The Passionists of Holy Cross Province

Website project

Website content strategy
Brand extension for web
Web design & development

About the organization

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province are a Catholic religious community of priests, brothers and laity in the central and western United States. They are known for their welcoming retreat centers, their inspiring preaching, and their justice work in the areas of care for creation, migration and diversity.

Project to-do list

Rethink and redesign the Province’s website to reflect the vibrant reality of the community and its ministry in a useful, friendly way
Strategize a home on the web to serve as a central hub, clarifying and uplifting their organization
Expand on existing branding to design a visual brand for the website that the Passionists and broader community can feel proud of and represented by
Set The Passionists of Holy Cross Province up with a non-proprietary CMS (content management system) that will allow for more versatile and beautiful pages and posts
Ensure that the communications staff will be able to update the site themselves and manage its content easily
Set them up with an easy-to-update events calendar that they can manage themselves
Accommodate Spanish-language content for some of the site’s pages and posts.

Project milestone

Content strategy & site architecture

After clarifying our website needs and goals together, we worked with the Passionists’ project team to create a comprehensive working list of content on the new site. We strategized the perfect site architecture to hold it all. In particular, we grouped things in user-friendly, external-facing ways and used words that the public would understand (rather than internal groupings or nomenclature). Then we defined clear categories and tags for post content, so that posts could appear dynamically throughout the site when relevant.

Blustery Day Design also identified particular needs that could be served with more custom structural solutions, including unique custom post types for Obituaries and Prayers.

All together, this content strategy work set the stage for a clear, welcoming site that showcases the Province’s hospitality, wisdom, and work.

Project milestone

Brand extension

Started from the existing Passionists of Holy Cross Province logo and brand guide, we did a full brand extension to meet their website’s needs and goals. First we expanded the color palette with tints and shades that would allow for a wide range of accessible, web-friendly uses. We also added some warm-toned neutrals to give them some welcoming type and background options beyond stark blacks and whites.

Then we found the perfect web-appropriate typeface for body copy. This mid-century typeface perfectly complemented their existing brand fonts and brought a fresh, super-legible feel to their site’s content.

Color palette showing various tints and shades of Red, Orange, Mustard, Green, Teal, Blue, and Purple, plus creamy neutrals. — The color palette expanded their existing color set with more usable hues that allowed for better color contrast. And creamy off-whites help the palette feel warm and welcoming.

A laptop sits in front a sunny window. A man's hands are visible, and on the screen is the pleasant homepage of passioniost.org, saying "Welcome home."

4 screenshots of various portions of the Passionists website, showing bold colors and clear type — From landing pages to individual articles, every page of the site is intentional, creating a welcoming user experience.

Project milestone

Site design & development

From the ground up, we built a brand new, full-featured website. We developed pages, posts, events and archives in a modern, accessible design. In particular, we followed the content strategy foundations to choose colors and design elements that are compassionate, bold, and authentic. The Passionists wanted to be sure to balance the many facets of their vibrant community as they respond to the needs of today’s world.

From full-width thoughtfully designed foundational pages to beautiful-by-default stories, everything looks great on all device widths. And clear main navigation, sectional menus, and breadcrumbs ensure that the visitor never feels lost.

Dynamic story feeds are scattered throughout the site, uplifting the Passionists’ inspiring written content. Additionally, the website team can easily embed YouTube videos, contact forms, and donation capabilities wherever needed.

The end result is a living, super website that represents the Province contemplatively and creatively — and that effectively shares their messages and invites engagement.

View Site at passionist.org

Spotlight on

A daily spiritual hub

The previous website for The Passionists of Holy Cross Province featured daily reflections, daily prayers, and Sunday homilies. But this content was scattered about and not always easy to find.

We proposed to the project team that the new site could contain a daily hub of sorts, where site visitors could access all of this regularly-posted content at once in one easy-to-find and beautifully-designed place.

The end result, which they web project team named “Heart of the Passion Daily,” can now be a shining feature of their website, billed as “a spiritual hub designed to help you pause, breathe and draw closer to the heart of God through the lens of the Passion.”

And the page is already a hit! Almost immediately after the site was launched, the Passionists saw lots of visitor traffic come in — and then keep coming in, as visitors return to this daily-updated & timely page.

A young man sits looking at his phone, where the daily hub is visible. — Just like the rest of the website, the hub page is mobile friendly, encouraging daily visits from any device.

A young man reclines on a couch in a dark room with a laptop on his lap showing the Passionists' site in dark mode. — Dark Mode is available for every page of the site, whether it’s night time or site visitors just like it that way.

Screenshot of colorful landing page with cream and color-pop backgrounds. — Light Mode (left) and Dark Mode (right) of the same colorful landing page

Screenshot of colorful landing page with dark gray and color-pop backgrounds. — Light Mode (left) and Dark Mode (right) of the same colorful landing page

Spotlight on

Dark Mode

The Passionists’ leadership requested that the website design include a Dark Mode option for folks who prefer this type of website interaction.

Because the color palette for this site included a wide variety of hues, we built out and implemented a comprehensive color system where certain color swatches are set to “flip” and others stay constant. This allows us to have a Light Mode that includes areas of rich color — and a Dark Mode that doesn’t lose its colorful vibes.

We also trained the web team on how to implement this system in day-to-day work, so they can continue to reap the benefits as they add and edit the site’s content.