Van Scoyoc Associates is the largest privately-held govenment affairs and lobbying firm in Washington DC, and has been representing universities, companies, and municipalities before the federal government for twenty years. Depsite their size and influence, their website had not been significantly updated in years when they came to me for a complete overhaul of their web presence.
While retaining elements that had become associated with VSA’s brand (a dark-blue and tan color scheme and DC imagery), I was able to craft them an entirely new and modern online brand. Photographs of federal buildings and monuments are featured prominently in the header, which serves to concretely tie the online brand to the company’s most valuable asset: knowledge of, and proximity to, the halls of power. I worked closely with VSA’s in-house Director of Communications to write copy that would clearly describe the company and its capabilities.
Using the Expression Engine content management system, I set up the website so an internal team can make all day-to-day additions and changes to the website on their own. This level of control saves them both time and money, as they don’t need to contact me every time they land a new client, or are featured in a news story.
A separate, password-protected, area of the website is available as a value-added service to the firm’s clients. Each client receives their own login information, which gives them access to files and articles compiled especially for them. This individual level of service was impossible with their old system, but is now easy to use, both for the clients and for the internal staff who maintain it—many of whom are less than technically savvy.
The new website has been very well recieved, both within and outside of the company. Van Scoyoc Associates was so happy with my work on this site that we are now moving on to the websites for several other associated companies.
I worked on the client-side coding, CMS setup, information architecture, template design, XHTML/CSS.