From Vision To Launch

Paul Mueller Company has been crafting stainless steel equipment since 1940— but their digital experience wasn’t reflecting that same legacy. We partnered with them to overhaul their website and refine their brand, creating a flexible ecommerce experience that meets the expectations of modern buyers and supports their dealer network.

See their updated site at paulmueller.com

Our Role

Web Design + Development
Shopify & Ecommerce Websites
Craft CMS Websites
Marketing Strategy + Planning
Brand Positioning
Brand Guidelines

Laptop on a cabinet displaying the Paul Mueller website homepage.

Digital mock‑ups of Paul Mueller website. From left to right: image carousel, homepage, blog post.

How We Turned Research Into A Roadmap

Defining success before designing for it

Every great project starts with clarity. Not just about what needs to be built, but why— and how we’ll know we’ve done it right. At the beginning of the Paul Mueller website overhaul, our team led a strategy-first discovery phase designed to align stakeholders, surface user and business needs, and define measurable success. That shared understanding became the backbone for everything that followed.

A person’s hand writes on a whiteboard covered in red marker notes

Building a Strong Foundation

We kicked off the project with a focused series of research and planning activities:

KPI + Opportunities Workshop to align on business goals and digital opportunities
Quantitative & Qualitative Research to understand stakeholder pain points and user needs
SEO Audit & Site Performance Review to identify technical gaps and content visibility issues
Competitive Landscape Review to benchmark expectations and spot whitespace

5 Key Steps For A Successful Brand Refresh

Reinforcing legacy, clarifying identity

As part of the project scope, we undertook a comprehensive review of the Paul Mueller brand. Our competitive research guided strategic updates aimed not only at modernization, but also provided a lens to see how we could further differentiate their website by emphasizing the human impact of their products.

Brand Guidelines That Connect Technology to Impact

Paul Mueller builds essential processing equipment—but more importantly, their technology plays a role in daily life. From pharmaceuticals to food and energy, the systems they create keep milk cold, medicine safe, and production lines moving.

To tell that story more effectively:

We introduced lifestyle photography featuring people engaging with the end products Mueller helps make possible
We created a messaging framework with bold headlines and subheads that connect everyday impact to industrial innovation
Typography roles were clarified, with Mueller Display used for confident, brand-forward moments and Sentinel (or its future replacement) used for approachable readability
The color palette was expanded, bringing energy and modernity while keeping Mueller Blue at the brand’s core
Photography guidelines were refined to prioritize authentic, story-driven visuals

These updates helped transition the brand from a purely technical presence to one that tells a story of trust, quality, and impact.

Collage of lifestyle photos featuring people working, playing and greenery.

Color palette chart with blue, green and orange swatches labeled with usage percentages.

Designing a User Experience That Drives Better Business Outcomes

Reimagining the user journey

The previous Paul Mueller site was dense and often confusing, especially for users navigating complex product lines across multiple industries. Our team overhauled the user experience to make the site more intuitive, more helpful, and more supportive of modern buyer behavior.

Reworking the Structure from the Ground Up

We began with the sitemap, reorganizing core areas such as product families, industry solutions, case studies to be more accessible with fewer clicks.

Personalization That Feels Natural

Users can now select their industry of interest, which subtly tailors content like featured case studies and solutions throughout the site. This content, which had been previously buried was given more visibility to serve as trust-building content throughout the user journey, keeping the experience relevant and efficient without feeling overly engineered.

Smarter Content Relationships

We spent time defining how key content types interrelate—like industries to products, products to services, and services to case studies. By building strong connective tissue between these sections, we helped users naturally flow from education to evaluation to action.

eCommerce, Integrated

We replaced the disconnected eCommerce experience with a fully integrated one. Users can now browse and purchase standard parts directly through the site—streamlining access, reducing friction, and opening a new direct-to-customer channel.

Clarity Over Complexity

This phase of UX refinement wasn’t about reinventing the wheel—it was about removing barriers, clarifying paths, and designing a system that works for real users. The result is a digital experience that’s as functional as the equipment Paul Mueller builds—and just as thoughtfully engineered.

Narrative-Focused UI Design

With UX and brand foundations in place, we brought the new Paul Mueller site to life through a clean, modern interface that balances sophistication with approachability.

The new design uses generous white space, updated brand typography, and dynamic photography to establish a visual language that feels contemporary without leaning too far into sterile "tech startup" territory.

Custom animations add subtle energy throughout the experience, reinforcing Mueller’s theme of Energy to Impact without overwhelming the user.

Floating laptop and tablet screens displaying Paul Mueller product listings and a gasket installation page.

Stacked UI Elements showcasing some of the design elements across the site

Mockup if the Paul Mueller site on a mobile device. Showing the home page and mobile menu

Web Development Geared for a Smarter Sales Pipeline

Turning strategy and design into a high-performing digital platform

Once the designs were approved, our development team brought the new Paul Mueller site to life with a scalable, modular content management system that supports their business goals today and tomorrow.

Performance Driven Engineering

Page speed was top of mind throughout the entire development process. To meet our performance KPIs, we introduced responsive image transformations that serve the best possible image for the size of the user’s viewport. We also carefully tuned and optimized each template, checking our results against tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse.

A Custom eCommerce Experience for Distributors

One of the most practical business features of the new site is the fully integrated eCommerce experience, powered by Craft Commerce. Mueller’s high-quality parts and equipment are now viewable and purchasable by distributors with a private login that integrates with Mueller’s customer portal.

Logos for Craft CMS, JDEdwards, Hubspot and agolia. These are some of the integrations used on the Paul Mueller website.

Business Integrations that Leverage Automation

Beyond eCommerce, the site integrates with marketing and other critical platforms to keep everything connected and efficient:

HubSpot powers lead capture, forms, and chatbot functionality, enabling more advanced marketing automation down the line
Algolia delivers lightning-fast on-site search for products, documents, videos, and Mueller Academy content
(Single Sign On) SSO via MyMueller accounts ensures secure access and custom pricing
JDEdwards syncs daily inventory and allows completed orders to be pushed automatically into Mueller’s ERP system

These integrations make the site more than just a brochure—they turn it into a true operational tool for sales, support, and recruitment.

Built for Editors and End Users Alike

Under the hood, the site runs on Craft CMS, giving the Mueller team full control over content creation, updates, and personalization. Custom modules, reusable blocks, and editorial workflows make the backend as thoughtful as the frontend.

And for users, the result is seamless: a fast, personalized digital experience that reflects the quality, precision, and humanity Paul Mueller is known for.

The Result? A Digital Presence to Match a Legacy of Manufacturing Innovation

More than a new look, a redesign for a clearer conversation

This project wasn't just about refreshing visuals or fixing broken pages. It was about aligning Paul Mueller's digital presence with their real-world reputation—smart, innovative, people-first, and built to last.

Now, the website is more than a marketing asset. It’s a sales tool. A lead engine. A recruiting platform. And a brand expression that finally matches the impact of Mueller’s work around the world.