Neon

(2022)

Building a recognisable brand in the non-profit sector with an accessible website on Webflow for Neon

Rebrand

Neon support and train campaigners and activists working across social movements. For this project, I worked with Sarah Joynt-Bowe (brand strategy), Laura Sinisterra (visual identity) and Hailey Avron (project management). We pitched this project to help Neon build a recognisable brand and enjoy an accessible website for both the team and members.

Outcomes

On this project, I really pushed Webflow’s CMS as far as I could and it was incredible to realise all the potential it’s got for organisations such as Neon. I also learnt a lot about the non-profit sector and the way they operate. Working with Neon was just a confirmation that this is the sector I’m most comfortable with.

Visit Neon's website
Neon's homepage

Image description: Neon helps people find a training that works for them. On the homepage, we see several calls to action directing people to find the most relevant training for them. The header reads "Welcome to Neon. We help social movements win".

Content design for complex non-profits

Neon offers many different types of training and support to their members. The way to present those resources on the original site was sometimes unclear. So the first thing we did was reorganize that content into a logical sitemap people could navigate easily. We also listed all the technical features Neon was going to need and how we were going to make it easier for them to manage.

Accessible brand design for non-profits

Organisations like Neon cannot afford to exclude anyone. And it was very clear that they were ready to invest what was necessary to improve accessibility. My design process includes accessibility at all stages of development. So once I started working with their new brand identity, I worked out colour pairings for maximum readability. I also made sure Neon understood each of my design decisions related to accessibility so that it would stick in the future. For example, we know that keyboard navigation, colour contrast ratio or even logical heading markups are crucial. All of these are easily managed with Webflow's built-in accessibility features.

Neon's training page.

Image description: A grid of training sessions including movement builders, transformative organising, broadcast media interviews and communications skills workshop. It's designed in a pale beige colour and yellow accent colour when hovering over a specific training.

Easy automation with Webflow

Thanks to Webflow's powerful CMS, most of Neon's content is generated automatically on all pages necessary. They don't need me as a designer to come back in regularly to update their website – everything is managed from the CMS. That makes their life easier and protects the design they invested in. A simple example is that an event's information is entered once in one place and it gets automatically populated on all the right places across the site. It's a simple thing that helps to maintain consistency and keeps the process simple. The team can update everything about their services, training sessions, and jobs in full autonomy with the integrated CMS.

Handover and training the client

Being a non-profit involves limited budget and resources. To help Neon stay autonomous, I gave them a personalised tutorial document. We also organised a training session with key members of the team so that they’d know how to maintain their site easily. No matter how fancy your website is after delivery, you need to know how to maintain that level of quality – or you risk ending up with a monster of a website a few months down the line.

Neon's OrgBuilders page with a description of the training. There's a picture of people standing together in circle, dressed casually.

Image description: The page describes the purpose of training. There's a picture of people standing together in circle, dressed casually.

Sunitha Dwarakanath, Project and office assistant at Neon

Tamara has been really easy to work with, producing an incredible professional and accessible website. It has transformed our ability to engage with people in our network, improved our internal processes through automation, saving us time and resources. I would definitely recommend her for future work and look forward to our continued relationship.

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