First Southern launched their first website in October of 1999 with online banking (they called it “Net Banking” at the time) available for the first time less than a year later. The site saw redesigns in 2003, 2010, 2012, and 2016, but one thing that remained consistent was a focus on internal values and team members.

Heading into 2018, their leadership knew that change was coming. Focus on in-person interactions would continue to recede as the banking world was invaded by Fintechs with easy access and less need for lobby hours. For a business that has built its success on leveraging relationships, sustainability would mean shifting the methodology from assuming team members could do all the selling in person to clearly defining why potential customers should bank with First Southern online.

This shift in focus led to an opportunity to refine their branding and build a new online presence on fsnb.net.

View the project at https://rldesign.co/projects/first-southern-national-bank/

Centre College is fortunate to have a great reputation, both in the state of Kentucky and nationally. They are consistently ranked in the top 50 of Liberal Arts Colleges by U.S. News & World Report. Still, when you are competing with at least 49 other great schools for students nationally, it is important to have an effective website to help drive recruitment.

Our task was to build a website that effectively communicated the Centre Experience to prospective students, while also serving the numerous other utility needs of the college. Beyond being a recruitment tool, the website also needed to serve as a news source by delivering stories weekly to a wide variety of constituents. It also needed to function as an effective resource for those inside and outside the college looking for contact information for dozens of offices, faculty, and staff.

Our solution was to build a framework that served recruitment first, delivered news feeds distributed all over the site, and provided effective secondary navigation systems and a campus directory to serve utility functions.

View the project at https://rldesign.co/projects/centre-college-website/

The Bluebird has been a cherished fixture on Main Street in Stanford since Chef Bill Hawkins partnered with Jess and Angela Correll to establish it in 2012.

From its inception, Bluebird aimed to stand apart from other dining options in town. Chef-created dishes crafted from natural, locally sourced ingredients set a high standard, complemented by a service ethos and ambiance befitting a high-end establishment. Despite delivering on most aspects of this vision, the restaurant’s online presence on its website and social media platforms did not align with its original aspirations.

We were privileged to address this discrepancy through a revamped website, designed to elevate the restaurant’s public image and enhance usability for patrons conducting online research.

View the project at https://rldesign.co/projects/bluebird-website/

Kentucky is known worldwide for horses, basketball, and bourbon. The latter of which represents a $9 Billion industry that accounts for more than 23,000 jobs in and around the state. To say that working with representatives to re-design the Kentucky Bourbon Trail website was a tall order would be an understatement. Still, the official website circa 2017 was in desperate need of a refresh.

View the project at https://rldesign.co/projects/kentucky-bourbon-trail/