Client

Mission Estate is one of New Zealand’s established wine brands, with a strong premium presence and a long-standing heritage story.

Problem

Mission Estate needed to refresh how the brand showed up digitally to better connect with a younger audience, without losing the heritage and premium cues that made the brand distinctive.

Strategic framing

Get younger wine consumers who value quality and provenance to see Mission Estate as a premium brand that feels relevant today, by bringing “History in the Making” to life through contemporary storytelling, product discovery and e-commerce, so they explore, purchase and build an ongoing relationship with the brand.

Solution

We made “History in the Making” more than a campaign line: it became the organising idea for the entire digital experience, bringing Mission Estate’s heritage into a sharper, more contemporary expression.

Storytelling, wine discovery and commerce were woven into one connected journey, with Shopify and Smile.io supporting a smoother path from first visit to purchase, loyalty and return.

WEBSITE LAUNCHED DECEMBER 2025

Design System

We created a reusable design system for Mission Estate to bring consistency, accessibility and scalability across the refreshed digital experience.

The system translated the updated brand into a practical set of digital foundations, including colour variables, accessible colour scales, typography, iconography, CTA patterns and reusable components across desktop and mobile. These rules helped balance Mission Estate’s heritage and premium character with a more contemporary experience for a younger audience.

Shared styles and component states also created a clearer reference for design and development, making the Shopify experience easier to build, maintain and extend across product discovery, e-commerce, bookings, content and loyalty.

UX Research & Design

We combined an audit of the existing experience, competitor analysis, workshop input and audience needs to understand how people moved between Mission Estate’s wine, dining, estate, event and e-commerce experiences.

Each stage informed the next. The audit and research shaped the key personas and customer journeys, which helped identify the most important problems to solve. Those were translated into How Might We questions and design opportunities, then used to shape the information architecture, user flows, page hierarchy and key interactions across desktop and mobile.

The result was a more connected experience that brought Mission Estate’s heritage, products and on-site experiences together without making the journey feel complex or overly transactional. Users could more easily discover wine, plan a visit, book an experience and move towards purchase, while the structure created a stronger foundation for e-commerce, loyalty and ongoing engagement.