Custom-made School Website

New Islington Free School approached Hive to create a new custom-made school website. After the success of previous projects including a complete brand refresh as well as custom-made wall graphics. The focus of the website redesign was to strengthen their new brand identity by bringing the design in line. It was also an opportunity to completely overhaul the user experience and to create a more informative and accessible site.

The all new logo is the foundation of the website design. Therefore, we aimed to make use of the vibrant colours of the logo combined with the dynamic leaf shapes. The resulting design is a modern, clean and fresh look which reflects the branding excellently. Furthermore the use of wildlife including colourful leaves, tall grass and wildflowers adds a sense of growth to the design. These reflect the fantastic school grounds which include a nature area, which is so unusual for a city centre school.

Incorporating School Values

An impactful feature of the website homepage design is the incorporation of the school values. The four school values for New Islington Free School sit proudly at the top of the page. These are; Cooperation, Respect, Resilience and Kindness. Emphasising the school values like this, enabled the school to immediately show who they are and what they stand for.

Using Animation

Another aspect of the brief was to incorporate the use of animated elements. Using animation is a fantastic way to take a custom-made school website design to the next level. To create a truly unique user experience. Using animation allowed us to highlight certain elements on the site by drawing the focus of the eye to them. When visiting the website, the school logo itself is revealed leaf by leaf using animation. The eye is also drawn to the animation of the all important school values. In addition, the grass and wildflowers on the homepage feature a staggered growth animation. The combination of the animated elements across the site breathe life into the design and add to the custom-made feeling.

Furthermore the website is now fully optimised for search engines and is fully responsive. The website content can now be updated by the school. Utilising Hive’s custom content management system, which is simple and easy to use.

If you would like to find out more about our website design, website refresh and build services please contact us.