At Vinbound Marketing we have built hundreds of winery websites over the years. Every new website project begins with a task called Moodboarding. We ask our clients to take a look at winery (and non-winery) websites to find design inspiration for their new website.Â
The more you look through winery websites, the more you will notice popular aesthetic trends. These common styles may seem like a bad thing at first… “All winery websites look the same!” you may be inclined to say. However, there is consistency in the design because these websites are proven to drive tasting room traffic, online sales, and wine club signups.
While it is tempting to ask your designer to come up with a design that is entirely new and novel, the reality is that a custom design is often very expensive and won’t necessarily result in stronger online sales or more traffic to your tasting room. Consumers ultimately need a site that quickly relays critical information (how to visit, directions, hours, how to purchase) and is easy to use on any device. What they don’t necessarily need or want is an online art show.
We have put together this article to assist in the winery website moodboarding process. What follows are a selection of homepage design styles that are popular in the wine industry. All function quite well and the team at Vinbound can develop your website quickly in the direction of these designs without spending months coming up with something totally custom.
Which of the following homepage styles resonates the most with your brand and website vision?
Stacked
This style features multiple full-screen photo sections stacked one atop another as you scroll down, with text overlays linking to deeper pages. This is visually impactful and requires strong photography to execute to its fullest potential.
Modular / Grid Style
This homepage style features a visual grid of thumbnail images that link to deeper content on the site. There is little to no whitespace but rather a visually rich canvas. This is a quick way to get a sense of place and ideal for wineries with tasting room and beautiful properties/experiences.
No-Scroll
Checkerboard
This style features a large banner image/video followed by an alternating left-right-left-right checkerboard pattern of images and links to deeper pages.
Flowers
Ayres
Tsillan
Round Pond
Traditional
The classic quintessential winery website. This style starts with a large banner image or video. As you scroll down, you see different sections which alternate in style but which usually include hours/visiting information, bottle shots and links to popular current releases, visual thumbnails with links to deeper pages, an instagram feed, a newsletter signup section, and the footer. This style incorporates several elements from the styles listed above, often with a modular grid section for links throughout the site, and checkerboard sections to explain key details on the homepage.
