Universal Favourite
Universal Favourite is an independent brand and design studio in Surry Hills, Sydney. Since 2013 they have kept coming back to us: first with their clients’ websites, then with platforms and apps, and twice with their own studio site. They design; we build, host and look after what we build.
- Client
- Universal Favourite · Sydney
- Design
- Universal Favourite
- Our role
- Development, hosting and care, for UF and their clients
- Years
- 2013 —
- Scope
- 18+ projects, two studio sites
- Stack
- Statamic, MODX, Laravel, Vue, Shopify
The partnership
It started in 2013 with client work: websites for their clients and a maintenance plan that ran for years. Then a payments company launching in Australia needed an interactive product explorer, and a retail brand needed an online catalogue with a cart. More followed every year.
Over time UF trusted us with bigger things: a subscription Q&A service for lawyers that we have run since 2017, early apps, and the technical scoping in their pitches. When they redesigned their own studio site, they asked us to build it. Twice.
Work together
| Year | Project | What we did |
|---|---|---|
| 2013– | Fifty Acres | Website and a maintenance plan from 2013 |
| 2013–18 | Sleepshack | MODX website from 2013, new front end in 2016, then a maintenance plan |
| 2015–16 | First Data Merchant Solutions | Interactive explorer for six payment products, for the launch in Australia |
| 2015–16 | Coffee Alchemy | Online shop for a Sydney roaster: custom Laravel build with Stripe payments |
| 2016 | Valiant | MODX online catalogue with a Vue cart, quick view and mega menu |
| 2016–19 | The HopeFull Institute | Site built in 2016, rebuilt on MODX, then looked after |
| 2017–18 | A vida local | [CHECK what it was] |
| 2017– | Mentor by Lawyers | Q&A mentoring service for Australian lawyers: build, hosting and care since 2017 |
| 2017–18 | The Briefcase, By Lawyers | [CHECK what it was] |
| 2020 | Digital Criminal Handbook, By Lawyers | Discovery workshop and technical scoping |
| 2015 | Universal Favourite, first studio site | MODX website for the studio |
| 2020 | Universal Favourite studio site | Statamic build, hosting and care. Awwwards Site of the Day, Developer Award and Mobile Excellence |
| 2020–21 | Streamtime integration | Linking the studio’s project-management tool [CHECK] |
| 2021 | UF Shop | Shopify-powered shop inside the studio site |
Their 2020 studio site
A homepage that moves
A different looping 3D film greets you on each visit, and the big “Universal • Favourite” header shrinks to U ● F as you scroll into the work.
The Work wall
Twenty-one projects in a wall of photos and film. Hover a tile and the cursor turns into the project’s icon while the image lifts to show its name.
Page transitions
Click a project and it opens in place: the other tiles fade, the image rises into the header and becomes the case study’s full-bleed hero.
Studio and awards
Hover effects that follow the cursor, team portraits that float up, and award badges that fall and pile up with real physics.
Shop
A Shopify-powered shop inside the site, so U•F merchandise sits next to the work.
Say hey
A badge that turns as you scroll and opens a “How can we help?” panel with four ways in: new project, media, jobs and anything else.
In their words
“We consider Pixney as part of our extended family. We have been working together on complex digital projects for nearly a decade now, and they have never disappointed us. … The Pixney team are only ever satisfied with excellence and a pursuit for the exceptional, and always go the extra mile to find the right solution not just the easy one.”
