blog Archives - Brown Bear Creative

My House Rabbit Responsive Website Reboot

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

My House Rabbit, an educational website providing tips on pet rabbit care and behavior, got an under-the-hood makeover. While the look of the desktop version of the site looks fairly similar to the previous version, the site was completely redeveloped by Brown Bear Creative.

The new site runs on the WordPress platform. This means all the content is maintained via an easy-to-use online admin panel. Adding new articles and photos is a quick, streamlined process. Because all the content is housed in a database, a new search function at the top of every page allows visitors to access any information in the site in an efficient manner.

In addition, the new site has a responsive design. A responsive design allows the website’s layout to adjust to different screen sizes. In this way, visitors using smart phones or tablets see a version of the site optimized for that specific size. Everything is still accessible to those visitors, but they don’t have to zoom in or do any side scrolling to access the information. The text is already readable when they load the site.

Launch My House Rabbit website >

Robert L. Edmonstone, DDS Responsive Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer / Illustrator

Brown Bear Creative designed and developed a bright, welcoming website for Dr. Robert L. Edmonstone, a children’s dentist in Old Saybrook.

The colorful site reflects the friendly atmosphere of the office. Parents of new and existing patients can easily navigate the site and download forms. The site is responsive, which means the layout adapts to smaller screen sizes such as tablets and smartphones. In this way, the site is easy to read across all devices.

Powered by WordPress, the site can be easily updated by Dr. Edmonstone and his staff. The site includes a blog, which Dr. Edmonstone can use to share oral hygiene tips and news updates.

Launch Robert L. Edmonstone, DDS website >

Attorney Lorraine D. Eckert, P.C. Responsive Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Norwich-based divorce lawyer, Lorraine D. Eckert, was in need of a platform to highlight her services and share her expertise of family law.

Brown Bear Creative designed and developed a WordPress-powered, responsive website for Attorney Eckert. The site’s layout adjusts so that it is easily readable across mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.

Because the site is powered by WordPress, the content is easily editable via a password-protected admin area. Attorney Eckert can update the pages of the site herself, and she can also create blog posts.

Launch Attorney Lorraine D. Eckert, P.C.’s website >

Animal Fact Guide Website Redesign

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer / Illustrator

Awards: American Library Association Great Website for Kids

Animal Fact Guide, an educational website about animals, had expanded its offerings since its launch in 2008. Brown Bear Creative revamped the site by giving it a modern facelift and streamlining user experience.

The new site carries forward the fun feel of the original website, retaining the cute animal illustrations and bright color palette. But the new layout has a more open, less “boxed-in” design. Sleek details like gradients, drop shadows, and rounded corners were coded using the latest technology (HTML5 and CSS3) to enhance the design on modern browsers.

Using an approach called responsive web design, the site gracefully accommodates a wide ranges of screen sizes. This translates to an improved experience on tablets and smart phones.

Several improvements were made to how the site functions on both the front and back end. Brown Bear added a better search feature so visitors can easily locate animal fact articles, blog posts, and printable activity sheets. The site is also completely search-engine optimized, coming up on the first page of Google for keywords like “animal facts.” On the back end, the whole site is powered by WordPress, which simplifies the process of adding articles and blog posts.

The site was recognized by the American Library Association as a Great Web Site for Kids. According to Karen Lemmons, co-chair of the Great Web Sites for Kids committee, “Great Web Sites for Kids are those considered the best web sites for ages birth to 14, outstanding in both content and conception.”

Launch Animal Fact Guide >

Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Awards: 2012 Connecticut Library Association Publicity Award for Electronic Media/Website

The Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library offers a multitude of services including books/e-books, movies, periodicals, museum passes, genealogy/local history materials, passport renewals, community programs, and more.

The staff needed a website that would display all the services in an easily accessible manner. Brown Bear Creative designed a site that streamlines the user’s experience with intuitive navigation menus and a clean, consistent layout. The homepage calls attention to recent news and upcoming events, along with a search form to the library’s entire catalog.

Because the site is backed by the powerful WordPress platform, all the librarians can easily update their own department pages without using any special web-editing software. The Children’s, Teens’, and Adults’ sections also feature their own blogs to share news about department-specific programs and events.

The website was recognized by the Connecticut Library Association (CLA) in their 2012 Publicity Awards contest, winning the website category. See the results here.

Launch Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Website »

Town of Lyme Official Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

The Town of Lyme had shut down its website in the fall of 2008 when a new state law required towns to post meeting minutes and agendas online and on a deadline. The small town simply did not have the the manpower or the know-how to keep their site updated themselves in a timely manner.

After a long hiatus, the town came to Brown Bear Creative for a solution. Brown Bear developed a WordPress-powered website that the selectmen could easily update themselves without any coding knowledge.

Through an easy-to-use admin interface, the selectmen can update text and photos, add pages, upload documents, and post news to the website. Once they hit Publish, the changes to the site are instantaneous. This simplifies and streamlines the process of posting minutes and agendas online.

To capture the Town of Lyme’s unique qualities, such as their deep ties to the land and their rich historical background, Brown Bear designed the site to showcase Lyme’s farms, parks, waterways, and other picturesque town landmarks. A sleek photo slideshow in the masthead of every page allows visitors to manually scroll through the images or sit back and watch them fade in and out automatically. Photos are also peppered throughout the pages of the site and available in bulk in a photogallery.

Launch the Town of Lyme Website »

Lyme Shores Tennis & Conditioning Center Website & Posters

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer / Graphic Designer / Illustrator

Lyme Shores Tennis and Conditioning Center in East Lyme needed a website that showcased their tennis and fitness services to the general public while providing the latest news and upcoming events to their current members.

Brown Bear designed a custom WordPress theme that captures the fun and friendly atmosphere at Lyme Shores. Customizing the WordPress platform to function as a Content Management System (CMS), Brown Bear developed the site so the general manager could easily update the information and photos sitewide. In this way, the content on the website will remain accurate and up-to-date.

To help visitors navigate through the site, Brown Bear organized the club’s offerings into four main categories: tennis, fitness, pool/swimming, and general club information. The right sidebar highlights featured events, latest news, and other tidbits of information for easy access.

Launch Lyme Shores Website »

Brown Bear Creative also designed posters to publicize various events hosted and organized by Lyme Shores.

One Book, Every Young Child Logo and Website

Twelve libraries in southeastern Connecticut came together to organize a program that encourages parents and caregivers to read early and often to their preschool children. “One Book, Every Young Child” features a series of events that focuses around one picture book every year.

Using bold, bright colors, Brown Bear Creative designed the logo and website for the program. The website showcases the book of the year, incorporating the storybook’s illustrations into the design. Powered on the WordPress platform, the site can be easily updated using an intuitive, browser-based admin panel. A site administrator can edit any page of the site, including the homepage, news, and calendar.

Jog New London County Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Jog New London County is an online resource that offers descriptions, photos, and custom-drawn maps of running routes in Southeastern Connecticut. Panorama shots of scenic places to run are showcased in the masthead, invoking a “local” feel.

Aside from running routes, the site also provides upcoming local race information. All the race listings are housed in a database and editable via a Content Management System (CMS). Outdated races automatically disappear from the website. In this way, race listings stay fresh, current, and easily accessible.

Brown Bear also improved the site’s usability by including a search function at the top of every page.

Launch Jog New London County Website »

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Brown Bear was honored by the Connecticut Art Directors Club (CADC) at their 34th Annual Awards Show with a Silver Award for the design, development, and photography for the Jog New London County website. Read the full press release here.

In May 2010, Jog New London was featured on Fox61’s Daytrippers. Learn more and watch the video here.

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To help promote the website, Brown Bear Creative created fun illustrations for a turkey trot t-shirt.

New London County Rugby Football Club Website

Role: Web Designer / Web Developer

Customizing WordPress to function as a CMS (Content Management System), Brown Bear Creative designed and developed a website that NLC Rugby Club officers could easily update without any coding knowledge.

The site showcases a custom theme template that is search engine optimized, as well as a few other unique aspects. The schedule page features a dynamic calendar of events, the photo gallery page automatically pulls data and images from a Picasa gallery, and the news page takes advantage of WordPress’s powerful blogging platform.

Launch New London County Rugby Football Website »