Case № 20
Stern Cohen LLP is one of Toronto's top accounting firms. I rebranded them, built their original award-winning website, and a decade later rebuilt the whole thing from scratch on a modern publishing tool with a calmer brand and a search-friendly architecture. The new site doubled down on the firm's actual personality, added a secure client portal, and protected the strong organic search positions we had spent years building together.
Stern Cohen LLP is one of Toronto's top accounting firms and a long-standing partner of mine. I first rebranded the firm and built their website at the start of our engagement, and that work won an industry award and held up for nearly a decade as the firm's primary marketing platform. When the time came to rebuild it, the firm came back to me again.
This second engagement covers a subtle brand refresh, a complete custom WordPress build with a secure client portal and a tax worksheet repository, a responsive user interface designed around the firm's actual personality, and a search optimization strategy built to protect the strong organic positions we had already established together. Marketing Manager Julie James stayed involved from the first strategy meeting to the ribbon-cutting on launch day.
The brief from Julie was clear: "Create a web presence unlike traditional accounting firm websites as we are not your typical accounting firm." That brief became the engine for every decision in the rebuild.
Stern Cohen had three things working against the previous website. The award-winning design had aged into something that looked dated next to the firm's actual personality. The accounting industry online had become brutally competitive, with national chains and discount tax-prep services climbing into the same search positions Stern Cohen had owned for years. And the firm wanted to reach a younger client base without alienating the senior clients and professional contacts who had been with them for decades.
The brand was a constraint as much as an asset. The previous logo and palette had award recognition behind them and were tied to years of marketing collateral. A full redesign would throw equity away. The new identity had to read as the same firm with a fresher posture, not as a different firm entirely.
The website had to do work the old one could not. Showcase the team and their personal stories so prospective clients can see who they would actually work with. Run a careers section the firm could update directly. Host a secure client portal and a tax worksheet repository that clients can use to file documents safely. And keep, or improve, the search positions that drive a meaningful share of the firm's pipeline.
I had nearly a decade of working knowledge of Stern Cohen heading into the rebuild. The audience, the personality, the search positions, the analytics history, and the firm's actual differentiators were all known quantities. That history let the strategy work move fast and made the design decisions defensible without re-litigating fundamentals. The kickoff was a focused strategy meeting with Julie James and the partners covering the brief, the brand evolution direction, and the measurable goals the rebuild needed to support.
The identity refresh came first. I made careful adjustments to the logo and pulled the corporate color palette in a direction that allowed for more personality and emotion in the brand without losing the existing recognition. Within a week, we had a stronger contemporary mark that gave the new website room to breathe. The typographic system got refreshed alongside the mark so the new website, the firm's print collateral, and the digital advertising could all carry the same visual posture without any single channel pulling against the others.
From there I rebuilt the user interface around the firm's culture. Stern Cohen is genuinely playful in person and that did not come through in the previous site. The new interface centers the team, their stories, and their contact details (including downloadable v-cards), keeps a calming visual tone that suits a financial relationship, and surfaces the careers section as a first-class page so the firm can post openings the moment they need to. The publishing tool was rebuilt as a custom WordPress install with marketing-team automations and a secure client portal that lives behind authentication for tax document delivery. The search optimization strategy was wired into the templates and the metadata system so every new page the team publishes inherits the firm's strategic positioning automatically.
I evolved the existing logo and the color palette so the firm's award-winning brand recognition carried forward into a fresher posture. The new mark feels like the same firm, grown up.
Stern Cohen describes itself as not your typical accounting firm. The new interface centers the team, their personal stories, downloadable v-cards, and links to their social channels, with a calming visual tone that still belongs in a financial services context.
I built a custom WordPress publishing tool with marketing-team automations, a careers section the firm runs themselves with web application forms, and a secure client portal plus tax worksheet repository that lives behind authentication for safe document delivery.
I designed in mobile and desktop in parallel and froze the parallax effect on mobile so load times stay fast and the experience does not stutter on phones. The redesign was the firm's first to genuinely behave on mobile.
The accounting industry is a brutal search environment. I built the new site to exceed standard performance benchmarks, ported the firm's strongest pages with their search equity intact, and worked with the team to optimize content on the highest-value queries during the relaunch.
Most accounting firm websites look the same. The brief from Julie James was specifically to create a web presence that does not. I leaned into the firm's actual culture (playful, grounded, deeply experienced) and built a design system around it. The new site tells you who Stern Cohen actually is in the first scroll, which is the asymmetric advantage in a category where most firms hide behind stock photos.
The previous logo had won an industry award and carried nearly a decade of recognition. I refused to throw that away. Within a week of starting the rebrand exercise, I had a contemporary mark that read as the same firm, grown up. The color palette got pulled into a direction that allowed more personality and emotion without losing the calm authority a financial brand needs.
A core goal of the rebuild was reaching a younger and more mobile-first audience without alienating the firm's senior clients. I designed the responsive interface mobile-first, froze the parallax effect on mobile to keep load times fast, and built a navigation that surfaces team, services, and contact in two taps. The desktop experience inherits from the mobile one rather than the other way around.
The publishing tool is a custom WordPress install with marketing-team automations, a careers section with web application forms, and a secure client portal plus tax worksheet repository for safe document delivery between the firm and their clients. Julie has been running a custom WordPress install of mine for more than a decade, so the new tools dropped into a familiar workflow.
Stern Cohen had spent years building strong search positions in a brutal category. The rebuild had to keep them. I built the new site to exceed standard performance benchmarks, structured the page metadata system around the firm's highest-value queries, and migrated the strongest pages with their equity intact. The team and I worked through key page content together during the relaunch to push the positions further, not just defend them.
Not a services list. The real work streams, in the order I ran them.
I leaned on nearly a decade of partnership history with Stern Cohen and built a one-page strategy brief covering the audience, the firm's personality, and the goals of the rebuild. Every downstream decision pointed back to that brief.
Careful adjustments to the wordmark and a refreshed color palette that allowed more personality and emotion in the brand without losing the existing award-winning recognition.
A new responsive interface centered on the team, their stories, downloadable v-cards, and the careers section, with a calming visual tone built for a financial services context.
Custom WordPress install with marketing-team automations, a careers section the firm runs themselves with web application forms, and a secure client portal plus tax worksheet repository.
Performance-tuned page templates, page metadata anchored on the firm's highest-value queries, and a migration plan that protected the firm's strongest organic positions through launch.
Aftercare period with monitoring and health checks, followed by ongoing site management. The relationship has now spanned multiple website generations and continues year over year.
The Stern Cohen homepage, in the browser.
Mobile-first responsive interface.
Across audit, advisory, and the firm story.
Thanks to Nick's experience and patient guidance, what seemed like a gargantuan project was, in the end, very manageable. One of our key goals was to create a web presence unlike traditional accounting firm websites as we are not your typical accounting firm. Our new website certainly reflects that. We now have a search-optimized, responsive website that we are enormously proud of. I highly recommend Nick on behalf of everyone at Stern Cohen LLP.
The rebuilt site launched and Stern Cohen now has a digital presence that matches the firm's personality and the seniority of the practice. The brand refresh carried award-winning recognition forward, the publishing tool gives the marketing team the flexibility they were missing, and the secure client portal handles tax document delivery without leaving the firm's domain. The mobile-first responsive interface delivers the full content of the site cleanly on every device, which is what a younger client base expects without alienating the senior clients who have been with the firm for decades.
Marketing Manager Julie James called the experience "very manageable" despite the project's scope. "One of our key goals was to create a web presence unlike traditional accounting firm websites as we are not your typical accounting firm. Our new website certainly reflects that. We now have a search-optimized, responsive website that we are enormously proud of." That is the outcome the brief asked for, and it is the outcome that converts directly into client confidence in the moments when prospective clients are deciding which accounting firm to call.
In the months after launch, the new logo and the new website were both nominated for and won awards in the North American financial industry. That happened with the previous engagement too. Two for two on award-winning launches with this firm. The partnership continues, with ongoing site management, search work, and content support running alongside the firm's evolving marketing program.
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