Cursive works with mission-led organisations to build digital platforms that amplify their work rather than constrain it.
When B Corp-certified VFX studio Dupe outgrew its Squarespace site, we partnered with Dogeatcog to solve a challenge familiar to many mission-led organisations: how do you publish media-heavy content and complex data while keeping it accessible to everyone?
TL;DR: The top takeaways
59% increase
in active users in the 12 months after launch
57% increase
in new users drawn to the improved platform
23% longer
average engagement time as visitors explored work more deeply
The B Corp challenge: transparency meets accessibility
Dupe is a visual effects studio based in London and Stockholm, creating work for film, television, and advertising that prioritises people and the planet. As the first VFX company in the UK to receive B Corp accreditation, the team is committed to transparency around sustainability, gender pay equity, and ethical practices.
It was important for Dupe to showcase its metrics accessibly online. However, as is often the case with teams publishing complex data: they know what they want to share, but the tools available either break on mobile or require developers to update every chart. Headache central.
The digital challenge: When templates can’t take the data
Like many organisations exploring WordPress or Squarespace alternatives, Dupe reached a point where its existing site simply couldn’t support its ambitions. The platform wasn’t built for the kind of data visualisation its B Corp status required. And its content – primarily its media-rich project portfolios – needed a special combination of creative flexibility and robust management that template platforms couldn’t support.
The brief was clear: create a digital platform that presents Dupe’s creative work while making it genuinely easy for the team to manage complex content. Critically, they needed to publish transparent data in a way that would work for everyone – including the majority of visitors browsing on mobile devices.
This challenge isn’t unique to creative agencies. Charities publishing annual impact reports, think tanks presenting research data, and public bodies sharing performance metrics face the same question: how do you make complicated information accessible and understandable without requiring designers and developers for every update?
The solution: Custom flexibility without the complexity
As part of our discovery process, we looked closely at how Dupe’s team worked, what was holding them back, and what they needed. We chose Wagtail CMS because it’s built for content editors to do their best work. The editing experience feels natural and the platform is highly customisable – we could easily create page layouts that present both creative work and data properly.
While online tools like Tableau let you put together attractive charts and plots, they can appear broken on mobile displays. To display the studio’s B Corp data on every device, we brought in our secret weapon – Grafl.io. By integrating our software with Wagtail, editors can easily build graphs, plots, and charts directly into their web pages with no code.
The platform we built isn’t static – it evolves as Dupe grows. That’s how our long-term partnerships work: we stay close, keep things running, and help our clients do more of what matters to their mission.
How we transformed Dupe’s digital presence
Made data transparency genuinely accessible
As a B Corp, Dupe publishes impact metrics as part of its commitment to transparency. This covers everything from carbon emissions, gender pay gap data, overtime hours, and other insights that demonstrate its values in practice.
To present this kind of data in a way that’s both transparent and usable, some orgs might publish a PDF report. But this doesn’t make the information genuinely accessible – particularly on mobile devices where most people browse.
Grafl.io integrates directly with Wagtail, giving content editors the ability to create and update mobile-friendly charts without technical support. The data is there, it’s transparent, and it’s genuinely usable across all devices.
Made content less headachey for all
For people managing complex content – whether it’s portfolios full of videos or policy reports – the CMS needs to handle media-rich and data-heavy layouts without friction. Everything should work smoothly regardless of how much is on the platform, and editors should be able to publish frequent updates without a developer looking over their shoulder.
That’s where Wagtail’s flexibility sits head and tails above other platforms. It enables us to build custom page templates that match how Dupe’s team really work, rather than forcing them to adapt to rigid structures (or creating more work). Content editors can update portfolios and data visualisations using the same straightforward system.
Let world-class work take centre stage
The best digital experiences get out of the way. We designed a clean interface so Dupe’s work could hold attention without competing with unnecessary details. User experience (UX) is crucial and our goal was to create an immersive, memorable journey that’s easy to navigate and a joy to use.
We built thoughtful interactive elements into the fabric of the website that allow you to see scenes before and after Dupe’s visual effects are added. This subtle interactive motion makes exploring Dupe’s work a delight without distracting.
The results
Our work with Dupe and Dogeatcog didn’t stop at launch. We regularly enhance the digital platform with new features, support the studio’s in-house web team, and deliver Wagtail upgrades to ensure everything’s running smoothly and the site remains a valuable long-term asset.
Dupe’s web platform has gone from strength to strength. In the first year since launch we’ve seen:
- 59% increase in active users
- 57% more new visitors
- 23% longer engagement time
These results make sense. When complex content finally stops fighting against platform limitations, is thoughtfully designed, and can be experienced properly across devices, people naturally spend longer engaging with it. The platform stopped being an obstacle and started amplifying the work itself.
Dupe’s platform now positions it as it is – a purpose-driven organisation with strong work and clear ethics. For mission-led organisations considering similar transparency initiatives, this demonstrates what’s possible: showcasing complicated data in a way that builds trust rather than just ticking compliance boxes.
Publishing impact data or complex research?
We help mission-led organisations build web platforms that make transparency and accessibility work together. If you’re publishing impact reports, research data, or annual metrics and struggling with mobile accessibility or editor-friendly tools, let’s have a chat.
