AHR front page design & strategy back on track

We knew developing a strategy for Act for Healthy Rivers would be a challenge. We knew conceptualizing the bits and pieces would be time consuming, if not frustrating. And we knew that at some point, all of us would have different ideas of what it should look like. Basically, we were right on all levels.

But I think that's a fairly typical design process too. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Fortunately, after taking a slight nose dive the other week, we've bounced back - it feels good to have direction, clarity once again. After a month of designs, I think we're in a good place to begin the build out.

We received the latest design Friday afternoon and as with the others it looked great, but more importantly, it struck a nerve. We loved the ghostbuster-like sewage pipe. The header image and the X-sewage pipe appeared to complement each other, also pop at first glance. Very cool.

My only concern with the above design - not enough to hold us back from building it out - is that the blog and map appeared to be two separate pages joined together. So, I proposed a hybrid (rough translation below) to our partners over the weekend.


Hopefully (you be the judge), our above efforts rest on three guiding principles:

1. The site needs to accurately state the issue.
   
   
2. The site needs to be a source of regular information on the issue and the progress of the legislation. (thus the sewage + blog = slog)
   
   
3. The site needs to capture River Groups that are supporting this initiative, i.e. getting in the act.