Founded in 1993 under the name "In Touch," the Ascending Lights Leadership Network operates in the poorest and most under-served areas of the City.
Students are recruited from inner city churches on the basis of their strong records of Christian service. They are educated in college degree programs that will provide them careers with solid income potential and the ability to transfer to four year universities.
They needed a site that would speak both to the end users, the pastors and candidates who are in need of their services and the donors and foundations who support the enterprise. We also designed for secondary audiences including the media, city, state and national government. To reach them all effectively with a single site, we need to achieve a balance between slick-and-professional corporate pieces and approachable-and-simple youth oriented materials.
This site was designed to be new and fresh, but it had to exploit the equity in their history of good works. We let the students' stories do that.
Armstrong Garden Centers has a one hundred year history of doing things their own way. They were tired of hearing how they had to submit to someone else’s design and hosting demands. They needed someone to design and build a store they could control fully in-house.
They wanted an interim site up immediately which would establish their presence, and by adding MapQuest mapping capabilities, we were able to provide a site with useful functionality within just a few weeks of receiving the assignment. They were able to begin inviting visitors to the site, promote the upcoming features, add web addresses to their ads, business cards and corporate communications at the same time as their site was being designed and implemented.
We designed a format that supported their brick-and-mortar stores, permitted on-line purchasing and allowed them to make their own design decisions down the line. They didn't care for the restrictions that Yahoo put on them and we recommended Make-a-Store.
Make-a-Store is different from the Yahoo and Excite solutions, because it offers flexible and scalable e-commerce products and services at prices small to medium-sized businesses can afford. They incorporate strategic marketing features which can be modified anytime and often. Make-a-Store permits local hosting, which even in the e-world, has advantages. And the customer support is outstanding.
They hosted their site with Verio for speed and 24/7 reliability and after their site was designed and tested, Armstrong gardens took over maintenance themselves. They have added some features and changed their original business model somewhat, but their site visitors never noticed anything but added convenience.
The private school arena in Southern California is highly competitive and the search for the best students is arduous and time consuming. Mayfield wanted to stand apart from the rest of the competing schools with both a sense of style and substance.
Mayfield Senior School is a Catholic, independent, college preparatory school for girls grades 9-12. Their educational philosophy, originated over 50 years ago by Cornelia Connelly, assures that each of their students receives the personal attention often overlooked in today’s high school environments. They wanted to promote Mayfield's nurturing, family environment, the excellent academic education provided, plus their dedication to the arts, athletics, and a young woman’s emotional and spiritual development.
Even with all that, they wanted more than a brochure site. They wanted to put their admissions information online including a downloadable admissions form and eventually online submission. They wanted a section devoted to their alumnae functions and an entire area devoted to development and endowment funding.
We designed the site in modules which they could easily update and manipulate. Within two weeks after we uploaded our design to their own in-school server, they were operating the entire site themselves.
This is a simple straightforward brochure site about engage, interest and excite tourists, visitor bureaus, tour groups and customers to the winery, wine shop and restaurant.
In 1917, Santo Cambianica left his home in the Northern Italian province of Lombardy to settle among the multitude of vineyards which then existed in Los Angeles. Here, on Lamar Street, he founded the San Antonio Winery, dedicated the winery to Saint Anthony, his patron saint.
Today, the LA River is paved and the vineyards have been replaced with heavy industry. San Antonio Winery remains as the only producing winery in Los Angeles. Still in its original location on Lamar Street, the Winery is the last vestige of the rich wine making tradition of this region. In recognition, the city of Los Angeles designated San Antonio Winery a Cultural Historical Landmark.
This site is designed solely to reinforce their print, promotional and public relations programs as a part of their complete advertising and marketing plan.
For over 60 years, they were known as Motgomery Watson and Harza Engineering. They were both well respected companies, but when they joined forces, the result of their merger was truly remarkable. But... how to let the world know?
MWH had to position itself as a brand new and yet highly-respected established company. They had to change their clients’ perceptions of two separate and recently merged smaller companies to that of an innovative single global leader in Engineering & Technology. They had to build a unique MWH brand by emphasizing the formidable power and unlimited horizons of the new corporation The had to promote the successes of the MWH formula: Global Reach, Infrastructure Development and Information Management.
They could not do it with a web site alone. Together, we created a campaign that used the web site to reinforce the trade and consumer magazines ads, and environmental banners to break through the staid and stolid image of engineering companies. Instead, they positioned themselves the ultimate problem solvers and solution providers.
