CASE STUDIES
Project: CADA
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Message Design
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Copywriting
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Strategic Storytelling
The Capitol Area Development Authority, or CADA, is the largest affordable housing developer in Sacramento’s downtown core. CADA is known for innovative projects that promote vibrant urban living, but its previous website wasn’t telling the organization's full story. It instead served as a rather dull catalog of CADA's real estate portfolio and a repository for outdated documents.
In collaboration with a savvy design team, I proposed that the site portray CADA not simply as a landlord, but as an organization that creates lively neighborhoods that are great places to live, work and play. I replaced lengthy, jargon-laden language with concise, purposeful copy. Bold text was paired with day-in-the-life imagery depicting inviting locales and smiling faces. The result is a fresh-looking site that celebrates CADA’s important redevelopment work and the people who benefit from it.
Project: Sacramento
Tree Foundation
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Message Design
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Copywriting
The Sacramento Tree Foundation plays a vital role improving lives and landscapes by promoting tree planting throughout the region. The organization was struggling to find clear, concise language that captured the breadth of its activities, which include classroom programs, volunteer events, educational workshops, donor activities and more. Additionally, the foundation needed to simplify its website navigation so that users could more easily access information.
After carefully surveying the scope of the foundation’s programs, I came up with foundational language that encapsulated the whole of the organization’s work: Plant, Volunteer, Learn, Join. These words served as a shorthand call to action for the foundation’s audiences as well as a new navigational framework for the website. Armed with straightforward language for engaging audiences, the Sacramento Tree Foundation was able to step up its outreach activities with renewed clarity and confidence.
Project: Valley Vision
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Message Design
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Copywriting
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Strategic Storytelling
Valley Vision is a respected leader in regional and state public policy matters. The organization is known for convening the best thinkers to tackle complicated, interrelated issues that impact people’s daily lives. The former website, however, didn’t fully capture the complex nature of their mission, nor their highly valued research portfolio. The site was also devoid of the people-centered stories that illustrate the relevance of Valley Vision’s work.
I assisted a talented digital design team in completely reimagining the Valley Vision site, one newly focused on playing up the organization’s impressive level of subject-matter expertise while employing language that is engaging and accessible. The warm imagery and complementary text emphasize that Valley Vision’s mission is to improve lives. And the intuitive user experience ensures that audiences grasp who Valley Vision is and why they matter.