Design and buildConstruction / Architecture · 2026
Emma Groups
A Singapore main contractor with award winning work and almost none of it visible online. Rebranded, rebuilt and shipped as a four page site that finally shows the houses.
Before and after
Twenty nine years of licensed, award winning work, hidden behind a Wix template. Nothing on the old site told a homeowner or an architect why this contractor was different.
- BeforeProfessional architectural photography shown at 147 pixels wideAfterThe houses at full width, art directed, given room to carry the pitch
- BeforeThe logo existed only as a small JPEG with a white box behind itAfterA drawn vector identity that reproduces at any size, on white, graphite or photography
- BeforeA BCA licence, ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and an SIA Architectural Design Award, none of it visibleAfterCredentials set as plain fact, because for a contractor the licence is the pitch
- BeforeOne generic route through the siteAfterTwo audiences served: homeowners get process and guarantees, architects get buildability and tendering
The brief
Emma Groups has built private landed homes in Singapore since 1997. They hold a BCA licence, ISO 9001 and ISO 45001, and one of their houses won the SIA Architectural Design Award. None of that was visible online. The old site was a Wix template showing professional architectural photography at 147 pixels wide, and the logo existed only as a small JPEG with a white box behind it.
The job was not to invent a story. It was to show the one they already had.
The identity
The original mark was two Chinese characters in gold brush calligraphy, 億 above 馬, which read Yi Ma, the way Emma is written in Chinese: abundance, and the horse that carries the work. Nearly thirty years of meaning, and none of it legible at the size a website or a site hoarding needs.
So we kept the meaning and rebuilt the form. The new mark is a roofline over four posts. Read as a house it is the pitched form of a landed home, and read as heritage those four posts are the four strokes at the foot of 馬. The wordmark is drawn from straight lines rather than set in a licensed typeface, so it is free to own and reproduces at any size. The gold became a bronze that holds contrast on white, on graphite and over photography. The original calligraphy was not retired. It stays as the heritage mark, in the footer and on the company chop.
The design
An editorial system built for a builder: a bone paper ground, one bronze accent, a tight grotesk for statements and an editorial serif for the quiet lines between them. Credentials are set as plain fact rather than badges, because for a contractor the licence is the pitch.
The site writes to two audiences at once. Homeowners get the process, the guarantees and the finished houses. Architects get their own section, covering buildability review, tendering on their documentation, and a promise that the detail will not be renegotiated on site. Most contractor sites in this market only speak to the first group.
The build
Built in Next.js and Tailwind, four pages, static and fast. Their existing photography, files up to 7684 pixels wide that the old site rendered at 147, was recut and served properly through the image pipeline. Motion is Lenis inertia scrolling with observer driven reveals and image zoom settles, all of it switched off for anyone who asks for reduced motion.
Every claim on the page is one we could verify: the licences, the award, the founding year, the project list. Where the client could not yet supply proof, as with testimonials, we quoted their public reviews verbatim rather than writing flattering fiction.
Live and shipped
Emma Groups is running in production: the identity, the four pages and the full photography library, all real and all clickable.
How we work
This is the shape of every Confidency project: we design it, we build it, and we ship it. The handoff isn’t a file, it’s a live product.
What this project involved
The best case study is the site itself.