STEVEN G JAMES, DIRECTOR, FEDERATION DESIGN
Recreating an established front end in WordPress to give the business more control, flexibility and room to grow
For this client, the priority was not changing how the brand looked. It was changing what the website platform allowed the business to do behind the scenes.
The restaurant had already built a strong visual identity, using bold colours and Day of the Dead-inspired styling to create a distinctive brand presence. But while the existing website reflected that personality on the surface, the platform underneath it was becoming increasingly restrictive. The business needed greater control over its website environment without losing the recognisable look and feel customers already associated with the brand.
The client’s existing website was built on Squarespace, which had helped them get online quickly and maintain a polished public presence. But as with many closed website platforms, that convenience came with limits.
Over time, those restrictions became more noticeable. The business was constrained by the platform and had limited ability to make deeper adjustments to functionality, optimisation and site structure. While the front end did the job visually, the closed nature of the system meant the website could not be developed as freely or as strategically as the client needed.
The challenge was therefore a careful one. The restaurant did not want to lose the style and character of the existing site. Its branding was already well established, with bright colours, strong visual cues and a distinctive Day of the Dead aesthetic helping shape the identity of the business. What needed to change was not the customer-facing design language, but the level of control available behind it.
The client needed a platform that would preserve the current look of the website while giving the business more flexibility, more development freedom and a stronger long-term foundation.
We worked with the client to move the website from Squarespace into WordPress, recreating the same front-end experience in an open source CMS.
This approach gave the client the best of both worlds. From a customer perspective, the visual identity remained consistent. The bold styling, vibrant palette and distinctive brand cues were retained so the restaurant could continue to present itself in a familiar and recognisable way. From a business perspective, however, the move created a much more flexible environment to work within.
By rebuilding the site in WordPress, the client gained access to an open source platform that offered far greater control over the underlying website structure. Unlike a closed platform, this meant the site could be adapted, refined and optimised more freely over time. It also gave the business a more practical foundation for future improvements, whether in performance, usability or more tailored functionality.
The project therefore centred on precision rather than reinvention. The goal was to reproduce the existing front end as faithfully as possible, while moving the site into a platform better suited to the business’s future needs. That way, the restaurant could keep the brand presence customers already knew, while gaining the technical flexibility that had previously been missing.
The client now has a website that looks familiar on the surface but is far more capable underneath.
By moving from Squarespace to WordPress, the restaurant retained its established brand style while gaining a website platform that offers greater control and much more room for development. The business is no longer boxed in by the restrictions of a closed environment and is better placed to improve the site over time in line with its needs.
Just as importantly, the move protected the value already built into the existing customer-facing design. The site still reflects the restaurant’s distinctive personality, with its bright colours and Day of the Dead-inspired visual style continuing to shape the brand online. But behind that familiar appearance now sits a platform that is more adaptable, more manageable and better suited to long-term growth.
The result is a website that preserves the strength of the brand while giving the business the freedom to build on it with greater confidence.
