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Fayette County Chamber of Commerce

Discover Small Businesses of the New River Gorge.

The Mission of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce is to serve as the voice for the business community, providing leadership and vision that encourages a favorable business environment and economic expansion, while adhering to principles of well planned growth that will further enhance the quality of life in Fayette County.

When the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce approached us about needing a new website, we were beside ourselves. Being proud members of the chamber, we saw first hand how much the ladies at the Chamber support local business. Aside from developing their new website with custom integrations, we also designed the chamber’s new logo, as well as the logo for their latest event, New River Sports & Car Fest.

A Fun Brand Refresh

The Fayette County Chamber of Commerce was interested in a brand/logo refresh when we began planning their website. Launching a brand new website was one of those rare and great opportunities for a brand refresh. Within our planning, we developed a few concepts centered around using the shape of Fayette County as a mountain range with the famous New River Gorge Bridge. We also presented Sharon and Mandy at the chamber with a few color palettes to choose from, and they decided on this finished product.

While Waiting…

The chamber needed a new site sooner than later, as their old site not only needed a refreshed look but it also had stale content. Once we connected to the old website through FTP, we evaluated its makeup and located the HTML files containing critically out-of-date info. We took care of the info through basic coding and turned our attention full-force to planning their new site.

Fayette County Domain Setup Gif

A Complex Domain Setup

Before we discuss the website build itself, we thought it was worth mentioning how we took charge of managing the chamber’s domain, www.fayettecounty.com. After transferring the domain from Network Solutions to our server, we put an MX record in place so the chamber could continue using their email services through CityNet. As part of their unique third-party integration with ChamberMaster services, we also developed a subdomain that served as a gateway for specially integrated pages.

Under the Hood

Of course, the new website has to be responsive, automatically adjusting to each visitor’s device screen size, with a consistent color theme developed through our branding and logo design process. The fun stuff lies in the custom ChamberMaster integration where we had the chance to team up with a few talented indivudials at GrowthZone.

Laying out the Plan

We assessed the old site and inventoried its strengths and weaknesses. One of the critical issues was the top-level navigation that was a little too “murky.” Visitors don’t want to “wade” through your menu to find what they’re looking for. Luckily, we love organizing information, almost painfully. We developed a list of the pages for the new site and how they would be organized. It’s all about the user experience and ease-of-use.

A County-Wide Event

In the middle of developing the chamber’s new identity and website, one of the committees charged with organizing the New River Gorge and Sports Festival tasked us with the mission of designing a festival logo. We wanted to design a logo that both evoked “New River Gorge” without blatantly using the bridge. What we ended up with was a logo that represented all of the elements in a clean and suggestive way.