Diagram
A website redesign and strategy for Diagram, a venture builder and investor whose old site showed a fraction of what the firm had actually built.
Client
Diagram via Temper And Forge
Scope
Web Design, Brand Extension
Year
2024
About
Diagram builds and backs companies across fintech, climate, and web3. Since 2016 the firm has launched more than 20 ventures and grown to over $350M in assets under management, but its website showed almost none of that.
As Director of Design and strategy lead, I ran discovery and set the creative direction. The brief that came out of it was simple to say and hard to do: build a site that instantly tells four different audiences who Diagram is and what it can do for them.
Grandma test
Discovery surfaced the real problem in the client's own words. The site didn't show half of what they had achieved, spoke to no one in particular, and asked visitors to do nothing.
So we set a single bar for the redesign: anyone should understand what Diagram does within seconds, whether they're an investor, a founder, or someone's grandmother. Clarity for the least informed visitor became the standard every decision answered to.
four users
two paths
Diagram runs two sides of a business at once. It builds ventures and it invests in them, and it speaks to investors, founders, and design partners along the way.
We rebuilt the information architecture so each audience has a clear route to the information meant for them, without splintering the firm into separate stories. One identity, several doors in.
translating
the brand
Diagram's brand identity was created by Cossette, one of Canada's most awarded agencies and Strategy's 2025 Design Agency of the Year. We came in as their digital counterpart, taking that identity and abstracting it into a system that worked on screen.
The electric indigo, the generous space, the graphic restraint: all of it carried over and extended with the same care Cossette built into the original. The site was meant to read as sophisticated without tipping into corporate, and energetic without trying too hard, which is exactly how the firm sees itself.
results
Within eight weeks of launch, time on site rose 118% and bounce rate fell 37%. Most importantly, organic founder inquiries climbed so sharply that Diagram paused their paid acquisition channels.
The site was now doing the work the ad spend used to do - a huge signal that our work together was a success and our target audience was understanding Diagram's mission.