Creating a digital image that matches the quality of reality

What a joy it was to meet the proprietors of Shipshewana North Park, offering Amish log cabin lodging, camping cabins, campground, and more in Northeast Indiana!

I was elated to receive a "cold call" from Uma and even more happy to hear she learned about me from a Google search for website designers in the area. She shared with me that she had experienced more than one website consultant who, like so many do, left them hanging as their website design began to degrade.

There are so many web editing tools out there, and it is no doubt difficult to know where to turn for most small businesses. This is exactly why I founded Catchy Creations!

The first step was, of course, to meet with Uma and her husband, Sam. Together, we looked over the "old site" and uncovered the plan for a new one. Upon my arrival at the property, I knew right away this was going to be a great opportunity to transform the perceptions anyone might gain from only seeing the current website. The grounds are beautifully wooded with mature pines and green lawns, not the image that immediately came to my mind when I first explored online.

"Before" home page, constructed on a platform with extremely limited user engagement options. The site suffered from some overlapping elements as well.

"Before" home page, scrolled down to the footer, shows a lot of text and tiny images.

The scope of this project was well defined. The proprietors wanted to see a "modern" design with some movement, larger images to represent what they have to offer, and the ability to download the park map. I also noted opportunities to embed TripAdvisor reviews, to better highlight their excellence, and enhance the engagement of visitors looking to visit one of Northeast Indiana's most popular tourism destinations in the heart of Amish country.

"Before" content included a section about area attractions, but without any imagery.

I almost immediately got to work preparing three different design styles from which to choose. The client selected a mix of full-width elements and page-centered elements to allow for some blank space, while still highlighting images to promote the property and many amenities offered. As soon as I got started on the design phase, I realized I needed some inspiration - a logo! So, I offered up a few designs for consideration.

I found inspiration for the logo design from the white silhouette on the park's existing site. The first iteration of the new logo was a little "monotone" and the client, who has a great eye for design, suggested we colorize it. The result is as seen on the new site:

"After" - the new site landing page is bold and bright, featuring the new logo and slideshow of images in the header. The park's excellent TripAdvisor reviews are also front and center.

"After" utilizes Dynamic Data to enable the proprietors to make essential content updates without risk of affecting design elements. For example, they can swap out these images quickly and easily in the site's "back end" on Wix.com.

New decor, a price change, a new in-room amenity, these things are all likely to happen after the website goes live. Rather than expecting the property's proprietors to be confident about editing web pages, Wix.com provides a user interface in which elements can be changed without entering the page design at all. I choose Wix more often than not for small business projects because it is affordable, user friendly, and pretty darned amazing in terms of features included in base hosting packages.

Though the client does not have rights or an archive of photos from neighbors around the region, they nonetheless want to help encourage their visitors to explore and stay as long as possible. We amped up the graphic design of the Area Attractions page, also using Dynamic Data content, to encourage more engagement on the site.

"After" design features include a more intriguing and interactive page to explore other area attractions. Links connect directly to property websites and landing pages.

"After" displays the Dynamic Data the site owner can easily update on the back end of Wix. A floating side menu helps ensure the user doesn't miss any critical information provided.

This project was fun, allowing me the freedom to create from scratch in many ways, with the opportunity to continuously improve as a new camping season comes in the months ahead. Uma and Sam plan to keep making this site better and better, with higher quality images that we can also make "clickable" to enlarge, leaving site visitors with the impression intended - high quality and affordable lodging options in Shipshewana!

From beginning to end, the project took just six weeks (and was completed over Christmas and the holiday season). If you are a camper and/or love nature and cabins, you must check out Shipshewana North Park!

Shipshewana North Park

Making Kendallville Main Street look like $2 million bucks

When the City of Kendallville was awarded a $2 million PreservINg Main Street award in late 2021, the organization tasked with helping to steward and distribute those funds to properties along Main Street knew it was time to give their branding a facelift, too. Experience the Heart of Kendallville was ready for a new look!

I was delighted that Catchy Creations LLC was trusted with facilitating the process of determining what "message" the newly expanded board of directors of Kendallville's Main Street USA Affiliate (and Indiana Main Street Affiliate) organization wanted to convey. The process of rebranding began with a full board meeting at which we talked about:

• What message the existing brand conveyed (Experience the Heart of Kendallville)

• Who the primary audiences are for the new brand

• Which stakeholders are most important to embrace the new brand

• What words best describe the "vibe" for new branding

• What downtown features are most important to promote in new branding

Coming out of the first meeting, I had a pretty good idea of my homework, which was mostly to determine what sorts of shapes, colors, and font styles would best support the consensus reached during brainstorming. Once those basic design decisions were made, I got to work creating some logo samples. "Round 1" of logo designs offered the team six unique looks. The board assigned a task force with whom I worked to narrow down those choices.

When we got to "Round II", I brought back three of the options from Round 1, each with two variations. The task force met, reviewed, and as we reviewed we revisited the original decisions reached by the full board about demographics and messaging. This led to a "Round III" of samples, which featured just two designs. Sensing the team was leaning towards one design over the other, I offered eight variations of it, plus a couple variations of the lesser desired option to make sure we didn't eliminate anything quite yet.

Rather than meeting in person each time, we conducted most these "Rounds" of reviews by blind online survey. This made the process move quickly and smoothly, with full participation of the task force and without prejudice or peer pressure.

We called "Round IV" the "Semifinalist round". In this round of samples I wound up harkening back to one of the Round I designs that had not moved forward, based solely on "shape". I added some new elements to the most popular Round II design and offered up six variations (mostly with different font styles). This led us to narrowing down to the Top 3 design choices of the committee.

When the full board met again, the Top 3 choices of the committee were presented - not for feedback, but for a final, full board vote. (The task force was trusted to manage feedback and requests on behalf of the full board to keep this process moving). A simple board vote revealed the new logo, as well as color choices:

What is notable about this process for Historic Downtown Kendallville is:

• The color palette mimics two other industry leaders, which strengthens branding and recognition of the role the organization plays in the community

• The "heart" pays homage to the organization's origins as Experience the Heart of Kendallville

• The lamp post provides an historic element, important to this organization, and is an exact reproduction of the real (unique) posts produced locally

• The oval shape is modern and conveys "action", also important to the organization

• The simple HISTORIC DOWNTOWN font choice is modern

• The cursive "Kendallville" a bit more nostalgic

Did we meet the board's objectives? You decide - and feel free to weigh in with your comments!

• Entrepreneurs are the top audience for branding

• Brand needs to convey that Kendallville is unique and active

• Brand needs to be gender-neutral

• Brand needs to be playful

• Brand needs to be modern

• Brand needs to be youthful

• Brand needs to respect historical significance

See the brand in use

Sometimes, a new website is not really a choice

When the Albion Chamber of Commerce could no longer make updates to their website, the choice was easy: Launch a new one!

Catchy Creations LLC was delighted to help! The Albion Chamber's website had been created on a platform provided by Yahoo for small businesses. Sometime in 2017, Verizon purchased Yahoo for $4.5 billion. When the transaction closed in the second half of 2021, Verizon not only moved all of the Yahoo-hosted websites to their own servers, they also announced that support for editing those sites would end on March 31, 2022.

Alas, the Chamber recognized it really had no choice but to start over. Our proposal was accepted in spring 2022 and a new site went live in late June. Our goals:

1. Establish design and messaging consistency.

2. Create an online presence that tells the Albion Chamber of Commerce story and encourages engagement.

3. Generate connections through online interactions to grow an email list of contacts.

4. Boost traffic and new customer visits through SEO and email marketing.

The tasks at hand included:

• Design a new logo and branding color palette

• Transferring existing content

• Editing and adding relevant new content, based on our discretion

• Creating a new member directory using dynamic data

• Providing a user interface for the chamber to add/edit blog posts

• Enhance user engagement overall with forms and other elements

• Enhance mobile user interface with updated features and elements

The old site

The "old" site was not responsive; viewing even on a large desktop screen revealed some very tiny type and small images with no options to enlarge. The site was not mobile friendly.

The existing member directory interface was limiting. Members appeared under categories, but searching for a member business by the name was not possible. Contacts for community resources such as government, schools, and churches were found in the member directory, even though many are not members.

These design limitations were based entirely on the lack of options provided by the simple Yahoo website building editor. Chamber leaders were excited to see the updates made possible by designing a new site using Wix.com, selected for its affordability and advanced features. The new site provides, in addition to an entirely new look and feel, many new features:

The responsive new site features a new logo and branding that pays homage to the Town of Albion's logo and downtown wayfinding signs, but offers a fresh and independent brand for the Albion Chamber. Animations and scroll features provide a fresh, interesting experience to users.

Using dynamic content, which can easily be updated by a volunteer, the member directory is sure to remain up to date and makes it easy for users to locate members, by name (All Members button) or by category (drop-down filter). Among new member services is the option to buy or renew memberships online, as well as update the information on their member profile page.

The dropdown menu allows the member to see what currently appears in the directory. If changes are needed, the button links to a submission form to provide updates. (Updates do not go live until the website administrator makes them.)

Brand new content to help those new to the community has also been developed, connecting with links out to several other local websites. Creating links back and forth between websites helps both sites gain a higher result in searches online. The ability for Catchy Creations LLC to provide editorial updates is made possible by living and working locally for over 50 years! Local companies and organizations place their trust in me over developers who lack any first-hand knowledge of our community.

What I was most excited about for the Chamber, as a result of this project, is the annual cost savings to be recognized by this local non-profit organization. Rather than paying $23.99 per month for hosting services, with no options to update content or design, out-of-pocket costs have been reduced to just $13 per month for a brand new, engaging website that can remain up to date and evolve with Wix.

I look forward to supporting the Chamber in the months and years ahead to help ensure they get the greatest results possible through their digital presence. It was a blast to complete this worthy project!

Albion Chamber of Commerce