Winterhouse Films
UX DESIGN · WEB DESIGN · VISUAL STORYTELLING
Winterhouse Films is a creative studio focused on film production and visual storytelling. The studio needed a website that could showcase its work while also communicating the character of the studio itself.
The challenge was to create a digital experience where the films remained the focus without making the site difficult to navigate.
I approached the project as both a website and a portfolio experience: creating a clear structure for exploring the studio’s work while using layout, typography, imagery, and visual hierarchy to support a more cinematic presentation.
Quick Info
Role
UX & Visual Designer
Project Type
Website Design / Portfolio Website
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Wix, HTML, CSS
Timeline
2019
Location
Toronto, Ontario
Deliverables
UX design, information architecture, wireframes, interface design, and visual layout concepts
Responsibilities
Site structure planning, UX exploration, interface design, visual hierarchy, and visual storytelling through layout
The Context
For a film studio, the website needs to do more than explain what the company does.
It needs to create an environment where visitors can discover the work.
Winterhouse Films needed a website that could:
- Showcase film projects clearly
- Communicate the studio’s creative identity
- Give visitors an intuitive way to explore the portfolio
- Create an immersive visual experience
- Support potential clients and collaborators looking for more information
The website therefore needed to work as both:
A portfolio platform
and
A brand experience.
The Challenge
The central challenge was balancing visual immersion with usability.
Film and production studios naturally rely on large imagery, video, and cinematic visuals. But a website can easily become difficult to navigate when the visual experience takes priority over structure.
The design needed to answer several questions:
- How should visitors discover the studio’s work?
- How can film projects remain the visual focus?
- How much interface is necessary?
- How can the site feel cinematic without becoming confusing?
- How can the studio’s creative identity come through in the experience itself?
The goal was not to add more interface.
It was to create the right amount of structure around the content.
Exploring the Design Direction
I looked at patterns across film production studios, creative agencies, and visual portfolio websites to understand how other creative organizations presented image- and video-led work.
Common patterns included:
- Large imagery and video
- Minimal navigation
- Strong typography
- Generous spacing
- Image-led project layouts
- Full-screen or immersive visual moments
These references helped establish a direction that felt cinematic without relying on visual effects for their own sake.
The design direction focused on creating a restrained framework that allowed the film work to remain the primary focus.
Structuring the Experience
The information architecture was designed to help visitors understand the studio quickly and then move naturally into the work.
The primary sections included:
Home
An introduction to the studio with featured projects and visual highlights.
Projects
A portfolio of film productions and creative work.
Team
Information about the studio, its mission, and the people behind the work.
Contact
A clear path for potential clients and collaborators to get in touch.
The structure was intentionally simple.
The goal was to make the studio’s work easy to find without creating unnecessary layers between the visitor and the content.
Designing Around the Work
Minimal Interface Design
The interface was deliberately restrained.
Navigation and supporting UI elements were kept minimal so they would not compete with the film projects.
The design principle was simple:
The interface should support the work, not become the work.
Creating Visual Hierarchy
Typography, spacing, and layout were used to guide attention through the experience.
Large project titles, clear spacing, and structured layouts helped create a hierarchy between:
- The studio
- The project
- The film or visual content
- Supporting information
This allowed the site to remain visually expressive while maintaining readability.
Image- and Video-Led Layouts
Large imagery and cinematic stills formed the visual foundation of the experience.
The layouts were designed to give the work room to breathe while providing enough structure for visitors to understand what they were viewing and where they could go next.
The goal was to create an experience that felt closer to exploring a creative body of work than browsing a conventional corporate website.
Designing the Project Experience
The project pages were designed around the individual films and creative productions.
The layout prioritized:
- Project imagery
- Film stills and video
- Clear project titles
- Supporting project information
- Simple navigation between areas of the site
The design of the project experience was intended to make the work feel like the destination—not simply content placed inside a website template.
Outcome
The resulting website concept created a more focused digital experience for Winterhouse Films.
The design:
- Created a clear structure for exploring film projects
- Presented visual work as the primary focus of the experience
- Established a cohesive visual direction for the studio
- Balanced minimal interface design with intuitive navigation
- Created a stronger relationship between the studio’s brand and its portfolio
The outcome was a website experience designed to make the studio’s creative work easier to discover while allowing the visual storytelling to remain central.
Reflection
This project reinforced an idea that continues to shape how I approach digital design:
The interface should help people experience the content—not compete with it.
For a creative studio, the website is often part of the first impression. It needs to communicate what the organization does, but it also needs to create an experience that feels connected to the work itself.
In this case, that meant using structure, typography, spacing, and visual hierarchy to create a framework for storytelling.
The result was a design approach that balanced:
Minimal interface design + clear information architecture + cinematic visual presentation.