We’ve done a fair number of site overhauls recently where the goal was to make significant functional changes without affecting the look and feel of the site more than we had to.  Sometimes, the brand is working but the site owner is ready to step it up a notch in terms of technology.  That’s the case with Pelicano Restaurant:

Jeff and Shelly wanted to be able to easily edit the site themselves, and poise themselves for additional marketing flexibility, but were still really happy with the site they co-designed with Keleigh and Sabrina as the restaurant opened.  They think it looks a lot different now, testimony to their attention to detail.  The best compliment we’ve received is no comment at all; even the Pelicano customers who are quick to remind us that a menu posting is a day late have been silent.  Is it possible they don’t see the difference?  We hope so!

We helped Lewis and Clark Historical Association, the group behind the bookstore at Fort Clatsop, put their inventory online a number of years ago, but weren’t ready to dive into online transactions.  When you’re a private entity working within a National Park, things aren’t quite as simple as they are in the non-governmental arena.  Going through a new design process at the same time made time line prohibitive AND they were happy with the basic design, so we kept it!

Goodwinds recently purchased Avia Sport, leaving them with half a dozen domains, two shopping carts, a blog and a small handful of essentially non-functioning sites.  Most of these online resources were diluting the market more than feeding one another.  Principals Roger Holeman and Amelia Cook had a long talk with Keleigh about the direction of the company and the three made a plan for how to best leverage online resources for the long haul.

What you see above is the Goodwinds Blog, which got a new header and sales tools in its sidebar that lead back to the Goodwinds e-commerce site, which gets its new, similar header very soon.  The Avia sites will soon re-launch with a similar look that is designed to transition customers with Avia brand recognition to Goodwinds.  It’s a bit of a complex tumble of dominoes–and a lot of fun to watch it roll out as expected.