Recent Projects
Portfolio
Check out a small sample of web design projects. Don’t hesitate to email us to request additional examples of our work.
Web Design + Branding
Kuhai Halau O Ke’Alaanuheaokalaua’e – Ohana Dance Group
Description
Web Design, WordPress development, and branding for a local hula halau (traditional hula school focused on the perpetuation of the Hawaiian culture).
As a volunteer at Ohana Dance Group, it was my pleasure to create a beautiful and informative website filled with “aloha.” A website for a nonprofit differs from one for a business mainly in where we direct a user. Instead of focusing on call-to-actions, the website guides visitors through the story of the kumu hula, information about classes, and what a new student can hope to learn.
With regular blog updates, the site is also used for existing students to receive updates, see their classmates’ performances, and even learn a little culture through educational posts.
Because a hula halau is so sacred, it was a priority to incorporate symbolism and colors that are important to hula and Hawaiian culture, but also those that are associated with this halau in particular. The colors red (for the lehua blossom), green (the laua’e fern), pink (flowers like plumeria), and gold (the life of light) were to be focused on, in addition to the stamp of the divine lehua flower featured subtly on multiple pages. The texture of lauhala, the woven leaves used to create baskets, hats, mats, and a multitude of other useful items throughout Hawaiian history.
Web Design+ Logo Design
Northern California Koyasan Temple
Description
Web Design, Logo Design, Training, WordPress development for a local Shingon Esoteric Buddhism Temple.
The temple’s old website was so old that the platform used to build it was only supported by one senior member’s 20-year-old Mac with the program “iWeb.” Additionally, the website was a maze- droves of information spread out over dozens of pages, leaving even experienced internet users baffled by the navigation.
When creating this website, I needed to use the traditional colors and symbols, much like the hula halau. I worked with the board to determine which palette would go perfectly with the “Koyasan purple” to be featured. The font pairing was created to communicate a respectable, established, feel that is both classic and modern. The symbology of the lotus flower, bud, and seedpod are representative of the circle of life, so it was incorporated in every possible way.
The graceful composition of both modern elements like the icon graphics and ancient paintings and symbols was done intentionally to draw the attention of potential new members and to aesthetically please existing members.
The site includes an animated, interactive timeline, uploaded zoom services as well.
The staff and board of the temple were all given two workshops via zoom to familiarize themselves with the interface so they can make their own edits and updates to the site.
Web Design
Viaggio Winery
Description
Web Design, Training, and WordPress development for a world-class established winery in Lodi.
The winemaker desired a new website that shared the same “vibe” as their winery – elegant, classy, inviting, and family-oriented. The old website was a one-page site built on an outdated WordPress platform in conjunction with a 3rd party program for winemakers to sell their products and host events.
The colors were based off of the physical winery itself. Dark red for the wine, shades of green for the vines, light blue for gorgeous clear skies, and a subtle terra cotta for the outside of the building. The font was based off of their existing logo – we were able to find an exact match!
The goal of this website was to promote their winery as a wedding venue, a source for wine tasting and live entertainment, a sign-up platform for their wine club, and to showcase their gorgeous grounds. This was achieved by using large “callouts” and mature-looking call-to-actions – no cheesy starbursts or giant red buttons here!
We worked together with her SEO partner to make sure it was poised and ready for him to work his magic.
Web Design
San Francisco Transit Riders
Description
Web Design, WordPress Development, Training, and 3rd-party CRM integration for a nonprofit focused on making public transit in San Francisco as efficient and user-friendly as possible.
The previous website wasn’t bad at all! However, it was built on an outdated platform and they needed something a little prettier, mobile responsive, and easy for anyone to make edits and updates.
The most difficult part of this build was incorporating “SalsaLab” technology seamlessly. Since there was no built-in WordPress integration (like most CRMs do), I created a homogenous look by putting together some inline CSS so they could apply it to the “custom styles” whenever they generated a module on SalsaLab, whether it be for an email sign up, a donation button, or any other embedded item.
Built into the site are a blog and event calendar, which both feed into the home page. Aside from donating, signing up for emails to receive updates on those blogs and events was the main call-to-action here. As of the time a screenshot was taken, no upcoming events were shown however.
The part of this design that tickled everyone is the use of the honeycomb tile found in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) stations. While it may look just like an abstract, albeit interesting, background to people who aren’t from “the city,” for those that are familiar with BART it is a cheeky nod to the walls we spend so much time staring at while waiting for the train to arrive.
Several hours of training were provided at the end of this build, which also included a domain transfer, complete hosting setup, and massive amounts of troubleshooting due to a disagreement between the hosting companies.