Driwood Moulding Website Launched

After a lot of planning, hard work and development, we are delighted to launch the Driwood Moulding website.

Driwood is a legacy company who has been making the most exquisite architecturally correct mouldings, millwork, cornices, doorways, and paneling, cabinetry and custom architectural designs for over 100 years. When we say they are makers, they truly are.

This project could not have come to life without the dedication of a team of people. They say it takes a village, and in this case, it did. With more than 500 products showcased in the site, finding just the right tools to provide filtered searches based on moulding attributes was challenging.

First and foremost we’d like to say thank you to our client, Driwood whose vision it was to create a website where customers could view mouldings, and get quotations, could create an account and save orders and who wanted to be able to share the full history of the firm.

Our full team was composed of graphic designer / Woo Commerce integrations specialist Jeffrey Schierer, account manager Dale Aren, developer Bill Smithem and genius copywriter Jenny Badman. The Driwood videos about the company and their legacy were shot and edited by Meredith Browne of See It All Media. Voice over narration was done by Richard Lubash of 2K Plus who also supported post production. Anna Stein wrote the more than 500 product descriptions with precision and professionalism.

This custom WordPress theme is was a true work of many hands.

Holly Herrick’s Website Refresh Launched

Posted by Cheryl Smithem

Author launches new, fresh site

Over the last four years we’ve had the privilege of working with Charleston cookbook author, food writer and blogger Holly Herrick.

Holly has been extremely busy over the last years authoring a number of new cookbooks. In the past several months, she’s focused much of her writing on exploring Charleston with insider insights and things to see and do in our town.

Responsive site focuses on content

To support her expanded writings, Holly wanted a more contemporary, responsive site that was as fresh as her inventive recipes. Working in conjunction with Holly, we reviewed what she liked and didn’t like in websites, discussed her hopes for the new site and got busy designing a new look and feel, using her brand identity previously created by Jay Fletcher.

The new site provides a magazine format home page which allows users to jump into the site’s content based on their interests. It also updates Holly’s brand with a new sassy tagline and approach.

We thank Holly for allowing us to support her on her professional journey. We’re looking forward to more tasty adventures as Holly leads us on new explorations of Charleston and the Lowcountry.

If you would like to see your website updated with a new, responsive theme, give us a call. You’ll find our facelifts are far less uncomfortable than those from a plastic surgeon and a whole lot more fun!

Updating A Website: Making a Website Plan

Posted by Cheryl Smithem

They arrived full of hope

A group of open, smiling faces looked at me as I asked the question, “Has your website passed it’s sell by date?” We were gathered for a workshop sponsored by the Coastal Community Foundation in Charleston. Attendees were staff of non-profit organizations who were there to learn to plan or update their website so that it works well for their constituents and is true to the organization’s purpose.

All wanted better websites

Some in the group had crafted sites using free website builders like Wix and Google Sites. Some had outdated, legacy websites, created years ago by former staff or board members —built on platforms which shouted, “I’m from 1994.” Almost all of the sites had essential communications errors such as trying to cram too much onto a home page, or pages which lacked a purpose, or content that had not been updated in years.

Each one of these eager people were anxious to learn how they could take charge of their website so that the organization’s digital front door was welcoming and appealing. Each of them were working with limited budgets.

Planning time saves money

Over the course of our time together, everyone had “ah ha” moments about how they might improve their site. They all realized if they take the time to plan updates to their site, whether they work with website design / development professional or if they chose to go the DIY route, their planning will yield a lower cost, more user focused site that can support their organization’s goals.

As we worked together, I shared a presentation to help them work through some fundamental strategy questions and comprehend potholes, road blocks and missteps in planning, execution and design of a website.

Has your website passed the sell by date? from Charleston PR & Design, LLC

Updating your website or planning a new site is not rocket science. All it requires is your focused time, comprehension of what your site visitors need and how you want to implement the site’s functionality. Your resulting strategy then yields insights that help you choose a template or theme or help a developer design your site. You just need to organize your thoughts and plan how each of your potential website visitors will use the site.

Start with:

Your website users
Figure out what each user needs or seeks that will prompt them to visit your site
Outline the functionality which will help each user get what they need

And then you plan your website content hierarchy so that every site visitor can navigate to what they need. Critical questions during your page content planning are three questions which address users’ needs:

Where am I?
What can I do here?
Why should I care?

If each page addresses these questions, provides information and content designed to fulfill the specific requirements of that page’s audience and is true to your brand, you’ll have a winning site.

Download our tools to create a website plan:

If you find yourself stuck and not sure what to do to get a good website that works, give us a call.