UPWARD.
Two staff members at a conference table in the Wick & Trautwein office in Fort Collins, one at a laptop and one taking notes on a legal pad.

Success story · Law · Colorado

Wick & Trautwein

Fifty years of standing, no longer the best-kept secret

Services
Brand Storytelling & Messaging · Website Design · Marketing Strategy
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado

The summary

What we did, and what it moved.

UPWARD rebuilt Wick & Trautwein's website as the fifty-year firm's founders stepped back and younger attorneys stepped up. We designed for permanence, in bronze and white with a Colorado identity worn quietly, and told the story of its community roots, its bench and its client-first values in a modern voice. In member attorney Kevin Havelda's words, the site went from merely functional to truly representative of the firm's legacy.

The engagement

Law

Services
Brand Storytelling & Messaging · Website Design · Marketing Strategy
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
In their words · verbatim

Our collaboration with UPWARD transformed our website from merely functional to truly representative of our firm's legacy and forward-thinking approach. The team's dedication to understanding our needs and executing a comprehensive digital strategy was nothing short of exceptional.

Kevin C. HaveldaMember Attorney, Wick & Trautwein

Customer profile

Wick & Trautwein

Industry
Law Firm
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado

The firm

A legacy built on generations of trusted relationships

For over fifty years, Wick & Trautwein has served Northern Colorado and Wyoming: construction, business, litigation, and estates. A legacy built not on longevity alone but on generations of trusted relationships.

Black Wick & Trautwein logo mug on a conference table, with a staff member in a navy blazer seated out of focus behind it.

The mismatch

Honor the past, lean into the future. The old site did neither.

Fifty years of standing; a website that was merely functional. With founders stepping back and younger attorneys stepping up, the firm needed to honor the past and lean into the future at once, and the old site did neither.

Wick & Trautwein, before
Wick & Trautwein, after

Why UPWARD

Easy to get wrong in either direction

Fifty years of standing and a firm not finished changing had to read as one truth on Wick & Trautwein's new site, not two competing ones. That balance is easy to get wrong, too nostalgic in one direction or too eager to modernize in the other. UPWARD built the story and the design together so neither won out. The bronze-and-white permanence, the community roots, the bench and the client-first values were all told in one voice instead of two. The relationship continues.

Two staff members seated at the Wick & Trautwein conference table in Fort Collins, one smiling as they listen with hands clasped.

The work

Here before you needed them, and here after

We designed for permanence: bronze and white, extreme negative space, and a Colorado identity worn quietly rather than shouted. The design says what the firm's clients already know: this firm was here before you needed them, and will be here after.

The story work captured their deep community roots, the quality of the bench, and their client-first values, in a modern voice that reflects where the firm is headed, not just where it has been.

Two staff members at the Wick & Trautwein reception desk in Fort Collins, one reading from a folder beneath the firm's wall sign.
Armstrong Hotel sign and American flags on a brick storefront with sidewalk cafe tables in Old Town Fort Collins.

From the shoot · 7 of the firm's library

The real people, in Old Town Fort Collins.

On location at the firm's office and on the brick streets around it. Open any frame for who, where and the story behind it.

See it live

The work is out in the world. Go see it.

Keep reading

More success stories.

See the Work →

Built for firms like this: Website design for law firms Law firm website design in Colorado

The ask

Your story deserves this treatment. Let's tell it.

A conversation

One conversation, with the two of us. No account manager between you and the people who'd do the work. And if you're happy with what you've got, that's fine too.

Cody usually replies within a business day.