Since opening in April 2007, Yoga Plus has become Toronto’s leading Yoga and Teaching Training facility. What makes Yoga Plus unique and specialized, is their multi-disciplinary styles of yoga participants can choose from that best suit their needs and lifestyle. Yoga Plus offers classes and courses with highly-trained and experienced teachers who lead drop-in and pre-registered classes, workshops, corporate packages, and Teacher Training courses. These classes can be held in one of their newly renovated studios, an office or even in a high school gym. Yoga Plus also offers several Pilates, dance, meditation, yoga philosophy.

Client Objective

Yoga Plus approached Parachute with several goals in mind and after an in-depth discovery session we were able to break everything down and rebrand the company from the foundation up. Starting with a new logo design to create a cleaner more contemporary image, we experimented with colour and form. Once these building blocks were in place, we worked together to create a website using WordPress as a content management system to allow Yoga Plus to update their own gallery images, class schedules and teacher bios.

Our Solution

• Create new logo to convey a more contemporary image
• Create new website combining both studio locations into one easy-to-use information system combining class descriptions, course schedules, teacher bios and more
• Setup new website design on WordPress for use as a content management system to allow Yoga Plus to modify their own photo galleries, content and schedules
• Custom Twitter profile design
• Updated photography of newly renovated facilities
• Add blog and social media features to engage Yoga Plus’ internet savvy audience.

View the full case study.

pVelocity is a highly specialized team of computer engineers, sales and implementation professionals, change management and data mining experts. Beyond implementation, they help their clients embed pVelocity’s Profitability and Cost Simulation Software as a set of working tools that focus Production & Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing, Product Management, and Finance departments, as well as leadership teams, on common profitability targets — locally or globally.

Client Objective

pVelocity’s mission was to take their online presence to the next level. Having an existing site that served it’s purpose for several years, it was time to step things up and make a leap to the next plain. Working in partnership with Amanda O’Donovan [copy writing and project management], Parachute was up to the challenge providing design and art direction as well as web development throughout the project to raise the bar and help pVelocity meet their project goals.

Our Solution

• Analyze and tear-down client’s existing website for a navigational restructuring to enhance user experience and create a more intuitive site structure
• Develop a more contemporary, Web 2.0 style design to bring the website into a modern focus and ensure a relevant interface for years to come
• Development in current XHTML and CSS to ensure cross-platform and browser compatibility
• Content-rich footer for easy navigation from anywhere within the site
• Data collection forms throughout the website to collect user data, registrations and special interest
• Search engine optimization.

View the full case study or visit pVelocity.

Working in partnership with Intrigue Development we are proud to announce the launch of the brand new website and online information centre for the Responsible Gambling Resource Centre. This brand new online tool offers helpful information to the public about responsible gambling, where to find help, and many other useful facts and games.

View the live site.

We’ve just launched a brand new website and social media platform for The Color Company; a London-based paint and colour tools retailer. This project presented new challenges in merging two existing sites which operated under different brands. In the end we were able to come up with a design that created visual excitement while merging the existing websites and integrating a blog and Twitter theme with live feed into the website itself. Accompanying these items are various AJAX-based colour tools to aid and interest visitors of this website.

We have also integrated a custom HTML email campaign tool into this new website design. Visitors, customers and contractors alike can easily register through the website to be included in monthly mailings and keep in touch with the experts at The Color Company.

This project was a joint effort between Parachute and partner Retail Prophet. Retail Prophet is a future-focused retail consulting group specializing in work with independent retailers, their buying groups and associations. Working together we were able to combine talents and deliver a great information and social media platform for The Color Company.

See for yourself!

We’ve just launched a brand new website and online real estate search tool for Toronto Condo and Loft buyers. This new site gives potential buyers instant access to one of Toronto’s top real estate blogs as well as a condo and loft search tool developed by Real Web Leads. Working together with their real estate listing search tool we were able to integrate it seamlessly into the new website for Search Local Condos. Also included within the site are countless neighbourhood search options providing detailed descriptions of neighbourhoods and listings that are available any desired area, making Search Local Condo’s slogan “live where you love” more of a reality.

All built on a content management system giving the team at Search Local Condos complete control over their own content, real estate listings and site management.

View the case study for more detailed information about this project.

Drawing visitors to your website is, or should be the main focus when planning a web project. We believe that there are no real secrets involved in this process – seriously, this information is everywhere – so we strive to maintain transparency with our clients throughout the project. Plus, the better your website functions, the better we look!

At Parachute Design we don’t think our techniques are top secret and aim to discuss these with our clients throughout every stage of an online project. If you’re providing your own content for your new website, you play just as important a role as the web designer and developer.

Content, Content… Content!

Creating good, focused content is arguably the most important part of this process. We usually advise content providers focus on the main keywords (often services) of the business. This ensures that your website appears in relevant searches attracting the most attention from people that are genuinely interested in your product or services.

Another recommendation we have is that you keep your content fresh and interesting to your target audience. If you can’t capture their attention on the home page and entice them to dig deeper, you’ve already lost the game.

Page Titles & Content Headings

A very effective strategy to maximize relevant search hits is to match your page title with a search term that tells Google that your page contains the content the user is searching for. To take this strategy even further, we recommend that the first content heading match the page title as closely as possible which will further reinforce the relevancy of this pages content in the user’s search.

Site Maintenance & Updates

By monitoring your Google Analytics (by the way, we install this amazing free tracking code on every site we design and build) over time you will begin to notice trends and popular keywords or phrases. As these trends become evident, it’s best to update your website with similar or related content.

Google Adwords and HTML or rich email campaigns can also be integrated with your Google Analytics to further analyze and strengthen your marketing.

You can tackle this task yourself with a little bit of know-how, or we can incorporate a monthly maintenance plan into our agreement.

Inbound Links

Consider how the majority of business is done – word of mouth recommendations. By treating your inbound links or links from other websites as a way of someone vouching for your business you can further strengthen your online relevancy. The more inbound links your website has, the more of an authority on the users’ search term you are considered.

Rich Media

We try to avoid holding important content in Flash files, graphics and videos because this information is virtually invisible to Google. We include alternative text labels on these items to ensure that there is some degree of visibility to Google. This also enhances the user experience for the seeing impaired and mobile device users.

By combining these basic techniques in the right combination, we can work together to ensure your website becomes best friends with Google.

Preparing for the upcoming well drilling season, Conrad Well Drilling approached us to redesign and develop their website with the hopes of increasing usability and ranking in major search engines. Through some careful planning and guidance we were able to “beef up” website content and create a more enjoyable and ultimately more memorable user experience.

Visit Conrad Well Drilling Ltd.

Retail Resource Partners is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to retail and retail related sectors. As a startup, Retail Resource Partners approached Parachute with a vision for their online image and and branding. After some careful planning we were able to develop a successful brand and website.

Visit Retail Resource Partners.

Visit Telecommunications Consulting Group for more information.

Not only was this project a complete rethink of the existing site, but a new way of thinking and marketing for the team at Planet In Focus. Moving forward with such a large scale project is always challenging, but with the brave team at PIF we were able to work together to create a new image for the international environmental film and video festival. Along with a brand new website featuring a festival forum and dynamic photo gallery all managed through a content management system and fully optimized for accessibility, Parachute created a custom html email campaign for PIF to help market the festival and year round events.

Planet In Focus was another client able to take advantage of our Environmental Consciousness Discount.

Visit Planet In Focus for more details on the International Environmental Film and Video Festival.