The Jewish Education Program of Westchester (JEP for short) is a Jewish adult education organization. A small local non-profit, it had very limited funds, but it needed a new website. (See the second image for the old website!) I was approached to give this organization a face lift, as well as some technical upgrading, for better SEO and easier updating.

With very limited resources (bad photography taken by non-professionals using point-and-shoots; no logo or branding; no printed materials; little money), I was very scared to take on this project! Budget was very tight, and my name was on the line!

Since we had no logo, I decided to use simple type-treatment for the name, and I pushed that off for later, when I had a basic look nailed down. We started with the message and image we wanted to give over. Since we had no photography, I knew I would either have to work real magic on camera phone photos, or we would need to use stock photo. It was important to the owner that the website feel Jewish right away, and that the goals of the organization were immediately apparent. So we sat down, crystallized the message (which had never been formally done!) and decided to plaster that up on the home page.

Once the message was nailed down, I said, "OK, we don't have any good photos to work with here, and hiring a photographer would break the budget. Let's figure out what we can do with stock." I pointed out that Jews are often referred to as "The People of the Book" and this was an education organization. I thought it might be possible to find a photo of an old book which might be an abstract portrayal of studying as well as Judaism. The owner was open to the idea, and when I showed him the mockups, he was quite pleased! We moved forward with limited revisions and under budget!

In the end, some of the members loved the website so much, he sponsored the development! I say, this was a smashing success!