ABOUT THE PROJECT
Muddy Pond is an Amish-Mennonite community that thrives in the heart of Tennessee's rolling hills. You won't find it on a map. In fact, the only way you'll hear about it is if your mammy or your pappy or your aunty or your guys/gals know about it. It's hopping with local tourists from April to November, but up until this point, their outside business has all come to the community via word of mouth. They're the talk of the local area with their homemade fried pies, freshly cooked sorghum, and shops with Amish goods and handcrafted leather items.
My cousin, Regina Bauman, lives in Muddy Pond, Tennessee with her husband. Together they started a leather lifestyle company in 2014 called Urban Southern. In the fall of 2016, I joined the brand as a co-founder to rebrand the company with leather bags for women and build it to reach a greater audience online.
Through seeing what impact could be made through having an online presence, Regina asked me to create a brand and website for the community of Muddy Pond. I absolutely loved this idea and I had a blast working on this project with her.
WEBSITE DESIGN
Using the images from the community that Regina took, I designed and built a simple website with information about the community and a complete directory of all the businesses in Muddy Pond. We wanted this website to communicate the simplicity of this community that is grounded in the rich heritage of the generations of families that have settled this area. Together they have made it what it is today.
To bring in more of a handmade feel, Regina drew a map of the community. I vectorized the drawing and added text to it for the website. This map is downloadable and printable from the website, as well. This comes in quite handy when visiting the community because there's no cell service back in those hills.
Print Materials
Many of Muddy Pond's businesses have no online presence, even on social media. People who visit one part of the community often don't realize what all is actually there unless someone else has told them about it! I designed a print brochure for the community that it's local stores could stock as a way to inform and point people to more businesses in the community. I also used this brochure as a way to point folks to the website.
