The
Northern Virginia Chorale
of Springfield, Virginia
Website
redesign: September-October, 2008
www.northernvirginiachorale.org
PROJECT
OUTLINE:
In 2005, The Springfield Chorale asked me to design a new website
for them. Their original site had fallen into disrepair, and was no
longer functional. I began by creating a whole new look, basing the
navigation and site structure on their previous content sections.
The chorale also needed a new logo-identity, which I created for them
in 2007, after they changed their name to “The Northern Virginia
Chorale.” Since the development of this initial website, their
needs have continued to grow, resulting in the addition of new features
for their existing site. This fall I have spent time developing these
new user-friendly features, which have led to a more sophisticated
website as well as an updated look to the design of the site.
SOLUTIONS:
The
original color palette we chose was purple, green, black and charcoal
gray. This has been updated to a slightly different palette to include
a dark brown and beige, with the purple and green as accents. Previously,
we had used a fancy script font called English Vivace, for the title
headers on each page. This time we selected a new font for the headers,
the more common Signet Roundhand, also less ornate, but which has
a nice even, legible appearance but
still provides formality to the headers.
The headers also include a large musical note to designate each of
the site’s sections, which are repeated in a small size, next
to each of the navigational links.
A
new
header collage was created for the homepage of the website to include
three recent photos of the chorale singing in different concert venues.
The background of the collage shows an image of the Blue Ridge mountains
above the three photos framed by a curved edge. The photo of the Blue
Ridge mountains is one that I took on a trip to Asheville, North Carolina.
It worked perfectly as a backdrop for the chorale, and is meant to
evoke a feeling of Virginia since it also borders the Blue Ridge.
The chorale also features a current song from one of their concerts
on their homepage.
One
of the new features of the updated site is an extensive, password-protected
Singers’ Only section, which allows the
chorale members to download current practice mp3s and other musical
voice resources provided by their director, on a weekly basis. This
section consists of reminders, rehearsal notes, audio tracks and mp3s
for home practice, concert schedule and program, as well as a page
of singing tips. The section is updated weekly in preparation for
their holiday concert. To set this up, I worked together with the
chorale’s technology and website coordinator who records and
prepares music for their practice sessions. He provided me with the
content and an outline that I then translated into a small, internal
website with its own navigation, divided into the sections listed
above. The Singers’ resource also provides an immediate
means of communication between the chorale members and their director,
after practice sessions. This section has become a valuable asset
to the website, making it all the more convenient for members to rehearse
their music, while the main website provides information to the general
public. This was a fun project to be involved with, and has allowed
me to learn things about musical recordings and history that I did
not know.
After
considering ways in which the chorale could raise money to support
its operational costs, the choice was between using either Google
advertising, or setting up an Amazon.com shopping page. The latter
proved to be a more useful means of earning revenue, and also met
their own needs to order music products for rehearsal. The new Amazon.com
shopping section, specifically designed for voice and choral products
is not only useful to its members, but also provides online shopping
for the general public as well for music CDs, and any other merchandise
available from Amazon.com. Additionally, the shopping page
works in coordination with the Singers’ section, telling
members what music they need to buy through the Amazon widgets. The
shopping page has helped the chorale to raise money to support its
operational costs, so is a win-win situation for everyone.
Within
the Performances section of the site, there is a new
page for ordering CDs of the chorale’s past concerts, provided
by an independent businessperson who does all of their concert recordings.
This page has a CD ordering form in PDF format, which was the chorale’s
preference, (rather than using a secure online form that processes
money). Additionally, there is a page of Past Performances
now, as well as a page of audio clips from previous holiday concerts
which will be updated from time to time with new music. Finally, all
other sections of the site are updated as needed, with new information
and PDF forms, including a Letter from their President, and a business-advertising
Donation form, both of which are found under the About the Chorale
page, and the Partners in the Arts section.
The
website uses a CSS-based navigation which is vertically oriented on
the homepage, and horizontally on the interior pages. The chorale’s
logo, which I created after they changed their name and title to “The
Northern Virginia Chorale” a couple of years ago, incorporates
a large, white G Clef on a wavy music bar, against the background
of a dark green circle, with the name of the chorale appearing on
a circular type path around the outer edge, as depicted above. A different
version of the logo that was also considered can be seen below. It
has a more elaborate brushtroke on the wavy music bar. Both logos
were designed with Adobe Illustrator.
The Northern Virginia Chorale has performed
both at home in the Washington metropolitan area, and in several very
impressive European venues, singing a variety of music for different
audiences, all under the leadership of their talented director, Robert
S. Webb, Jr. More can be learned about the history of the chorale
and their director, on the About
the Chorale page of the website. The chorale has been
very pleased with their new website look, the Singers’ section,
as well as their logo. The logo has been translated into a car decal,
newspaper ads, and is also used on their brochures, working well at
both large and small sizes, providing them with a distinctive identity.
Technologies used: This
website was created with Dreamweaver, and the graphics for
the site with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. The logo
was created with Adobe Illustrator (including hand-tracing
the G Clef to make it
a scalable, vector graphic.)
InDesign was used to format the Donation letters and the Ticket
and CD order forms which were all made into printable/downloadable
PDF files for the website.
