case study - a website as a tool
317 Main Community Music Center
317 Main is a Yarmouth, ME based non-profit focused on bringing the power of music-making to people from all skill levels and backgrounds. As a small but mighty team, they had outgrown their existing website and were looking for an updated version that presented the many different ways they show up in the Maine community more clearly, showcased their purpose front and center, and brought their visual brand to life in a playful but still polished way.
Over the course of 5 months, we worked closely with their internal marketing team to create a new site with them from the inside out.
Through a combination of a community survey, user persona analysis, and internal interdepartmental working session we learned that the top website need was to find out information on current programming (when was it, who was it for, how much is it and how do I register). We also learned that a top frustration with the existing site was ease of navigation - in some areas too much information, and others not enough.
To help guide visitors to the content they needed, we broke programming into two buckets based on core user groups - youth and adults. We also added intro paragraphs to each section grounding new visitors in the overall suite of offerings, worked closely with the Registrar to streamline registration language, and prioritized imagery of real students and classes to help bring the 317 Main experience to life.
Across the project, site accessibility was a priority in both design and content choices, making sure it translated well to mobile and was created with key users needs in mind. Check out the site for the full experience and to learn more about this powerhouse local organization.
A secondary key need was for users to be able to find ways to donate and to understand what they were contributing to. Re-worked copy streamlined a variety of different ways to support, and leaned into content highlighting the deep purpose behind their work.
case study - getting the word out
Maine Women’s Business List
Last fall the Women’s Business Center at CEI approached us about supporting them with the launch of the Maine Women’s Business List, Maine’s first public directory of woman owned businesses across the state. A response to consumers and commercial product sourcers wanting to purchase from enterprises across the state that are owned by women, the goal of the directory is both to increase visibility for female entrepreneurs as well as gather much needed data about the role of women in business in Maine.
With the bones of the database, name, and general design direction in place, we focused on an awareness campaign that leveraged the deep relationships of the WBC and made it easy for partner organizations, participants and CEI and the Women’s Business Center to spread the word.
We created a standardized logo for the directory, a suite of social media assets for each audience and custom posts for the WBC. A deeply collaborative effort, we worked together with the team at the WBC to finesse the language and user flow on the website to showcase three clear calls to action: SIGN UP, SHARE, and SHOP, as well as tell the story of why shopping woman owned is so powerful. We crafted copy to include in announcements in newsletters from the WBC and CEI as well as a template for 1:1 outreach to partner organizations. We collaborated with PR maven Christen Graham to brainstorm ways to get the word out about this resource, and put all the pieces together into a roadmap for the WBC team to carry forward through execution.
We’re proud to be a part of spreading the word about this great resource, as well as members ourselves. Whether you’re a business owner or looking to support women in business, the directory is free to join and easy to search.
We created tool kits for partners and members to use to share the directory. These included assets for social media, emails, and a badge for embedding on a website. We also provided CEI Women’s Business Center with a suite of promotional materials to share across their channels.
case study - creating tools for support
Portland Public Schools Food Service
The Food Service department at Portland Public Schools is a stand alone, self-funded department serving the largest school district in the state (over 6,500 students). Their work had evolved greatly, featuring a new vegan line of meals, regularly incorporating local ingredients, and partnered with a diverse group of community organizations, yet the branding tools they had were limited and did not reflect this new vision.
We worked together to first help bring to life core values-based messaging capturing the evolution they had gone through. These tools were developed to both create clarity externally and drive meal participation across the district, but also to drive awareness internally of the broader impact each food service team member’s individual work was serving.
From this foundation, and with the support of a Farm to School grant received by Cumberland County Food Security Council, we worked with the Food Service team as they pivoted rapidly to adapt to COVID and serve their community. Together, we navigated the balance between planning for now when they are working very differently, and to plan for a future when students are once again gathering in cafeterias. We developed a visual brand identity in alignment with the existing Portland Public Schools brand guidelines, a communications plan, and a suite of visual tools to use to share this new brand with their community that they could use both. The work brought to life a playful, polished brand with tools the team can continue to use in their day to day communications.
We provided the PPS team with comprehensive brand guidelines, an editable “Food Service 101” slide deck for new hires and internal presentations, and a suite of Canva templates to execute their communications goals.
We created a variety of assets that could be used as printed assets like posters and postcards, or as virtual assets on the website and for social media.
This included a family of custom illustrations that help carry the brand across items like letters to parents and menus.
Client: Portland Public Schools Food Service/ Project: Values-Based Messaging, Communications Strategy, Communications Plan, Brand Development, Social Media Templates, Collateral & Marketing Materials/ Website: In-house at PPS Food Service
case study - capturing a brand’s essence
Hills to Sea Trail Coalition
The Hills to Sea Trail is a 47-mile trail winding through private and public lands in mid-coast Maine, from the heart of local organic farming to the Belfast harbor. Run almost entirely by a passionate group of volunteers, work began on the trail in 2012 and was completed in 2016. As focus moved from building the trail to promoting it as a resource and destination, our work centered around shifting written and visual communications from focusing on the trail itself to the experience of being on the trail.
The opportunity for this shift was revealed through their participation in 2018 in BOOST, a program that helps lean nonprofit teams streamline, coordinate and amplify their communication efforts developed by Adam Burk and Leah in partnership with the Quimby Family Foundation. We began with a comprehensive messaging update, landing together on language showcasing the group’s connection to nature and commitment to creating space where we can “slow down and just be”
Building on this messaging and strategy work, we explored brand identity directions that brought in imagery and colors that you’d find and experience on the trail, integrated the new tagline, and whimsically visualized the trail winding from the hills to the sea. It was important to capture the wildness of the long and continuous trail, which is unique in this region of Maine. From there, we worked together to update collateral that nudged toward centering the end user experience in design, and helped to create a cohesive, consistent brand showcasing the experience of the trail.
We created a suite of logos to highlight the difference between the trail, the organization, and the dedicated team of volunteers and land owners.
Client: Hills to Sea Trail / Project: Values-Based Messaging, Brand Identity Redesign, Collateral & Marketing Materials / Messaging: In partnership with Adam Burk / Map Design: Margot Carpenter
Note: Some work shown here was generated during our collaborative process and might not be illustrative of the final deliverables.
case study - bring a brand to life
Mindful Employer
Mindful Employer is a mission-driven business focused on improving the employee experience at work through radical systems change. When we began working together, the vision for the business was very alive but there was an opportunity to create a cohesive brand that brought this vision to life. Our collaboration began with a suite of messaging work creating core language for the new business. It continued into tools, templates and collateral to create a cohesive brand across channels including a website, in person displays, social media, program and offering overviews, and client report-out tools.
During our process of working together, Mindful Employer secured a grant with Maine Technology Institute to continue developing a survey component of their offering, and secured their first client in Acadia Insurance.
We remain an ongoing resource to support Mindful Employer with their marketing and storytelling needs.
Client: Mindful Employer / Project: Values-Based Messaging, Brand Development, Social Media Templates, Collateral & Marketing Materials / Logo Design: Adept Creative / Website Design: Katie VenVertloh
“Working with Leah and India provided exactly the support I needed as a small business owner. They work seamlessly together as Leah helped me shape the larger purpose and value of our client service offerings and India artfully interpreted these concepts into beautiful visuals for our website and external marketing materials. In addition to being insightful and talented, they are also super fun to work with! They have a way of helping me cut through a sea of ideas and clarify those that matter most.”
— Elizabeth Ross Holmstrom, Founder, Mindful Employer