Sheree Borger recently contacted me about a website for her startup bed and breakfast in Wheeling, West Virginia. She didn’t need anything fancy, such as online reservations; just her printed brochure turned into a professional, richly-designed online presence.
Information architecture played a large part in this project. While one long series of paragraphs is perfect for a brochure, internet users want content broken up into clearly defined sections. I divided the information into four pages and came up with a title for each.
The design of the site was fairly straightforward. A drawing commissioned for the brochure has been taken into service as the logo. Some purple noise, turned into a repeating pattern, is used for an appealing, interest-adding background. A gradient brown footer offered a signal that the bottom of the page has been reached, and a soft purple gradient separates the content area from the navigation.
The most important part of the design was the typography. More than anything else, the font choices conveys the message we wanted to share. Edwardian Script creates an elegant atmosphere for the headers, and the more readable but no less rich Book Antiqua serves as the main font.
In the end, everyone was happy with the result: LightInTheStorm.com. I’m very glad I got to work with Sheree, and I can’t wait to see her website bring her lots of customers!