Case Study
An award-winning zero-carbon developer with sixty years of family heritage — but a group website that read like a corporate directory.
The Challenge
I spotted a job ad for MF Freeman on a board — a role based in Gloucestershire, not right for me, but a signal that they might be looking for help. So I visited their website.
MF Freeman builds zero-carbon homes as standard. They've won National Best Small Housebuilder. They transformed a derelict 300,000 square foot Victorian Cadbury's factory into 140 assisted living apartments. They've been building in the South West for nearly sixty years, family-run from the Forest of Dean.
None of that was landing. The group homepage was an org chart — five business divisions listed with icons and one-line descriptions. The sustainability credentials were locked behind a PDF download. The awards sat in an undated badge strip with no context. The values page read like an internal management poster.
The telling contrast was their own residential brand. Freeman Homes — the consumer-facing site — had personality. Photography-led layouts, genuine voice, resident testimonials. The group site sounded like it was written for a Companies House filing. The gap between those two voices was the entire diagnostic.
The Approach
Audience
This isn't a site that sells homes — Freeman Homes does that. The group site needs to make partners, land sellers, and prospective employees believe one thing: these people are serious, they build well, and they mean what they say about a better future.
Positioning
Their tagline is "Building for a Better Future." It's a claim — and the page needed to back it up. Zero-carbon stats first. Award-winning projects as evidence. Operational depth to show scale. The structure isn't a story about the past. It's a proof structure for the present.
Creative
The Keynsham Chocolate Quarter — a £70m transformation of a derelict Cadbury's factory — got the cinematic full-bleed treatment it deserved. Credentials presented as typography, not decoration. A colour palette pulled from their own logo: navy as anchor, light blue for optimism. Every visual decision earns its place.
The tagline made a claim. The page needed to back it up — not with more words, but with evidence.
The Build