As a small digital marketing agency, it is the best feeling when a company reaches out directly to us for help with their digital marketing. The only better feeling is when it is another agency reaches out to us with a referral. This was the case in 2018 when a well-known Austin agency’s principals were dismantling their agency and were looking for a place to send their clients. It was a simple request to build a website, yet complicated as it was a custom build for an enormous database of information. Now, over four years later, that one project has grown to a retainer-based relationship that has withstood the loss of a Seventh Scout partner and team changes on the client side.
New Meridian is an education development company committed to advancing student learning through assessment equity. Through the years, we have deepened our relationship to include a much larger scope of work as New Meridian expands its reach, a nonprofit leader trusted by educators and administrators nationwide.
Simple Projects Develop Into Long-Term Goals
During the first project assigned to Seventh Scout, our team had to wrangle approximately 14,000 assessment questions and multiple PDF documents into an organized, searchable database. While New Meridian had an existing website, it was very simple and only comprised a few published pages and templates. However, the website was locked down. It was incredibly difficult to add or change anything on the website.
The solution: build a microsite for the new resource center, prioritizing the searchability of the data.
There was a lot of technical back-end web development over UI/UX. Once the microsite was launched and successful, Seventh Scout’s contract was extended to include ongoing website maintenance. This included taking the existing New Meridian website templates and unlocking them to allow for future changes.
Original New Meridian Website
Later in 2020, Seventh Scout’s work with New Meridian expanded again. A complete redesign of the New Meridian website. It was a top priority for our team to develop and design a website that better reflected the core of New Meridian. The website needed to reflect the education industry and the people it serves. As a resource for educational institutions, the website needed to define solutions and provide a more robust resource archive. Finally, the New Meridian team needed to have full access to the website and be able to make revisions and updates to the website.
2020 Website Redesign Goals
- Humanize the Brand: Communicate the core of who New Meridian is and its goals for bettering education
- Create Solutions Branding: Highlight the assessment solution available to states and educational institutions based on the learning subject
- Incorporate strong web development with great visual design
Once their new website launched in October 2020, the fun could really start for both teams. Our scope of work with New Meridian expanded to include all our services. Our focus shifted to doing our best to further communicate the mission of New Meridian.
2020 New Meridian Website
I think redesigning the website was challenging and really rewarding for me. Because it was able to make public and showcase the great importance and work that New Meridian does to make education accessible, equitable, and relatable.
Power of Visual Design
As part of our work with New Meridian, we designed a set of symbols and identity lock-ups for their new suite of solutions. The appearance of the symbols for New Meridian Solutions is based upon the unique characteristics of the company logo.
The visual characteristics were derived from qualities found in the symbol from the company logo, such as line weight variation, horizontal movement, diagonal movement, and smooth curvature.
Curating this solutions branding began with gaining a deep understanding of the solution and how it uniquely supported education. The overall solutions branding needed to visually represent the faces of the students and educators who are impacted by assessment services.
Through collaboration, we greatly expanded the brand identity to include a comprehensive new blueprint for design to be implemented on the website, in printed materials, on social channels, and beyond.
Reach Grows as Partnership Expands
We expanded our partnership with New Meridian from one technical challenge to encompassing our entire scope of services.
While the personnel of the New Meridian marketing team has changed during our engagement, we’ve been fortunate to continue to partner with new team members and have even been able to work with folks who’ve moved on and taken leadership positions at other education technology organizations.
I just have a lot of gratitude for the breadth of tasks that New Meridian has entrusted with us. And I appreciate that the relationship that continues to grow.
Positive Outcomes
Increase of New Users Since 2018
Increase in Organic Traffic Since 2018
Audience Growth 2020-2021
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Scope of Work Expanded to Include All Seventh Scout Services
