Cloud Islands

Camp Nor'wester

Project: Website redesign, WordPress blog theme

Camp Nor'wester, a San Juan Islands summer camp, is a northwest icon; several generations of kids have made Camp their summer home. Christa Campbell, co-director of Nor'wester, contacted me about making the existing website more engaging to prospective families as well as make it easier for the staff to update.

The original homepage (see second screenshot, below) had an attractive image on it but no information and no images of campers. In addition, this “splash” page didn't include any text behind the image, so the home page was not optimized for Google searches. I redesigned the homepage to include vibrant images of campers engaged in activities; testimonials from parents, campers, and staff; and a panoramic image of the camp's outstanding location on Johns Island.

I also re-wrote the entire site's HTML to bring it up to current standards; created a set of templates for Dreamweaver to accommodate future changes to the site; and set up Adobe Contribute so that the staff could easily update text, images, and downloadable documents.

Finally, I set up a set up a WordPress site and designed a custom theme so that the staff could keep a summer blog for campers' families to read to stay updated with the goings-on at Camp. The theme uses a simple variation on the main site's colors to visually connect the two sites.

Visit Camp Nor'wester