Hearts in Bloom
Catherine Szabad is the delightful human being behind Hearts in Bloom, a nonprofit she founded out of compassion for those who have lost their life partner. The kindness and generosity behind the idea moved her—especially the thought of doing something special for someone who has lost their life partner. That simple gesture sparked a mission: To bring beauty, comfort, and care to those experiencing loss right here in Buffalo.
When Catherine came to me for a website and explained what she needed it for, the answer was a Big Fat Yes. If you ask me, the world needs more people like her: Big hearted, generous, and always looking for ways to be kind to others.
Catherine wanted a website that would clearly articulate Hearts in Bloom’s mission, collect volunteer names, accept donations, and have the elasticity to grow with her as she introduced new programs.
Done and done. I absolutely love building websites for good people doing good things!
The web design process
Catherine already had a logo and a color palette that she wanted to use. She had a ton of photos of her and her volunteers creating bouquets, as well as some very touching photos of the widows and widowers who were the teary, grateful recipients.
All that was left was to flesh out the wording! I gave Catherine a wording outline so she could give me the headings, paragraphs, and button labels that she wanted on the site. Of chief importance was the Volunteer page. We needed to make sure it spelled out exactly how volunteers could get involved and the difference they could make.
From there, it was time for design. I had so much fun with this one!
Catherine wanted her site to feel feminine and sweet. I leaned heavily on her brand color palette and used a cream and a charcoal—instead of stark white and black—to make the site feel soft and welcoming. I curated a handful of stock photos, each depicting a lovely bouquet or flower petals, and paired each with a pink color wash to soften the colors.
Because the photos of bouquet recipients were all different in terms of lighting and composition, I played a little design trick to make them more cohesive. Each photo was turned black-and-white, softened, and paired with a light pink color wash. Then, I added a bit of dynamism with gentle animation effects that make some of the photos move when the visitor scrolls down the page. The result is striking without being overwhelming, and spotlights the recipients rather than the differences between original photos.
Throughout the design, I used lots of rounded corners, wavy section dividers, and delicate, colored borders.
Catherine’s new site links to DonorBox so she can easily manage donations, a custom Google Form so she can easily manage volunteer shift signups, a downloadable PDF to make it easy for companies to sponsor her events, and an email widget so she can collect email addresses and send out notices for upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.
Most importantly of all, I built Catherine’s website with the future in mind. Knowing that she had a few new programs in the works, I made sure she could easily create new pages and add content to them on her own. Not only does her custom training video walk her through it, she also has access to a library of premade designs that I created. All she has to do is plop one of the designs on a page and quickly update the wording and photos. Easy like Sunday morning.
Take a look at her new website home page!
