Our 2025 Wrap Up and What’s Coming for 2026
Somehow the end of 2025 has arrived already and it feels like the whole year went past in fast-forward.
We have had a steady mix of big website builds, brand refreshes, community projects and plenty of behind the scenes work to help our clients stay visible online.
It has definitely been one of those years where we look back and think, we actually got through a lot!
Here is a quick wrap up of what we have been working on and what is coming next in 2026:
1. A year of major website launches
We designed and developed many websites this year, but here are a few stand out highlights that really show the range of work we delivered.
The new Chapel Downs website was a massive project with multiple learning areas, photography, navigation planning and a full content restructure. The end result is clean, welcoming and easy for parents and new families to use. It is now one of the biggest school sites we have ever built.
We also launched the brand new Jakaar Industries site. This was a complex build with detailed product information, clearer pathways for sales enquiries and visuals that match the scale of their engineering work. The new site finally reflects their size, capability and national reach.
Merge has never been limited by distance and this year proved that again.
Selwyn Shuttles in Canterbury now has a beautiful new website with elegant layouts and strong imagery taken straight from their backyard. The design was simple, scenic and focused on storytelling through photos. It was a pleasure to build something that showcases the South Island so well.
2. The brands we brought to life this year
It was also a huge year for brand development and we worked with a real mix of businesses, each needing something that genuinely reflected who they are rather than blending in with everyone else. Here are some of our highlights:
Water Management Solutions
WMS wanted a brand that stood out from competitors who mostly use the same predictable corporate blues or blacks.
We designed a sleek, modern logo paired with a textured water pattern backdrop. The bold red and blue lettering represents hot and cold systems in a way that is clean and easy to understand while still feeling technical. The new identity now looks confident, contemporary and industry ready.
Obee’s Restaurant, Waiheke Island
Obee’s came to us wanting a bright, friendly identity that felt fun without being childish and could stretch across both sides of their business, the seafood restaurant and the ice cream shop.
We created a painted curved font with soft movement and added pops of pink to give it that playful island energy. The result is a logo that feels warm, fresh and instantly recognisable whether it is sitting on a beachfront menu or the side of an ice cream cabinet.
Bowls Maraetai
Although we technically designed the Bowls Maraetai logo last year as a community project, this year we rolled out their new uniforms. The colours, layout and placement translated beautifully into apparel, and we even used part of the logo as an overlay on the shirts. Seeing the full team wearing the new kit on the green showed just how well the brand works in real life.
3. Our first year of preparing for the AI curve
Across every industry we are seeing the same shift. AI is changing how people search, choose and interact with businesses online, so this year we focused on helping our clients keep up.
- We added new FAQ sections to help AI understand what each business offers.
- We updated blogs, news and tips pages with better keywords and natural question and answer content.
- We refreshed images and rewrote text so it is clearer, more helpful and more human.
- We also worked closely with our SEO partners to strengthen organic rankings and prepare sites for AI summaries and conversational search results.
This kind of work will only get more important in 2026.
4. What your website will need to survive 2026
AI is moving faster than any of us expected and we are already seeing tools evolve month by month. HeyGen is developing quickly which means soon you will only need to film yourself once and you will be able to change your script whenever you like. That kind of tech is going to change training videos, social content and even how businesses communicate with customers.
Here is a wild but real statistic. Around sixty percent of online searches are now influenced by AI interpreted results before someone even clicks through to a website! And that percentage is only heading in one direction.
This means websites need to be clearer, more structured and written in a way that helps both humans and AI understand what you actually do.
In 2026 we will be helping clients adapt by focusing on smarter content structure, stronger on page SEO, updated imagery and clearer messaging that AI tools can recognise and match with the right audience.
Where We Go from Here
2025 has been a big year filled with launches, branding, updates and a whole lot of invisible work that keeps our clients ahead of the curve. We are grateful for every business that trusted us with their brand story this year.
As we head into 2026 the focus stays the same, keep adapting, keep improving and help Kiwi businesses show up clearly in an online world that is changing fast.
If your website needs a refresh, new content or a smarter approach for the AI search era, now is the perfect time to get ready.
Get in touch and lets chat about what we can do to make your site AI visible in 2026!
