Case Study: Creating an Artful Website for the Tom Lea Institute

About Tom Lea Institute

The Tom Lea Institute in El Paso is a non-profit organization that celebrates and shares the art and writings of renowned artist Tom Lea. They are dedicated to developing new audiences and strengthening existing relationships with art, education, history, and literary constituencies through their events, tours, and website.azine.

October is nationally recognized as Tom Lea month, a time to reexamine and learn from the life’s work of a man who authored illustrated novels that share status with that of Steinbeck and Hemingway, and created iconic murals from Washington, D.C. to El Paso, Texas.

In the words of the founder and president of the Tom Lea Institute, Adair Margo, the goal of the celebration is “not to make Tom famous, but to have people nourished by his work.”

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CHALLENGE

The sheer volume of content (images and text from Tom Lea’s creative life) is enough to bring a run-of-the-mill website to its knees — not to mention the people managing the website!
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SOLUTION

We custom built a user-friendly website with an updated look, navigation, and the capacity to handle high volume content without breaking a sweat.
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RESULTS

• A navigable new website with a clean look
• Positive feedback from sponsors and patrons
• A streamlined e-commerce process
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“Previously our website designer was another provider with a full-time day job. We were an after-hours client. As a non-profit, we lacked the time and staff to monitor the website, but we realized it did not have a cohesive look and that it was content-heavy and in desperate need of updating. Now that we’re with 8 Signal — it’s nice being a client rather than being someone’s side job.”

– Lisa Pugh, executive director of the Tom Lea Institute

We sat down with Lisa and her team and took the time to understand their unique needs as a non-profit institute, as well as the necessity to create a design that paid proper artistic respect to Tom Lea’s work.

The existing site was severely overloaded and navigation was cumbersome.

The old website had product pages that were overloaded with content. With poor navigability, many visitors were left wondering if the products were even available for purchase. They needed a user-friendly e-commerce component to allow patrons to purchase art, published works, and gifts.

Some of the elements we used to make the Tom Lea Institute’s website functional and beautiful include:

Responsive website, responsive service

“We chose 8 Signal because of their concern with getting the website just right, their attention to detail, and their monthly service agreement. The service is the single biggest reason we would recommend them,” says Lisa.

Streamlined e-commerce

We cleaned up the product page content and designed visually appealing, super-intuitive purchase links to make their e-commerce process a breeze for patrons.

Do you love your current website? Do your visitors love it?

Are you ready for a website your clients will love to visit? Call us at (915) 585-1919 or fill out the online form to schedule a free 2-hour session with our marketing experts.

We’ll take the time to understand your unique needs and create a functional work of art!