Understanding William Blake House
William Blake House (WBH) is a spiritually oriented community serving the developmental needs of its residents with learning difficulties. To fully understand how the house worked I spent an evening in one of the houses (based on the outskirts of Northampton). Having had a tour of the facility, what really struck me was WBH felt like a haven, a place where everyone was helping each other. I needed to create a site which contained elements of community / charity /spiritualism.

The site has just featured in  CSS Mania but it’s true worth will be shown in the amount of residents and volunteers the site brings onboard.

The purpose of the site
The purpose of the site was to primarily get more volunteers and residents into WBH. We needed to make the homepage very action driven without ruining the spiritual feel to the site. We did this by being more suggestive and asking a question the web user will ask: “How do I become a resident?” This more suggestive method then leads you in to the actual CTA itself “Become a resident”. The other CTA’s are quite playful throughout the site as can be seen on the volunteers page where it appears a girl is blowing a bubble reading “apply now!.

Imagery
We used real imagery of residents and volunteers during their day to day lives in the house which adds real credibility to the site. I chose to use black and white photos in order to create a timeless feel and these also contrast nicely with the more vibrant colour scheme of other elements within the page. The soft turquoise colours are meant to be calming and on the homepage rays of light radiate across the page. The colour pink is associated with love and care which are fundamental principles of WBH…it also contrasts well with the lighter colours surrounding it. Pink is also thought to have a calming effect. In the sports arena, a similar shade of pink has been used in opposing team’s locker rooms to keep the players passive and less energetic.

Footer
I wanted to look at using a footer which resembled a silhouette of the house, but wanted to use this sparingly and only for pages which related directly to the house itself. Another reason for doing this was to try and make each page as unique as possible, often inner pages follow in the same vein but I wanted each page to be designed individually.

New Identity
We also created a new logo which needed to do several things. The logo works on two levels, firstly it symbolises a group of individuals holding hands which is representative of the community spirit. Secondly it symbolises a flower which is representative of growth and new life which are other key watchwords at WBH.

Glory is forever
Want to see the site in all its glory? Then visit William Blake house by clicking here.

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