Covenant Seminary
An award winning in-house design and development of Covenant Seminary's main web property.
Project Overview
Covenant Theological Seminary — a graduate school in St. Louis, MO with a mission to train pastors and ministry leaders — embarked on an in-house redesign, development, and consolidation of 4 previous web properties into one single, award winning website. Unlike many higher educational websites, this site combines a highly creative design and a playful user experience to showcase the school's unique ethos and the immersive student experience.
In my role as Associate Director of Web Development & Media Design, I was able to serve as Front-End Developer, Back-End Developer, Assistant Art Director, Photographer, Videographer, and User Experience Designer for the redevelopment and redesign of Covenant Seminary's website, earning a HOW 2013 InHOWse Design Award and recognition from the St. Louis Egotist. They acclaimed the site as: "one of the best, if not the best, academic/religious institution website we've seen in quite some time…This site contains some incredibly solid and thematically consistent design work. We also can't stress how beautiful and necessary the photography and image selections the've made are - in combination with tasteful type and placed in a functional grid system…. Very nice, cohesive work." (December 18, 2012).
Through this project, we sought to redefine how users interact with higher education online. What previously took us 400+ pages to communicate with mostly text is now condensed into fewer than 25 pages, due to a radical shift in strategy, a re-structured navigation, and the use of highly engaging photography, videos, and infographics to communicate complex messages in a simplified way. We gave a more human, progressive expression and interpretation to a field that is typically stale and stodgy.
HOW 2013 InHOWse Design Award Winner
January 2014, Volume XXIX, No. 1
HOW’s editorial and design team evaluated more than 800 entries and selected winning projects that demonstrated an ideal mix of concept, strategy and execution. Design teams from across the U.S., representing major corporations and organizations including Kiehl’s, AARP, Kaiser Permanente, Fairfield Inn & Suites, NBA, Jim Beam and Fidelity Financial were among the entries. Submissions were judged by market category (i.e., Technology & Science, Entertainment, Education, Consumer Products, Financial, etc.) and also by how effectively the design achieved the stated business goals.
HOW magazine (HOWdesign.com) is the leading business and creativity magazine for graphic designers, whether they work in solo practices, design firms, advertising agencies or in-house groups. HOW sponsors five design competitions and hosts the largest annual gathering of graphic designers in the U.S., HOW Design Live.
The St. Louis Egotist serves up news on design, advertising and other creative resources to the Missouri advertising community.
December 18, 2012
Here's a submission sent to us recently that completely exceeded our expectations: an in-house redesign of Covenant Seminary's website that is one of the best, if not the best, academic/religious institution website we've seen in quite some time.
This site contains some incredibly solid and thematically consistent design work. We also can't stress how beautiful and necessary the photography and image selections they've made are - in combination with tasteful type and placed in a functional grid system. All these elements come together to make us totally interested in an institution that we would otherwise have absolutely no interest in whatsoever. That is the sign of successful work.
Congratulations in-house team of Covenant Seminary. Seriously, you have no doubt created the finest web presence and promo video of any seminary or educational institution around.
Business Outcomes
Within six months, we saw record applications for admission–more than double the highest record of any previous semester–as well as a 195% increase in annual fund giving and 180% increase in online giving. The time visitors spent on our site increased by 395%, and the average number of pages viewed per visit increased by more than 100%. In all of this, by successfully completing the project in-house, we saved more than $300,000 in third-party agency fees.
Design + Tech Stack
- Html / CSS
- WordPress
- Javascript / jQuery
- Git
- Adobe Photoshop / Illustrator
- MySQL
- UX Wireframing
- Photography
- Videography
Integrations
A custom developed WordPress plugin that parses the meta-information of uploaded MP3 audio files and automatically populate custom fields with the data.