Since 2008, the Pantheon Basel – forum for classic cars – in Muttenz has been the largest classic car center in Switzerland. It offers everything that the lovers of classic vehicles could wish for.
The Pantheon has become a meeting place for local residents and fans of vintage cars. As an event venue, the museum can host fantastic events thanks to its unique architecture. Toni Brüderli and his team have organised weddings, birthdays, fairs and corporate events here. During the Advent season, the largest Advent wreath in the area decorates the rotunda. Over 1,000 vehicles have been brought to Basel for the 27+ special exhibitions so far, many of which are exclusive.
The biggest problem with the client's previous website was a complete lack of content structure. Over the years, a lot of valuable content had been uploaded to the site, but the structure of this content was not clear to the user and the client's options for expanding the site were limited. The site was also unable to display vintage cars for sale. The data sheets did not contain sufficient information.
The task was therefore to clean up the site from a UX point of view. From a UI point of view, the client wanted the site to reflect the oldtimer atmosphere, to show the old racing colours (green and red) and to create a vintage ambience to the whole site.
The content structure of the site had to be put in a logical structure. Pantheon is not "just" an oldtimer exhibition, but also the home of several events, a restaurant and a vintage shop. In addition to all this, they also renovate and sell vintage cars. As a first step, the content on the website had to be properly distributed. This chaos was finally solved with a full-screen menu. This way, the user gets all the important menu items at once, from the main trap line to the bottom colour.
When looking for a style for the site, we studied many oldtimer publications and old advertisements, and finally presented the client with an old-style magazine look, which turned out to be a hit. The layout, although moving within a grid system, had an old magazine charm, thanks to the many offsets and irregular layouts. The menu items were marked with old-fashioned typo and underlining, and the more important points were circled. In this way, we evoked the old style of the competition tables. For the typography, we developed a mixed style header, but for the body font, legibility was a priority.
As the client was constantly adding content to the old site, we worked with the developers to create a quasi Swiss jackknife site, which although having a simpler look, gave the client the freedom to expand the site, which could still remain the same as the rest of the site.
The result was a site that finally presents Panthoen's services in a transparent way. The client can increase the content of the site to his liking, as he can easily expand the current site thanks to the prefabricated blocks. Visitors have also been very positive about the site, finding information much more quickly, choosing between services and, more importantly, vintage cars for sale. We have also enjoyed working with such material, which is a pleasure to work with.