Brand and website to launch education mentoring consultancy
Lizana and Derek authored the book ‘Mentoring and Coaching in Education’ and wanted a website to host more information and give details of their consulting offer. The site details the services they provide with information on the various courses, as well as links to their podcast and a couple of custom enquiry forms for different services. The brand design features a simple logotype, a couple of colours taken from the book cover to tie that in, as well as a mix of monotone and natural images. We also provided designs for flyers, business cards and a neat bookmark.
Dual language website showcases Italian solar startup
The vibrant startup Volt Infrastructure came to us with a request for a simple, clear website to get their company off the ground and communicate key messages to various groups including landowners, investors and potential employees. The company really wanted to get across their ethos and process, as well as highlight other features, such as how they support biodiversity. Oh yes and it all had to be in both English and Italian! In addition we supported them with well-designed Powerpoint decks, brochures and folders, letterheads and even posters for the office. We didn’t create the brand, but put the colours and style to good use. About the website The website uses WordPress along with the page builder Elementor, to provide fully-customisable layouts for all screen sizes. A simple translation plugin facilitates the language switching, allowing the team to easily upload translations for all of the content. Landowner Brochure This brochure is a great example of how offline literature can reflect and complement the online presence, providing a seamless design for customers and stakeholders.
New website showcases local building company
Lucky for us you can’t build a website with bricks and mortar, although that would be very secure! So Mark came to us for his new website to show some of their home extension and building projects, as well as to detail the process and provide contact links for customers. The resulting site fits with the brand and is easy to customise and add new projects as needed. It’s mobile responsive and, using WordPress and Elementor, it’s nice and fast to load, and of course secure, safe as houses!
E-learning modules focus on disaster response in the Caribbean
We were commissioned by the Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT) to work on this project for their client, the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Caribbean. CIDT developed all content for the products, as well as delivered other training and consultancy services. We took the storyboards and set up the online modules, building them with a responsive authoring tool and setting them up within the Moodle learning management system. We then created a layout for a lengthy handbook, further detailing all procedures and information. The Caribbean region suffers a wide range of disasters and shocks, including droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and landslides, causing distress to people, communities and economies. The three online, self-paced modules were created to build staff and stakeholder knowledge, skills and competencies to prepare social protection systems ahead of shocks and to respond to emergencies. Time to evolve The short courses, each providing over 2 hours of learning, were created with Evolve Authoring, a flexible e-learning tool that provided all of the functionality, interactivity and responsiveness required to keep the courses engaging and to test learners as they pass through each topic. The templating feature enabled precise control over branding and visual elements, to give the modules their own distinctive look and feel within the WFP brand. Drag it, drop it E-learning without interactions is basically just reading, and that’s just no fun. The modules feature a range of interactive elements including slideshows, flips cards and hotspots, as well as several question types, such as drag and drop, multiple choice and more. Maps and diagrams could become interactive, giving detailed information about processes and events. visualising and tracking progress Notice how some items in the accordion above and map below are green? Once an item has been viewed it changes to show a tick so that the user knows what they’ve looked at when they return again. The module saves their progress and takes them back to where they left off when they reopen the course, even if it’s days later. A pop-out side menu also gives useful navigation and shows which topics are yet to be completed. Learning management system (LMS) The course was delivered through social protection.org. We configured the course environment, creating spaces for each module, as well as its supporting resources, glossary and final quiz. The Evolve modules synchronise well with the Moodle software, signalling completion progress to the LMS and retaining user progress and position within the course. Moodle can provide certificates once all criteria are met. Could e-learning help your staff and stakeholders? If you need to communicate large amounts of information to your team, whether they are distributed around the globe, or just got too comfortable working from home since the pandemic, online learning can be a great tool and can be more appealing than reading huge word documents and PDFs. Get in touch if you think we can help?
New website and identity for social work professors
We were asked by the Association for Professors of Social Work to create a website and identity to promote their activities and reach out to their membership. With members from universities across the UK, the APSW promote and develop social work education and research through various activities, events and meetings. Off-white: a brand identity To set the style for the website, as well as to to give some impact to future publications, we first set about pulling together a simple brand identity. Something that could be easily adapted by members to various templates, whether for documents and reports or PowerPoint presentations. The style has a simple colour palette of white, an off-white, a feature green and black text. With its wide range of weights, the Monsterrat font is very flexible. To keep a serious, professional tone, as well as a unique look, we applied a ‘black and off-white’ style to some stock photography, giving the team a repository of photos to draw from that cover the various aspects of their work, from family and social work situations, to academia and some background textures. The brand in action In Summer 2021, the APSW organised a series of ‘Knowledge and Evidence Events’. For each of the four events a document was published summarising the key points and discussions. We put these together into branded documents that look like this: WordPress to impress The website uses WordPress for several, by now obvious reasons – the blog, the customisability, the responsiveness. Using a leading page builder plugin, each page was crafted to its content. The events calendar synchronises with a shared Google calendar. If any team member adds an event it appears. The page builder enables precise mobile and tablet customisation, so that the site looks great on any device. Although please don’t look at it whilst driving like the man in this stock photo! A research repository Although not yet live, the site features a bespoke repository for member publications. With an intentionally simple interface, users can filter articles, books, chapters and reports and find the latest research on a topic. There’s a page on the front-end for members to add their publications, without needing to log in. Maintenance and management of the site The site has given the APSW a great platform to grow with. They are making use of our website maintenance service to keep the site secure, updated and backed up. They have also received training in adding their own content so that they can be self-sufficient where it makes sense. Are you looking for a site for your association? Tools such as WordPress make the process quick and the end result slick. And it doesn’t have to cost the Earth. If you have been looking to get started with a web presence for your association please get in touch for a chat. We have worked with several and will at least have some good ideas for you.
Online tool walks stakeholders through onboarding process
We were commissioned by the Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT) to work on this project for their client, the NDC Partnership. CIDT were delivering training and facilitation services, as well as collating the content for this online tool. The NDC Partnership is a global coalition of countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action. Countries are facilitated with tools to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions, as per the Paris Agreement. No ordinary website The site uses elearning software to structure its three units. Whilst not a traditional online course, the software enables users to progress through sequentially to absorb the information, which was an onboarding process for new support unit staff or member country stakeholders. As well as introducing itself as an organisation, the tool walks members through the stages of ‘country engagement’. Supporting the whole process We were there at the planning stage, to help with user stories and ensuring the tool met the needs of the various stakeholders. Discussing the specifications and requirements we were able to confidently recommend the right software. Once into the development phase we set up the site in WordPress, carefully matching the NDC Partnership’s existing website branding. The elearning platform was configured for the various units and we began creating assets: diagrams, flowcharts, icons and more, all in the brand style of the NDC Partnership. Interactive elearning elements came in useful for displaying content in rich ways, such as the organisation’s guiding principles, shown in the infographic above. Once the site was finished and the content uploaded, a pilot took place identifying a few points to adjust. The addition of pages for frequently asked questions and a resource library mean that the site, the tool, gives new members everything they need during the crucial early stages of their country engagement process. “Thank you for your great work in helping to develop this online tool. The technical solution worked very well and everyone was very pleased with the final product.” Ella Haruna, CIDT
Quirky New Website for writer and astrologer
It was a pleasure to undertake the redesign of Darrelyn Gunzburg’s website. A noted author and astrologer, Darrelyn has written books and plays, she teaches on a Masters programme and undertakes research around medieval buildings and other subjects. Of course she needed a website that represented her diverse activities. As a personal website she could choose a quirky and unique style. What’s on your desk? It’s not every day you find yourself cutting out a cat in Photoshop. Meet Molly Rose… The concept for the headers was that it might be an overhead photo of items found on her desk. So, books, photos, paper, pens, coffee, flowers and yes, there is a cat bed, and very often a cat, on Darrelyn’s desk. “THANK YOU !!!!For your technical expertise and your patience. My new website looks greatand I am deeply happy with it.” Responsive and mobile friendly Darrelyn’s site is completely customised for mobiles and tablets. The data shows that over half of all traffic is now through mobile devices. The software we use enables endless micro-customisation for different screen sizes, so we can get things pixel perfect. Even with image backgrounds and dynamic overlaid images, it wasn’t a problem. At times a challenge, but never a problem. Bright and colourful What’s the point of having a personal website if you can’t use the colours you like and make it vibrant and full of life? We settled on this bright colour palette and divided the pages into blocks, each with a different background colour. Each section title, with its accompanying underline, could then be whichever colour it needed to sit over the top of the two background sections it covered. This brings some variation to what could have been repetitive heading styles. Managing the site After a couple of training sessions via Zoom, Darrelyn is comfortable in keeping her website updated with new content in the form of news items and blog posts, as well as making any edits to text and images as needed. She is taking advantage of our website maintenance service to ensure that the site is secure and backed up.