Atomic Crayon Has a Site at the Museum
At Atomic Crayon, we are suckers for nostalgia. We always relish our trips down memory lane: grainy black and white photos; perfectly polished oak phonographs playing smooth, lush vinyl; that heady initial release of the iPhone 3G. Yes, indeedy, we love the good ol’ days. But now we need be wistful no longer! We get to combine our modern day web skills with a trip down memory lane for our latest website: Burnaby Village Museum.
The village is a combination of heritage and replica buildings on a 10-acre site that represents at typical tram-stop community along the B.C. Electric Railway. Period costumed townsfolk welcome visitors and give demonstrations in the homes, businesses and shops. Popular stops include the blacksmith, the print shop, the garden at the farmhouse and the General Store. The heritage buildings on site include a school house, country retirement home and garage, tram station, dry goods store, bank, farm house, bachelors' house and real estate office. And an exciting must for every visitor is a whirl on the historic 1912 CW Parker Carousel.
Once we were awarded this excellent project, we got on our horse and began constructing the website. We had to create something that was visually reminiscent of days gone by while utilizing technology that looked towards the future. We started with design. For this, we created a look and feel that made use of the Museum’s terrific photo archives, and combined that imagery with soft tones and a relaxed feel that worked in tandem with the Museum’s marketing.
With much of the nostalgia looked after in the design, now it was time to wrap it all in a fresh, tech-savvy package. The site is integrated into ElementCMS, our powerful content management system. This CMS allows the Museum’s employees to update the site themselves, which keeps the site information up-to-date, whether it’s regarding upcoming events, a brand new ice cream-making workshop on offer or interesting recent acquisitions. By keeping the site fresh, the Museum can show customers exactly what fun stuff they have on offer.
With “hot off the press” information in mind, RSS feeds were added throughout the site in order to keep visitors abreast of the latest news at the Museum. Social media was also added, as was a focus on accessibility – including a mobile version, a text-resizer and a high-contrast stylesheet. The Museum makes a point of being for everyone, and we wanted to make sure the website was, too!
And as for our next visit to the Museum itself, if you think we’re not heading straight to that ice cream making workshop? Horsefeathers!
