Oregon Montessori Association
Live site: http://www.oregonmontessori.org/
Purpose
OMA was suffering under a financially burdensome site maintenance contract with their previous web agency, and didn't like the way their site looked or behaved. They needed a complete refresh. To coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Montessori movement, they also wanted new branding.
Look and feel
The logo was designed around the trillium, a local wildflower that is one of the early spring bloomers. It carries with it symbolism of renewal and leaving winter behind. Additionally, its tri-partite symmetry reflects the many triples within Montessori, such as:
- Parents, teachers and students
- Infancy, childhood and adolescence
- Theory, practice and observation
I rendered the logo with a sense of spin to it, to reflect the dynamic and growing nature of the Montessori movement. Its colors are those of the northwest — the rich, saturated blues, browns and greens of a wet climate.
Site features
The site is mostly database-driven, with a simple content management system (CMS) to allow OMA's board members to make changes to the site themselves. The calendar of upcoming events, Montessori-geared classified ads and news announcements are all maintained by the board without my intervention. The same is true for almost all of the other site pages.
There is a members-only area, which was one of the prime drivers behind the new site; OMA wanted to offer content to its members online, to help them connect with each other more easily, and to move much of their communication off of expensive paper and into the ether, where bits are free. Members have access to the online membership directory and the quarterly newsletter through the site. They can also update their contact information and renew their memberships online as well.
For the organization leadership, the site offers an easy-to-use bulk e-mailer, to facilitate contact with the members, and infrastructure for handling the membership database and information updates. The site now operates for the cost of hosting, which is cheap, and nothing else. OMA went from a site they didn't like, without the features they wanted, to being able to manage most aspects of their organization for less money.
Testimonial
It has been a joy to work with Brent Miller during our website redesign process. He has an incredible gift in being able to elucidate the driving motivations and goals of an organization's mission and values and represent them graphically on a website. He also is able to communicate the technical details in a way that is concise and non-threatening to the non-computer savvy customer. Throughout the entire process, he was able to balance the big picture with attention to the fine details in an organized and timely manner. I would highly recommend Brent to any organization or individual seeking a website design process that will allow them to reach their highest potential.
— Lena Wood, 2008-09 co-chair
