Brae

In 2013, we worked with chef Dan Hunter and his partner Jules Bagnato​ to create an identity for Brae. Locaten in Birregurra, in Victoria’s Otways region, Brae is an expression of their philosophy to food production and consumption, focused on locally grown, organic ingredients and encompassing a restaurant, farm and accommodation.

Since its launch, the restaurant has become an integral part of Australia's fine-dining landscape – collecting a bevy of awards and accolades along the way.

However, as an idea and an approach to hospitality – Brae is not a static institution. The philosophy that underpins the customer experience has matured, and along with this, their communication needs have also evolved.

As a result, Dan, Jules and the team engaged us to re-look at their website – redesigning it to better reflect the destination they've become and encouraging visitors to learn more about their wholistic place offering.

Born of Birregurra

As a culinary institution, the restaurant is inseparable from the land on which it's located. In a literal sense, the Birregurra soil is the genesis of Brae. As the restaurant’s scope has grown, the landscape's role and importance in the customer experience has also increased.

For example, the restaurant now orients its available sittings around lunch rather than dinner to give visitors ample time to immerse themselves in the property. A walk through the organic garden that supplies the produce used in the day's service is as much a part of the experience as the dining itself. Similarly, Brae's on-site accommodation has matured from an ancillary offering to a core part of their approach to hospitality.

Our challenge was in translating the specificity of Brae's location to the vast placelessness of a digital landscape. How can you capture the essence of a physical space when you can't touch, taste or smell it?

A story of here

For us, the answer came partially in the form of storytelling. First, we established an overarching meta-narrative – the essential story of Brae – that we would tell throughout the website.

Throughout this process, we identified a need for the site to function as wholistically as the destination. As the team has realised their vision for integration between farmland, restaurant and accommodation, the distinction between place, plate and produce has become increasingly blurred. Now, they function in harmony – following a natural rhythm as constant as the seasons.

 We weren't just inspired by the strange alchemy of nature, though. Hard data in the form of analytics reinforced our intuition. By identifying common pathways through the site and the pages with increased dwell time, we were able to optimise these journeys effectively.

Funnily enough, this process was not dissimilar to Brae's approach to its gardens. We wanted our visitors to feel confident to wander, picking their own path through the landscape and discovering a narrative that unfolds throughout the journey. Still, we needed to provide a faint trail – a proverbial pathway – to ensure they didn't get lost along the way.

Serving results

Weaving this wholistic approach to digital experience has paid dividends. Across the site, engagement times are up 24 per cent – reflecting a deeper engagement with Brae as a brand and destination. On key pages, including those detailing Brae’s accommodation offer and approach to regenerative agriculture, we’re proud to say dwell time has doubled.