Parks & People Website Redesign
Creative Direction / Website Design
Brand Origin Story
Parks & People is a nonprofit with a mission to improve Baltimore through green space and education. Parks & People has worked since 1984 to build public-private partnerships that sustain and improve Baltimore’s parks and green spaces.
Industry:
Nonprofit/Community Development
Background:
As Communications Manager at Parks & People, I am tasked with creating and implementing strategies to brand and promote the organization effectively. Most modern businesses need an effective website. Websites are your digital home base for information, products, or services. Parks & People initially had a WordPress website. As part of their 40th anniversary, I decided to take their website in a bold new direction using Squarespace, a platform I had extensive background using.
Role
Communications Manager
My Website Goals
Transfer the old site to Squarespace
Reduce the number of clicks it takes to donate
Refresh the site with a modern design: big, bold header text, less body copy, and large images.
Design a unique 40th-anniversary visual brand identity
Add a dedicated events page
Create easy-to-manage, image-first blog and park project pages.
Discovery
I combed through the old website, taking notes and highlighting areas for improvement. It took 3 clicks to reach the donation page and the donation button was not clear in the navigation. The old site was text-heavy and not optimized for search engines. Many pages lacked compelling imagery. The organization completed close to 50 park projects that were not prominently featured on the website.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Squarespace Website Design
Theme
Cascading Green Space
Inspiration
Maps featuring greenspace, campus wayfinding signage, and parks, of course!
Design
Increasing brand awareness was a key component of my design direction. Nike has its iconic checkmark swoosh. Apple has its circular, bite-out-of-the-apple logo mark. Both symbols are basic shapes with strong brand recognition. I drew inspiration from the Parks & People rectangular logo. I designed the website using the rectangle’s strong visual shape to garner brand recognition with its simplistic form. The green rectangle becomes synonymous with plots of land—green space. The rectangular shape is used throughout the site. A subtle animation carries a green rectangle down the homepage on the desktop version of the website. Images on the site are rectangles, overflowing with green views of parks and people, and text is highlighted with green rectangles. Next, I added bold text that clearly states the mission, vision, and values of the organization.
Homepage Design
Youth Programming Page Designs
Park Project Page Designs
Mobile-optimized website pages
Visit the website: Parks & People
“It is beautiful and I had this big grin on my face while looking through it. Great Job!”
