November, 2009

Envision

Posted by Citrus Frog at 6:20 pm

Environmental Vision needed a vibrant and powerful new website to handle the needs of their incredible growth, both as a company and in the numbers of schools that they engage with.

This youth education charity was promising exponential growth and Citrus Frog helped them build a platform to give all their school members and teams a voice and an opportunity to share their ideas.

Citrus Frog encourages any business needing a new or updated website to get involved in the creative process from the very start.

We worked with Envision to build their next generation website into a social networking platform that allowed their site members to publish their own content and to interact with each others groups for the purposes of mutual encouragement and critique.

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Environmental Vision also needed a bespoke content management system (CMS) to help present their company brand and vision for the organisational sections of the website.

Through consultation with Envision staff we went on to improve the initial specifications of the CMS to also allow attaching galleries, which became an important aspect of the in-site communication. There are many other custom modules that were developed for this website which work seamlessly in the background to help Envision deliver their objectives.

Citrus Frog has also been involved with many other Envision projects from printed material, newsletters and apparel. Below are a few examples of the work we have created for them.

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Why not take a look at the Envision website here: www.envision.org.uk

Or follow Envision on Twitter for their latest updates: www.twitter.com/envisionuk

B’ham Conservation Trust

Posted by Citrus Frog at 10:39 am

The Birmingham Conservation Trust is a West Midlands based charity set up to “preserve and enhance Birmingham’s threatened architectural heritage”. Their projects secure the future of buildings at risk in and around the City Center, the sort of buildings that many other charities or developers would rather not tackle.

Birmingham Conservation Trust asked Citrus Frog to redesign their visual identity to bring it into the noughties so it would appeal to a new audience of the social networking age without alienating their current supporters.

The Birmingham Conservation Trust’s (BCT) previous logo did not allow for easy manipulation for use on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Our job was to give the Birmingham Conservation Trust’s visual identity a complete overhaul and ensure that its new logo was simple to convert into many formats across the web, as well as being a strong instantly recognisable brand across their printed material.

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We started by looking at what the Birmingham Conservation Trust was really about, raising the funds to not only save historic buildings, but also to give them a new purpose, we settled on their iconic work with the Back to Backs in the City Center near the Hippodrome. These historic building are a real part of Birmingham’s past, and now serve as a living museum for the thousands of visitors that see them every year.

Taking the Back to Backs as our inspiration we set about illustrating our version of the iconic buildings. We had to ensure that this would be detailed enough to capture the full likeness of the original buildings whilst being uncomplicated enough to be instantly recognisable even as small as 24 pixels square on twitter!

The other key elements in the new Birmingham Conservation Trust’s logo were the typeface and colour palette. For the typeface we used a bold, uncomplicated and easy to read font with a little styling. The colour scheme used bright orange to represent their creative approach to their work, against a deep graphite and stark white. These high contrast colours give the Birmingham Conservation Trust a positive visual identity and also allows for strong icons to be used across the internet.

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The final two elements that were added toward the end of the design process where the “bct” on the side of the building and the crane that can be seen clearly behind the Back to Backs. The decision to add the “bct” was two-fold, firstly it would allow for the building to be used as a stand alone icon without the full “Birmingham Conservation Trust” text and secondly the very act of putting “BCT” on the side of the Back to Backs illustration would give a new sense of ownership to their flag ship project that had previously been seen mainly as a National Trust property (The National Trust run the Museum but were not responsible for the restoration project.

The crane represents the true nature of the Birmingham Conservation Trust’s work, and is a reminder of the scale of the restoration work that is undertaken for some of their projects. The juxtaposition between the finished Back to Backs and the crane represents both parts of the Trust’s work – to restore old buildings and give them a new lease of life.

Having designed the main visual identity for the BCT we then went about creating their new printed identity with letterheads, compliment slips and business cards (all on recycled or sustainable pulp of course) and also their online web presence in the form of icons and banners.

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To stay up to date with their great work, why not follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BirminghamCT

We also worked along side Nick Booth from Podnosh on this project: www.podnosh.com | www.twitter.com/podnosh

The Forest Hotel

Posted by Citrus Frog at 6:20 pm

www.forest-hotel.com

Citrus Frog was approached by the Forest Hotel in Knowle to update their website with search engines in mind. Their previous website was a small flash-based affair that was not getting them the search results they needed to drive traffic to their site.

With Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as our starting point we set about redesigning The Forest’s online presence as a search engine friendly website with plenty of content and an understanding of what their visitors wanted to see. The main aim was to strike a good balance between engaging searchable text-based content and great images that would serve as a visual guide to the hotel, its restaurant and their eye for quality.

The Forest’s website was redesigned using their rich colour palette with a strong layout that would aid visitors in finding the content they were looking for, with bold imagery at the top of each page and well conceived copy beneath.

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For example their wedding section is now broken down into several sub sections, each tailored to help the happy-couple-to-be find everything they need to make an informed decision about booking The Forest as the venue for their special day. Rather than the usual catch-all info, the Forest, with our help, has crafted pages for Wedding Receptions, Civil Ceremonies, Civil Partnerships, and Wedding Fayres, and with the addition of transparent pricing, room capacities and sample menus the website is doing what it should – helping visitors imagine their special day before they even have to pick up a phone or fill out the contact enquiry form.

We have also added an extensive gallery to their wedding pages, allowing their visitors to see just how fantastic their weddings are, and having some of their many thank you cards also displayed in the gallery people get to read some testimonials directly from previous brides and grooms.

With our help they also have a large number of events fully documented on their website with menus and offers attracting some excellent search results and sending more people than ever to their website. With the addition of analytical software tied into the site, The Forest can also see what parts of their site are attracting the most visitors, and can adapt the pages that need more focus on marketing.

The website we have created for The Forest Hotel has now become one of their most powerful marketing tools, and a showcase for their fantastic hotel, restaurant and luxury rooms. We know they are now receiving more enquires than ever before for their wedding, conferencing facilities and events.

Not only did we deliver a new search engine friendly website for The Forest, but we have also gone on to produce their latest printed material. We have designed various flyers for them to go in local press and mail-shots, as well as their latest Christmas brochure that has attracted many people to booking their festive parties at The Forest.

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The Forest Hotel is a privately owned hotel with 12 boutique en suite bedrooms, a friendly local bar and contemporary restaurant listed in both Michelin and the Good Food Guide. Why not visit their site for yourself here: www.forest-hotel.com

Why not follow them on Twitter to keep informed about their latest offers: www.twitter.com/foresthotel