Built the brand and website for a historic San Francisco event venue
Responsibilities:
- Branding
- Facilitation
- Writing
- Editing
- Frontend
- CSS
- JS
- Craft CMS
- IA
- UX
- A/B Testing
- Salesforce API
Outcomes:
A brand book that guided the venue's internal and third-party use for years, and a website that put content into the marketing team's hands and featured an A/B-tested RFP form that increased lead quality.
Case study
A brand for a historic venue#
The Bently Reserve is the Old Federal Reserve Building of San Francisco, now an event venue. I first created a scalable, visual style guide for it. The project was driven by internal needs as well as by third parties and PR agencies that needed accessible style rules and logo assets.
To create an effective style guide, I helped achieve internal consensus on key issues, such as the brand name and voice, which had been in contention in recent years. I facilitated meetings with key leaders and conducted polls to understand the key issues and propose a vision everyone could agree upon.
BRAND DNA#
We empower innovative and sophisticated experiences by setting the stage for perfectly executed meetings, once-in-a-lifetime events, and unforgettable weddings.
The book helped the internal design team and became the foundation for the company’s search marketing campaigns, guiding the brand’s digital presence for years to come.
Content control in the venue’s hands#
I was the developer and writer for the venue’s new website, working closely with key stakeholders. We built it on the Craft CMS, which I tailored with bespoke content models for the client’s needs, putting content management into the marketing team’s hands.
Pivoting to conferences#
A core part of the project was a pivot from weddings toward a business and conference center. We emphasized the building’s history: many of its boardrooms were where the original members of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Directors met. The client also partnered with SFMOMA’s Artist Gallery Program to bring a modern sense of design to the space.
In the CMS, I created entries that fed several places on the site, with customizable capacities, image galleries, room features, and layout configurations.
One simple goal#
The site’s core strategy was to generate quality leads. We iterated on the RFP form, A/B testing various configurations, and arrived at a simplified form that drove quality leads. We integrated it with Salesforce CRM to help the sales team build relationships and convert leads into sales.
