Hildebrand enters Chinawhite site

Celebrity haunt Chinawhite has stepped out with a Hildebrand-designed website this week that aims to mimic the club’s ‘exclusive atmosphere and ambience’ on-line.

The website – www.chinawhite. com – is being promoted as the brand’s first significant attempt to market itself outside the environs of the central London club, apart from its incipient record label.

Prior to Hildebrand’s involvement, Chinawhite creative director Rory Keegan admits the brand had ‘struggled’ to match its exclusive concept with the ‘free for all’ nature of the Internet.

The website uses the same Indonesian and Far Eastern elements that members find inside the club, with images by photographer Constantine Anastasis.

Design features include a hovering lantern, a virtual jukebox and ‘random hotspots’ that throw visitors out of the website if they click on them. The idea is to replicate the club’s strict door policy, where some can be unlucky enough to be ejected by the bouncers.

‘[The client] wanted to have a bit of fun,’ says Hildebrand creative director Alex Osman.

The design also eschews conventional navigation bars, forcing visitors to ‘feel’ their way around. ‘That way, you end up finding little things and odd corners – you begin to know it like you know a real space,’ Osman says.

The group was appointed after Hildebrand’s chief executive Matt Luxon approached Chinawhite on spec early last year.