Mt. Vic Hub

BACKGROUND

I've been a bit of a digital nomad for a few years now. Moving to a new city can be a daunting project, moving to a new country even more so. When Caitlin and I moved to Wellington New Zealand we wanted to get involved with a local project. We fell in love the Mt. Vic Hub, a local non-prof that helped residents of Mt. Victoria (a neighborhood in Wellington) connect to eachother, special interest groups and services. I was asked to be a trustee and Caitlin acted an assistant manager and newsletter coordinator.

I designed new branding, nexletter template and new website that added a major feature, the ability to book local meeting space.

Company
Partnership with Fullscreen.io

Teammates
Will Rossiter (Development)
Trish Given (General Manager)

Timeline
9 weeks

PROCESS

I started this project by meeting with the other trustees and getting their feedback on what they wanted from their brand. I drew over 100 sketches for potential logos, made a short list and then presented my work to the other trustees and stakeholders. After a few feedback cycles we narrowed it down to two logos that I then blended into one logo. Once the logo was at 95% I started looking at typography, colors and textures. I put all this into the Branding Guideline. 

Once the branding guideline was finished and approved by the board variations of the logo, print collateral and templates were created to help MVH stick to the guidelines.

When MVH struggled to find someone to build their new website on their tight budget, I stepped in and offered to help. I teaming up with a talented developer I'd worked with at DNA and he was able to place a winning bid for the project.

Over the cource of a couple weeks I used the branding guidelines to create a number of screens in Sketch to hand-off to Will. I came in to make tweaks to the front-end and get it all cleaned up and ready for launch. 

RESULTS

Ultra-small organizations like the Mt. Vic Hub are usually both time and resource poor. I produced a large number of assetts which were organized on MVH's Dropbox so they would be easily accessed and usable by anyone associated with the org, even volunteers. Source files were kept out of these folders as we didn't want anyone making alterations outside the guidelines. The newsletter was templatized and in-person training was provided to ensure continued success.

The website was built on the WordPress platform. Questions that come up about operating the site are often answered with WordPress-provided pages and tutorials.

"Since Pete's involvement, our presence has grown steadily and the City Council holds that we have achieved a strong community, especially from an online perspective, in very high regard and as an example to be followed. We couldn’t have done this without Pete and his commitment to help make the Mt Vic Hub what it is today."

Trish Given
Mt. Vic Hub Director

LEARNINGS

The learning here was that you can't always assume a client knows how or has the resources to use the tools they are given. Care needs to be taken to ensure to tools are used appropriately.

I, unfortunately, needed to leave New Zealand before the MVH populated their website with their parter organizations' info. I would've liked to help them set up the first couple Spaces and Groups on the site in-person; to show them how to do it properly. I was able to do this with the newsletter but not the online content. I was able to help a bit remotely but smaller orgs appreciate and get more out of in-person interactions.