The Mystic River Building Company builds (and remodels!) luxury homes in the Mystic, Connecticut area. These are not cookie-cutter homes -- the good folks at the MRBC design custom homes that meet all the varied needs of their clients.
For their website, they wanted to be able to give a sense of the breadth of their services without overwhelming visitors. We started with design -- Nort, Leslie, and Kathy decided that they wanted a design that was warm and cozy, as opposed to the cold and elegant feelings that some luxury home design sites have.
The finished site is simple, but packed with information. A visitor can learn all about MRBC's approach to designing and building houses, as well as explore a large gallery of finished projects. There is also plenty of space to highlight the company's professional affiliations and certifications -- more than you can shake a stick at!
P.S. Check out the drool-worthy built-in storage! Oh, I could use a couple hundred drawers like that.
Meadow Musings: Client Profiles
It's always interesting to build a website that has a few disparate goals. In the case of the Napa County Bar Association, the site had three very different audiences: lawyers, people who need lawyers, and people who are very upset with their lawyers.
The Bar Association exists to provide the attorneys in Napa County with a network of colleagues, as well as continuing legal education and resources for research and advice. The Bar also acts as a referral service for its member lawyers -- if you need an attorney who is well-versed in California's Wine Laws (and, really, who doesn't?), the Bar Association can direct you to attorneys who specialize in that area. Lastly, part of the Bar's mandate is to provide fee arbitration services on behalf of its members -- so if you and your lawyer are having a dispute over fees, the Bar Association provides an alternative going to Small Claims, District, or Superior court.
The Bar Association's website needed to serve all of those needs in the same space. Their new website displays all of the information they needed, in a layout that's simple and easy use. Additionally, the back-end interface allows the Bar officers to update member information easily. Adding a new member, or editing an existing member record (to reflect a change in address or practice specialty) is as easy as filling out a web form. The site updates automatically, and you can search for a lawyer by City, Specialty, Firm name, and more! There is also a Bar Calendar, which is updated regularly to display meetings and other events.
The Bar Association provided us with some great pictures of the historic Napa County Courthouse. The Courthouse has classic architecture, as well as an amazing stained glass dome and artwork from local painters. My personal favorites are the pictures of the Hall of Records. The top banner rotates each time you visit a new page -- click around to see all the different shots!
Stokefire is a naming and branding firm. Not sure what to call your company, product, or child? (OK, just kidding on the child.) Already have a name but need a tagline? Desperate to have your company re-named by a dude with no hair? Stokefire can help.
In fact, Stokefire created the name webmeadow! And then they helped us focus our philosophies around the brand. The experience was challenging and fun, and we're quite proud of the end product.
They seem to have enjoyed our wit and charm, because then they turned around and asked us to create a new website that reflected their recent growth and their fun attitude, and they wanted it to be 120% editable by anyone on the staff.
While we pointed out the impossibility of 120%, we did end up creating a site that felt fresh, reflected their attitude, and gave them lots of room to grow. Now, not only can Stokefire edit pages, they can create new ones on the fly! (In fact, Tate got so excited that he created two new pages just one day after launch.)
So go to stokefire.com and look around! (My favorite part is the image that links to "Our Founding Principles". It's small, but you can make out a two-part plan: "Find Clients. Make $$.")
So you're a small business owner. You have a great business that makes cuddly stuffed bunnies, and you think that more bunnies could sell if you just had the right audience.
Enter SellMore Marketing, LLC. Bill Doerr, the Chief Creative Officer, is a marketing master, and he can fix you right up with coaching, consulting, special reports, and now an online service -- all dedicated to helping you market yourself and your business better.
SellMore Marketing approached us about building a website that could be a hub for many of their activities. They wanted to highlight downloadable special reports and upload new reports at any time. They wanted to display upcoming classes and events and allow visitors to register on the spot. Not content with one blog, they wanted to have two public blogs and two client-only blogs. They wanted to be able to sell products and add new products as they became available. And of course, they wanted to allow visitors to signup for their online newsletter.
We were game. We created sellmoremarketing.com -- a place that SellMore Marketing could market their services with Special Reports, events, blogs, products, and a newsletter signup. And more importantly, they could add and remove content as they wished.
So go visit SellMore Marketing and get those bunnies moving!
Like most people, your next vacation plans probably include Littleton, NH. And while you're here, you will probably find yourself hungry in the middle of the day, and wishing, "Wouldn't it be great if I could have some amazing food and sit right by the river?" Well my friend, you are in luck! Head over to Miller's Cafe and Bakery!
We've known David for a while, and when he wanted a website, he called us. (He also calls us when his computers go on the fritz in the middle of the busiest week of the year. We keep telling him not to defrost scones right on the motherboard, but does he listen?) David knew just how the cafe could benefit from a website -- he wanted tourists to be able to find the Cafe's location and hours before they came to Littleton, and he wanted locals to be able to keep up with the ever-changing menu options*.
David gave us a stellar review over on the Services page, and building the site was a great experience. We have heard a number of stories of people who were excited to find the site after a vague Google search hoping for that yummy "riverside cafe in Littleton". The cafe also offers free WiFi access (a rarity up here in the North Country)! Check out the site, then visit the cafe!
* The big thing at Miller's right now is the Flip Bread sandwich. Imagine a fresh pita bread (and I mean fresh! Cooked from dough-to-bread right in front of your eyes!) filled with delicious warm flavor combos -- my favorite is the Athena, filled with lamb and roasted potatos and curry-mint yogurt. Taste-tastic!
