added & managed internally. What a success and joy it was to work on this project!