Since its inception in the 2010s, Stillwater® has been known for making great beer as well as being one of the leading nomadic brewers in the country. We’ve followed Stillwater from a distance since the early days, and have become even bigger fans since we started working with them.

The new Stillwater site was conceived as an archival platform to showcase its beverage concepts from over the years while also functioning as an ecommerce experience for sharing current and future offerings with the world. With Stillwater’s global following, its new site gives visitors the opportunity to access products and previously unavailable information.

Our overall approach to the site embraces the minimalist aesthetics of the Stillwater brand. An unorthodox homepage carousel—where everything moves all at once—challenges the user to make their next move. Animation adds detail to the otherwise minimal approach, from scroll animations to loading the typography from section to section.

When developing the approach for the site, we were faced with two challenges. The first challenge required separate storefronts for visitors from the United States and from the United Kingdom and European Union. We opted to use a WordPress Multisite, enabling us to keep a unified theme across both sites while being able to meet stillwater’s different business requirements.

The second, which may not seem like a challenge, was starting from a completely blank slate. Stillwater did not have any prior online presence since everything it had before was basically temporary. This meant we had to architect a new platform and develop content for a brand that was already more than ten years old. The process was collaborative at times, but we were empowered to run with our ideas and develop content we thought was important.

The site was built on a highly customized WordPress and WooCommerce admin with HTML, JavaScript, PHP and Sass. We extended WooCommerce product pages with modular custom fields, enabling us to construct different product content levels, from those that are packed with stories and imagery to simple, single product pages with minimal descriptions. Almost all of the animation is driven by CSS except for the use of three.js, which powers a spinning globe on the Find Our Beer page, and GSAP, which helps animate the logo and stillwater.fm.

The minimalist creative direction serves as the foundation for a cohesive brand expression, allowing each asset—like the website itself—to stand alone as a distinct art piece while maintaining an endlessly adaptable, interconnected visual identity.