Case Study
Avonroy Morgans – Kathy & Len Padgham, Leduc AB
When Kathy Padgam decided they needed help promoting their Morgan stallion Northern Exposure on the web, they were referred to Christy by Kathy's coach, Marcie Armstrong of Liberty Equestrian.
The 'look' for the Morgan breed presented an exciting challenge. We designed Avonroy's site following the classic Americana/woodcut themes that are prevalent among the breed literature, but gave it a few extra twists to help them stand out. The first thing to be tackled were matching farm and stallion logos. We chose a woodcut font with a striped fill for the typeface, and added a woodcut icon resembling a heart to show some of the warmth, love and hard work that goes into this family-run breeding operation.
Design elements that were researched for the logo were carried over into the website design. Because the stallion's name is Northern Exposure, Kathy was hoping to incorporate some northern lights images into his page. So, for the site's main image, we found an old, authentic woodcut image of a Morgan horse, and complemented it with a hand-drawn board-fence and wood pine silhouette. The pines refer to the area around Edmonton, adding a little touch of home.
The sky behind the silhouette is unique on every page – real sky photos were used to add color and splash. Most photos are of sky at dawn or sunset. On Northern Exposure's page, we added green northern lights to a star-filled sky. And, for the holidays, the header on the main page was changed to a festive, snow-filled scene complete with Christmas lights.
The design was finished with a pin-stripe background, matching the 'stripes' theme that was started in the logo. As a side note to breeders, Avonroy Morgans uses several futurities and incentive programs in their breeding program, and they've included information about these programs for prospective buyers on their website.
