H20: Ideas & Action for Canada's Water (blog)

H2O – Ideas and Action for Canada's Water is a blog that has developed as part of the Foundations in the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative (LWWI) which is a project of Community Foundations of Canada.

Foil Media worked with CFC staff to plan the blog, assisting with page identification, content development and initial set-up.

This WordPress blog went live in spring 2010.

CFC 2011 Conference (website and Contribute training)

Community Foundations of Canada runs a national conference every two years that is increasingly global in focus. Its next conference, to be held in Vancouver in May 2011, presented an opportunity for the organization to create a new site that could be easily updated by multiple staff members (using Adobe Contribute).

As part of the planning exercise for this site, Foil Media also helped to identify a permanent URL and hierarchy for the site (previously each conference site had a unique URL), which would allow for a permanent entry page and which would house the 2011 and future conferences in one simple structure. Going forward, the design branding for the current conference will "badge" the entrance page to the site.

To keep the site fresh, we also included rotating photos of the host city on the homepage, along with Twitter feeds.

Dovercourt Recreation Centre (enewsletter design and training)

Dovercourt Recreation Centre is an extremely popular and innovative community centre located in West Ottawa and used by people across the National Capital Region.

Foil Media worked with the Centre's staff to identify its goals in establishing a first electronic newsletter. We then designed and built the newsletter using industry leader MailChimp, which will allow the Centre to track growth and changes in its 5,000+ member mailing list and to evolve its electronic communications with its various audiences over time.

We also provided orientation and training to Dovercourt's staff in using MailChimp so that they will be able to make the most of it going forward. The first issue of the newsletter went out in January 2010.

Saddlebrooke Estates (identity, dynamic website, search engine optimization)

Saddlebrooke is a well established "designed community" of larger estate lots in Ottawa, Ontario with many existing residences. A handful of spacious and prime building lots are available from Burnford Realty for individuals looking to create a unique home in Ottawa to their own specifications.

Foil Media worked with Burnford Realty to create an identity for Saddlebrooke that reflects its unique features, establish a beautiful and practical web presence, and optimize the site for internet searching.

In Burnford Realty's words: "I did not want the weekend to go by without letting you know how absolutely THRILLED I am with this website. Saddlebrooke Estates is very well represented and I really appreciate the dedicated work. I LOVE it!"

The Piggy Market (dynamic website, content management)

The Piggy Market is a unique artisanal and local food delicatessan, based in Westboro, and with a customer base from across Ottawa. As its owners say, "Food is more than just fuel; It's what brings us together, delights us and creates conversations. The Piggy Market started as a conversation about food. Good food, made the real way, with local ingredients."

Foil Media worked closely with owner Dave Neil of The Piggy Market to create a web presence for the business that would reflect The Piggy Market's physical shopfront and create a space where customers can find out daily specials. The website's colour palette and "blackboards" emulate the store, while rotating content makes it easy for customers to find out what the kitchen is offering today.

Dynamic elements for repeating, predictable content have been paired with a simple approach to content management so that Dave can update the site daily with seasonal foods and menus. Because this store is truly local in nature, the menu varies hugely from week to week.

OHS Kids (identity, dynamic website)

OHSKids.ca is a new educational website for children from JK to Grade 8 developed for the Ottawa Humane Society.

The Ottawa Humane Society has operated an Educational program for many years, one strand of which includes visits to area schools to help children learn about animal safety, responsible pet ownership and more.

Foil Media worked closely with the OHS to develop this fun, colourful and fresh new site for its younger audiences.

Professional Advisors eResource (identity, content development, dynamic website)

Professional Advisors eResource was first established by Community Foundations in Canada six years ago to assist Canadian professional advisors in guiding their clients on charitable giving. In 2009 this well regarded resource was ready for an overhaul.

Foil Media worked closely with CFC to establish a new professional look and feel for the site, which needed to combine CFC's own new brand identity with elements that would strike the right note with professional advisors across the country. Bold placement of images and a cool colour scheme work together to clearly establish the site's audience and purpose.

Foil Media also assisted in redeveloping content for the site, provided project management for the life cycle of the project and undertook technical engineering. The new site had its public launch in parallel with National Philanthropy Day in mid November 2009 and was covered by InvestmentExecutive.com.

Burnford Realty (identity, website)

Burnford Realty is a family company with deep roots in West Ottawa. Today the company manages an integrated portfolio that includes retail and office space at Greenbank Hunt Club Centre, office space in the Greenbank Professional Building, residential rentals in West Ottawa and an exclusive estate lot community in the Carp Hills in west Ottawa, Saddlebrooke Estates.

Foil Media worked with Burnford Realty to create the web presence for the company and is also responsible for creating and managing websites for Greenbank Hunt Club Centre and the Saddlebrooke Estates.

Alexander Sod Farms (website)

Alexander Sod Farms is a family-owned and operated company that has been has been providing the highest quality turf grass to their customers for over 40 years in the Greater Montreal area.

The Alexander family asked Foil Media to develop a new, expanded web presence for the company, which is fully bilingual and includes a CSS calculator to help customers determine the size of their sod orders.

Ottawa Humane Society (website, content migration)

Each year, the Ottawa Humane Society rescues, cares for and re-homes 11,000 animals in our community. The goal of the OHS is to always to provide immediate care for the animals under their roof and to create a better future for all of Ottawa's animals.

The Ottawa Humane Society's old website had grown to hundreds of pages over the years and was in need of a new site architecture, new design and new underlying platform. Foil Media worked with the OHS to create a vibrant and easy to navigate new site that reflects the dynamic nature of this organization and makes great use of the wonderful animal photos the OHS possesses. We also migrated the content from their old site to the new one, adapting content to the new layout. OHS staff were also able to launch a new blog in conjunction with the website.

Community Foundations of Canada (project management)

Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) was established in 1992 and is the national membership organization for Canada's 165 community foundations, local foundations who build endowments, make grants across a wide spectrum of activity areas and offer community leadership.

In 2008 CFC turned to Foil Media to oversee the introduction of a new brand for its organization and the community foundation movement in Canada through the launch of a new public website. Foil Media provided project and content management services and worked in partnership with CFC's web developer, Industrial Media, who built the new website. The new public site was successfully launched at CFC's National Conference in November 2008.

In CFC's words: "Foil Media's insight into our organization and its strategic and technical expertise helped us rebuild our most important communications tool from the ground up – and meet a significant milestone in the launch of the movement's new brand. Not only did you help us achieve our vision, but you skillfully worked with us to adjust and redefine that vision as it evolved over time, and you taught our team a great deal in the process."

In 2009 Foil Media is again working with CFC, this time to manage the development of a new resource-rich members' area for its 165 member foundations, as well as two project sites.

PhysioFirst Orthopaedic and Sports Centre (website)

PhysioFirst Orthopaedic and Sports Centre is a physiotherapist-owned manual therapy and sports injury clinic located in the Beacon Hill North community of Ottawa since 1996. The PhysioFirst team includes five physiotherapists and two massage therapists.

Foil Media worked with PhysioFirst's owners to establish a first web presence for the clinic in early 2009.

Greenbank Hunt Club Centre (dynamic website, newsletter subscription)

Greenbank Hunt Club Centre is a community-based shopping Centre in Ottawa's west end which houses a range of retail, specialist and office-based businesses. The Centre is located at the corner of Greenbank and Hunt Club.

The Centre's owners asked Foil Media to come up with a warm, inviting design that would distinguish it from other shopping centre sites. The site's features and content focus on creating a user-friendly experience for the visitor, making it easy to find individual profiles of stores and businesses and to get information about the Centre.

Rotating business profiles, content and images on the site's homepage help to keep the site fresh for repeat visitors and to remind them of the many ways in which Greenbank Hunt Club Centre provides convenience to its customers. A newsletter sign-up feature is helping the Centre to begin connecting with its core audiences. The site launched in October 2008.

Labyrinthed (website)

Labyrinthed is a Canadian website dedicated to exploring the power of the Labyrinth. Labyrinth researcher and designer Dr Vanessa Compton created the site to share information about labyrinth research and links and to promote the design services, workshops and products available from Labyrinthed.

On this project Foil Media collaborated with Red Caddy, an Ottawa branding and design firm. Red Caddy provided the look and feel and we undertook all technical engineering and worked with the client on preparing site content. The site launched October 2008.

Sylvia Huckerby (website)

Sylvia Huckerby is a Canadian artist working primarily in acrylic and palate knife. Our first client when we started Foil Media in 2004, Sylvia recently asked us to refresh her website to reflect her focus on prairie landscapes. We've introduced a CSS photo gallery to make her vibrant work easily accessible from her homepage, and we're setting up her shopfront on Etsy.com where she will sell smaller canvasses.

"I am thrilled with my website designed by Foil Media. What makes it successful for me is how they were able design for the technical aspects and also capture the energy and flavour of my work. The website has been instrumental in commission sales. I highly recommend Foil Media to any artist or small business." Sylvia Huckerby, artist

Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support - WINGS (website, e-newsletter and content management)

WINGS is a global network of more than 145 membership associations and support organizations serving grantmakers; it serves as a meeting place for those engaged in building the institutional infrastructure to support philanthropy everywhere in the world. The WINGS Secretariat is currently hosted by the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium in Manila.

We are currently providing WINGS with website and content management services as well as helping WINGS to streamline its communications work with its key audiences.

Phototech Investigations (website)

Phototech Investigations is a British Columbia-based private investigation company.

In 2007 the company's owners decided the time had come to develop a first website in order to establish an initial presence on the internet. Foil Media came up with a look and feel that complements the company's existing print-based identity and establishes a strong foundation that can be developed over time.

The website went live in November 2007.

Acacia Lyra (website)

Acacia Lyra is an Ottawa-based harp duo made up of Susan Sweeney Hermon and Janine Dudding.

Susan and Janine came to Foil Media wanting to create a website that would reflect the nature of the music they perform and include celtic and storybook elements. We worked very closely with the duo to handcraft graphics for the site to achieve this effect.

The website was launched in conjunction with the duo's first CD and the release concert for that CD at the National Art Centre's Fourth Stage. The site went live in September 2007.

Ashby Massage Therapy (website)

Ashby & Associates Massage Therapy is located near Ottawa's Byward Market and offers a range of treaments as well as relaxation massage. Personal assessment, strategic treament and tailored follow-up make Ashby Massage Therapy a strong choice for anyone requiring massage treatment.

Ashby & Associates Massage Therapy's owner selected Foil Media to design and develop the clinic's web presence; in addition to our core web development services we also offered guidance on content development. The new site launched in April 2007.

KidsOttawa.com (website, online event calendar, online resource directory, content management system, e-newsletter)

From 2007 to 2009 KidsOttawa.com was a vital local resource offering parents and families in the National Capital Region the most comprehensive calendar of events and day camps. The calendar was interactive and added to by organizations across the city.

The site grew to include a regularly updated resource directory with nearly 3,000 listings of products, services, activities and programs for babies, kids, parents and families. The KidsOttawa parent bi-weekly newsletter was an important companion piece to these web resources.

HealthBridge (website)

HealthBridge is a Canadian nonprofit which works with partners world-wide to improve health and health equity through research, policy and action. Formerly called PATH Canada, HealthBridge changed its name and image this year to better reflect the work it does in developing countries around the world.

Foil Media undertook the redesign and development of an extensive new website which helps to share HealthBridge's important work with its key audiences. As part of this process we also helped HealthBridge staff to create textual content for the web and worked closely with them to ensure that photographic images bring every page to life.

News feeds related to their field and a search function to assist visitors in finding relevant material on their large site (approx 100 pages) round out this development. The site launched in August 2006, just as HealthBridge was preparing to take part in 16th International AIDS Conference.

Motion Matters Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic (website)

Motion Matters is a busy downtown Ottawa physiotherapy clinic with seven full time physiotherapists and an extensive offering of treatments, services and exercise classes.

In 2005 the clinic had a small brochure site with minimal graphics and images. The owners came to Foil Media for a full site redesign. They wanted a much larger site that would be both information and image-rich. The new bilingual site launched in spring 2006 and encompassed nearly 80 pages and offered in-depth information on physiotherapists, space, equipment and services.

In late 2006 Motion Matters expanded its facility with an exercise and rehabilitation centre, broadening its team and the range of services it could offer. Foil Media revamped the website architecture to accommodate the new dual focus on the physiotherapy clinic and the exercise centre, and added many new pages to this extensive site.

In 2010 Foil Media is undertaking a significant redesign of the site for Motion Matters.

Michael Forrest, Financial Security Advisor (website)

As a financial security advisor covering eastern Ontario Michael Forrest offers his clients a range of financial products and solutions.

This client required a site design that would establish a look and feel for him, while also incorporating key elements from the companies whose products he represents. The client also wanted to add value for his clients and other visitors through frequently updated financial news feeds. Headlines from Reuters, the Globe and Mail and the FT give his site currency and freshness.

Community Foundation of Ottawa (intranet development and support)

The Community Foundation of Ottawa (CFO) is a public, non-profit organization created by and for the people of Ottawa.

In late 2005 this organization asked Foil Media to implement Microsoft SharePoint Services in order to provide an intranet for the organization's staff team and Board. Foil Media customized SharePoint to meet the organization's requirements, migrated its central data and file storage, trained staff and oriented the Board to the new intranet.

Youth in Philanthropy Canada (development oversight and content management)

Launched in spring 2005, the Youth in Philanthropy Canada website is directed to the growing movement of young people getting involved in philanthropy.

Foil Media oversaw the ongoing development process for this site and managed content for the website and an e-newsletter from 2005 until late 2007 when the project's host organization, Community Foundations of Canada, was able to manage these tasks in-house.

Voice Emergent (website and e-newsletter)

Voice Emergent's founder, Barclay McMillan, has been creating opportunities for people to discover, or recover, their singing voices and explore them in a context of healing and well-being since 1991. He offers a range of courses and informal singing gatherings in Ottawa and has taken his work to other parts of Canada, the US and Europe.

Launched in June 2005, the site was expanded and a companion e-newsletter was launched in November 2005. Barclay continues to receive excellent feedback on both: "...a very informative, easy to read and attractive website." and "Awesome site...visually stimulating and easy to use."