Project in brief

The Carbon Technology Research Foundation (CTRF) has been set up to fund the discovery of innovative solutions to the climate crisis, based on natural systems. Their mission is to invest in the power of technology to supercharge natural systems and catalyse further funding, research and solutions. Established in 2020, they are a non profit community interest company, set up to fund cutting-edge innovation into the application of biotechnology to deliver enhanced, scalable solutions for carbon sequestration. They are led by the science and aim to highlight the significant potential in this area, by growing the current research knowledge pool, as well as demonstrating the case for additional investment from other foundations, companies and government agencies. We helped update CTRF’s messaging and visual identity, and update their website from a simple landing page to a fully fledged website.

What we did

  • Brand Guidelines
  • Messaging
  • Tone of Voice
  • Website Design & Development
  • UI/UX
  • Hosting & maintenance
Mockup of CTRF homepage

After a thorough pitch process, OXygen was appointed in Feb 2023, kicking off with a detailed project launch including all relevant stakeholders to understand the scope of the project, needs from all individuals involved of the necessary outcomes and to agree ways of working. From our initial discussions, we agreed to expand our initial scope of work to include a language and messaging guide, as well as visual updates to CTRF’s branding. The OXygen design and copywriting team took time to deep dive into the messaging guide, while developing an intuitive information hierarchy with clear and simple navigation.

We produced detailed wireframes for key sections of the new website, starting with more basic page layouts to full designs incorporating our suggested updates to the brand. This also helped the CTRF team to identify where there were gaps in the existing copy, and where additional content was needed.

Once the wireframes and the messaging guide had been approved, we spent time working with the CTRF team on selecting a bank of imagery for use across the website, reports and social media, that are visually striking but also authentic, with a mix of lab and nature based photos.

View the CTRF website
CTRF website mockup on iPhone

Building a low-Carbon website

We took headshots of the CTRF team to provide visual consistency, and also produced a video of CTRF founder Stig Arff, discussing his vision for CTRF.

With all these elements lined up, we proceeded to build the website on WordPress. Producing a low-Carbon website was vital for CTRF, and we optimised images and code to reduce the size of the website as much as possible. During the build, we utilised a number of tools to test and further improve both the speed and the carbon footprint of the website.

Mockup of CTRF website
99
Homepage Lighthouse Performance Score
56
less CO2 per page view than average
164
average engagement time

”The OXygen team have been excellent from the start, delivering a great new website on time and cost effectively, as well as making useful suggestions and improvements. We look forward to continuing to work with them on future projects!

Dave HillyardCEO - CTRF