01 — THE STARTING POINT
ALBA Enterprises has supplied the injection molding industry since 1980 — Babyplast micro-molding machines, VEGA hydraulic cylinders, complete production cells, and the consulting expertise to run them, pellet to part, from a purpose-built facility in Loveland, Colorado.
Their buyers are engineers who research in depth long before they reach out, and albaent.com offered them an inquiry form: there was no store, and no way to order a part online. The work came in two halves — a brand identity drawn like an engineering document, and a website and store deep enough to carry the research phase of the sale on their own.
02 — THE CALLS WE MADE
01
A mark drawn like a part
The wordmark begins the way ALBA's own parts do — as a construction drawing. Strokes and node points plot every vertex, the chamfers hold to the grid, and the interlocking coupler symbol carries its geometry through all four letters. Then the ink goes down, Inter and JetBrains Mono split the talking from the labeling, and the system ships as a 31-plate book written like an engineering drawing — because that's who reads it.
02
One hue, four stops
The palette is a drawing convention. Ink talks, Paper sits beneath everything, Chalk rules and fills — and Cobalt, the single hue, is reserved for signal: CTAs and dimension leaders. Every pairing carries its contrast ratio on the plate, checked like a tolerance.
- HEX
- #0A0A0A
- RGB
- 10 / 10 / 10
- ROLE
- Primary ink
- USE
- Body · titles · line
- HEX
- #2864EB
- RGB
- 40 / 100 / 235
- ROLE
- Only hue
- USE
- CTA · leader
- HEX
- #FAFAF7
- RGB
- 250 / 250 / 247
- ROLE
- Default bg
- USE
- Sheets · surfaces
- HEX
- #E3E3E0
- RGB
- 227 / 227 / 224
- ROLE
- Rule · tone
- USE
- Dividers · fills
03
Commerce sized to the purchase
Mold components and standard equipment are priced and bought on the page — series, side, and thread chosen from the specification, singly or as a matched set. The Coupler Configurator walks a buyer to a matched pair in three steps, pull force to knockout rods to the thread on each side, and offers only the combinations that exist. Complete production cells and consulting lead to a conversation. The store handles the transactions a store should, and ALBA's engineers spend their time on the work that needs them.
The store — 300 Series04
One vendor, one solution
The solutions page sells ALBA's integrated offer the way ALBA delivers it — one vendor, one solution, from application analysis through process development, procurement, and training. Its Babyplast inquiry asks for what a recommendation depends on: material grade, annual volume, cycle time, cavities, part and runner volume, and mold size against the press's 122 mm window, so ALBA's engineers can answer with a configuration.
Project inquiry03 — WHAT SHIPPED
ALBA sells online. The store at albaent.com carries mold components and standard equipment with the specifications, thread options, and pricing an engineer needs to qualify a fit, bought singly or as matched sets, with checkout on the page. Complete micro-molding solutions and consulting begin at the solutions page and its Babyplast inquiry.
Around the store sits the rest of the site: the solutions and consulting pages — design for manufacturing, filling simulation, tooling, cell assembly — the facility, downloads, and the Journal — ALBA's trade blog, built on Sanity so their team writes, edits, and publishes every entry themselves in Sanity Studio.
Behind it sits the identity: the coupler mark and wordmark, the four-stop palette — Ink, Cobalt, Paper, Chalk — and the type system, documented plate by plate in a 31-plate brand book so anything ALBA prints or publishes stays on register.
“The Virtu process, from developing our brand identity to taking the time to truly understand our business, goals, and the injection molding technology we provide, resulted in the best website we could have imagined.”
IN FULL
The Virtu process, from developing our brand identity to taking the time to truly understand our business, goals, and the injection molding technology we provide, resulted in the best website we could have imagined.
A few things really stand out when I reflect on this experience: the brand identity work, excellent communication before, during, and after the project, and the use of a visual Kanban board (FigJam) to track progress and keep everyone aligned. The quality of the site is outstanding, especially the things you don't see, like the security and technical foundation behind it.
I am especially proud of the work Rob and his team did on the Coupler “Configurator”. From the initial concept through the many iterations to the final result, they created a completely new educational tool for our clients.
We recommend Virtu Studios and Rob Martin without hesitation. If you'd like to hear more about our experience, give us a call. We'd be happy to tell you about it.
04 — WHAT THEY OWN
ALBA runs albaent.com as their own — catalog, content, and store, managed by their team as the product line evolves: the store on Shopify, the Journal on Sanity, both on accounts they hold. Code, infrastructure, and the brand book were transferred and documented: theirs, by design.