When Tamarack first started, a website for the company was a project deemed unnecessary. What do we have to say to the world when our focus is serving our operating companies? While we have goals and guiding principles, does the public need to know what those are? After the team came together, it quickly became apparent that Tamarack needed some sort of a web presence. We wanted a way for people to learn about us and the work we were doing, and to promote ourselves as a premier employer in the community. Most importantly, we needed to represent ourselves in a thoughtful way to our operating companies, and communicate the message of “why” the work we’re doing is important.
We began with a Tamarack team meeting, which allowed us to uncover our objectives for the site. We came up with a concise, straightforward, bulleted list of what we do and who we are. Operating companies have their own page with a short description and a link to their sites to learn more. Fun bios of each of the team members. We picked Squarespace as a CMS and template because it was affordable, easy to use and update, and fit the simple and straightforward request from the team.
The creative direction evolved a bit from conception to completion, but I believe what emerged fits the Tamarack culture nicely. One color, hand drawn logos all have a similar feel, and communicate that we are a “family of companies”. The hand drawn graphics seen elsewhere also give the site a playful feel that communicates to visitors that we’re a team that doesn’t take ourselves too seriously, even though we feel the work we do is pretty important.
You can view the rest of the Tamarack site to learn more and also learn a bit about all of the operating companies and their missions and goals. It is still a living, breathing thing with more updates on the horizon so check back often!
- Erin O'Malley, Creative Director