01The full site
The Highflyers website, from the clouds to the ground
Recorded on the live site: the whole homepage in one scroll, with every animation playing exactly as a visitor sees it.
02The challenge
Hiring a leader is the biggest bet a founder makes, so the website had to make Highflyers feel like the safe choice.
Recruitment sites sell urgency. Founders want certainty
Most recruitment websites are built for volume. They push speed and job boards, and they leave out the part a founder cares about: what actually happens between the first briefing and a signed offer. For someone about to hire a CPO or a managing director, that missing middle is exactly what makes the decision feel risky.
Highflyers is an AI-enabled executive search and talent advisory firm that works with fast-growing companies. Its approach is structured and transparent. The brief was to make its website behave the same way.
03Strategy
What the category does
- Handshakes and office stock that could belong to any agency, in any decade
- 'Top talent, fast' on every homepage, so no claim is believed
- A black-box process: no timelines, no steps, no reporting
What Highflyers does instead
- Real executives, shown next to the companies that hired them
- Outcomes with a source: 85+ placements and a 35-day average
- The process on the homepage, every step with its timing
A wrong executive hire is expensive for a growing company. So the site's job was not to create urgency. It was to lower anxiety and make the next step obvious.
Clarity at every step
For founders hiring the leaders who will shape their company, Highflyers is the executive search partner that shows you every step, so your most important hires feel calm, not risky.
- 01
Altitude
The name is the brief. A view from above, open sky and room to think, in place of the cramped urgency of a job board.
- 02
Transparency
The process, the timings and the reporting go on the homepage, so founders see exactly what happens and when.
- 03
Proof first
Outcomes and founders' own words lead. Placed executives and their companies carry the credibility.
04Art direction
A site that descends from searching to landing
We built the page as one journey through the sky. It opens above the clouds, where a search begins. It moves across open horizon as the process becomes clear, and it lands on solid ground at the contact form. Scrolling the site feels the way hiring should: from uncertainty to arrival.
Interface elements are frosted glass over the landscape, so information always floats in the same calm world instead of sitting in boxes on a white page.
People, not stock
The hero carousel shows real executives beside the companies that hired them. It is the first thing a founder sees, and it answers the question that matters most: who have you placed, and where?
Every path lands in one place
The journey ends on the ground, with the wordmark at full scale and a single action: get in touch. The form is a short glass panel over the landscape that asks only for what the team needs to prepare a kick-off: name, email, company, company size and a message.
05Process
The process, with timings, on the homepage
Most search firms keep their process vague. We made it the centrepiece. Four steps, each with a real duration, presented as glass cards that stack as you scroll, each with its own small 3D object. A founder can see what week one looks like before they get on a call.
- 01
Kick-off briefing
1 dayBusiness, industry and role requirements, stakeholder input, the role's focus and compensation.
- 02
Job scorecard and candidate presentation
1–3 daysSkills, qualifications and assessments defined; outreach, interviews and references.
- 03
Regular updates
2–5 weeksAn update rhythm agreed up front, over the channels the client already uses.
- 04
Finalising the role
1–5 weeksShortlist to signed offer. A successful search usually concludes in about 35 days.
Showing the dashboard before the first call
Highflyers gives hiring teams a live reporting dashboard. On most sites that would be one bullet point. We gave it its own scene: four glass panels rising out of the landscape, one for each thing a founder wants to see during a search.
- Panel 01
Real-time reporting
Sourced and outreached candidates, and interview stages, at a glance.
- Panel 02
Candidate prioritisation
Rate, prioritise and give feedback, and view assessments in one place.
- Panel 03
Market insights
Target companies and compensation data for the role and industry.
06Proof
Outcomes up front, then the founders who got them
The results get their own moment instead of a place in the footer: two numbers, set large and quiet, followed by the founders who hired through Highflyers, in their own words.
- 85+
- Executives placed at global companies
- 35 days
- Average time-to-fill
Highflyers' figures, as published on highflyers.ai.
“If recruiting were an Olympic sport, Highflyers would already have several gold medals.”
Laurent MartinotCEO & Founder, sunrise
“We were able to fill several of our most critical key positions with top-tier talent.”
Benedict KurzCEO & Co-Founder, Knowunity
“The most important part of growing your business is establishing a foundation of trustworthy, competent employees.”
Felix OhswaldCEO & Founder, GoStudent
07Deliverables
Strategy
- Positioning
- Page narrative
- Content hierarchy
Website
- Information architecture
- Visual design
- Responsive layouts
- Contact flow
Art direction
- Sky-to-ground scene system
- Glass UI language
- Imagery direction
Interaction
- Executive carousel
- Stacking process cards
- Scroll-led transitions
