Web Design

In the last few years, since I began farming, people often ask what I do during the quieter months of winter.  In addition to reading, shelling dry beans, and browsing seed catalogs, for the last two years I've also designed and created websites for the two farms where I've worked.  I've really enjoyed this work, as it's an interesting challenge to develop a coherent voice for an organization.   I've also enjoyed taking photographs over the last couple of years and being able to put them to use in these websites has been gratifying.

I use Squarespace, a platform that has highly customizable templates that allow for a great deal of creative play. (It's also the platform for this website.)  I'm not an experienced coder, but I've learned to dive in and tweak and twist HTML and CSS.  It's like solving a puzzle, and it's fun . . . most of the time.  Not only is Squarespace easy for designers, but its content editor tools are easy to learn; I have been able to smoothly "hand off" the websites to the organizations' owners, letting them take over after the websites have been launched.

Interested in updating or redesigning your website?  Contact me using this email form, and I'll get in touch with you right away.  Here are some examples of my work:

Website Redesign for The Community of the Holy Spirit

The Community of the Holy Spirit is an Episcopal order of nuns, with convents in New York City and Brewster, NY.  The challenge of this project was to create a site that brought together the myriad aspects of the Community's work: monastic traditions, the New Cosmology, organic farming, hospitality, spiritual retreats, life in New York City, and life in the countryside.  My intent was to unify these many interests by creating a kind of photographic ambiance, using images that all had a contemplative, quiet feel.  I tried to reinforce that unity by utilizing a constant banner image that appeared on each page.   The website has been modified somewhat since the redesign, but you can still view it at www.chssisters.org.

Screenshots (click to enlarge):

Home page

Bluestone Farm page

Worship and Prayer page

 Volunteer page

Website Redesign for Open View Farm

Open View Farm is a small family farm in Massachusetts, focused on raising sheep, assisting beginning farmers, and creating a welcoming place for children of GLBTQ families.  The goal for this project was to create a simple, easy website that had a fresh, "farmy" feel.  The redesign focused on reducing the number of existing webpages, simplifying the site structure, and creating clear navigation.  The original site had a plethora of beautiful photographs, but the navigation tools made the process of flipping from photo to photo time consuming and clunky.  Squarespace's photo galleries made photo viewing much easier and enjoyable.  The website was just newly launched in late April, and can be viewed at: www.openviewfarm.org.

Screenshots (click to enlarge):

Home pageGardens pagePhoto Gallery page"Lightbox" style photo