Website for College of Arms

The College of Arms is the official heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and much of the Commonwealth. Giving this 15th century institution a 21st century presence that stayed true to its heritage meant we had to understand the content that Officers of Arms would be putting on, what services they offered, and who would be using the site. We went through 3 drafts of the site before agreeing on a format that suited both the Officers who would be handling the content and the website visitors. 

We wanted to celebrate the rich history of the College of Arms. As there weren't brand guidelines to use as a foundation, we crafted a design around the colours within the College's coat of arms and found an appropriate serif webfont that was legible and also evoked a sense of the rougher edges associated with calligraphy. In redesigning the site, we also addressed the site navigation; creating primary navigation categories that clearly outlined key areas of interest and services provided by the College.

Features

  • Homepage slideshow
  • Newsletter template
  • e-newsletter sign up

Our Solutions

  • Responsive website design
  • Digital development
  • Content management system
  • Digital marketing (e-newsletter template)

Newsletter template

The newsletter page template involved identifying standard content areas used in newsletters, and providing a function to automatically create anchor links and headings for the content areas being used in that edition. This enables Officers of Arms to simply fill in the content areas being used in the newsletter and the system rather cleverly creates the anchor links neatly below the newsletter title. Empty content areas are not shown to avoid any confusion and new content areas can be easily created to allow for future content changes. The newsletter is also provided as an HTML email and we set up the newsletter sign up and email template for College of Arms.

College of Arms Newsletter
College of Arms Newsletter page template
College of Arms newsletter subscribe
The newsletter subscription appears as a popup on the website