Bridport Area Development Trust

Website Design brief

Bridport Literary and Scientific Institute

  1. Introduction

This brief sets out the requirements for a designer to develop and produce a website for the Bridport Literary and Scientific Institute (LSI). The project is being led and managed by the Bridport Area Development Trust (BADT) and has received capital funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage as well as other funders.

  1. Context

The Bridport Area Development Trust (BADT) is a charitable organisation, set up in 2009 with the aim of promoting and realising the transfer of ownership of community assets (land and buildings) for the benefit of the Bridport community.

BADT took ownership of the LSI in March 2015 and has begun work on the restoration of the building with a view to reopening it as a multipurpose public building in Spring 2017.

  1. The Building

Bridport Literary and Scientific Institute is a Grade II* listed building located in the centre of the market town of Bridport. It dates from 1833-4, and the building has an important role in the social and cultural history of the town, having housed at different times a Mechanics’ Institute, a Literary and Scientific Institute and the Bridport School of Art (until World War Two). In more recent history, following a period of time when the building was requisitioned for war service, the Institute closed in 1950 and was re-opened as a Dorset County Council public library. The library relocated in 1997.

The building has been unoccupied since 2002 when its condition/structure was found to be unsound. It has been on English Heritage’s At Risk register since 2003.

  1. The Project

The project will save and restore the building, retaining it as a community asset in line with its original aims. It will help to revitalise the eastern end of the Town Centre and work with other organisations in the vicinity to develop that part of town as an attractive and vibrant cultural area.

There will be open public access to the most important areas of the building. In order to enable the building to operate without public subsidy, areas of the building will be available to small local businesses/enterprises and for education and training. A café will operate on the ground floor in conjunction with the interpretation centre, offering people a chance to find out more about the history of the building and its links with the local rope and net industry. There will be a public programme of talks and events reflecting the building’s artistic, literary and scientific roots and space will be available for community use. The renovation of the building will create a modern work environment for skills and business development, alongside public, community and civic meeting space.

  1. Website

Marketing is essential for the dissemination of information while the project is underway and for the ongoing promotion of the LSIand the services/provision that it will include. The website will be at the heart of the marketing plan for the building and must present a sleek and professional operation with a unique and distinctive character. As the capital project nears completion various printed material will be produced ranging from information panels and signs to leaflets and guides. This print work will be produced in the ‘house style’ which willbe developed through the website.

The Website will have its own identity and domain name but be linked back to the existing Bridport Area Development Trust website ( and other local websites promoting Bridport.

Design

The first element of the brief will be to produce a new logo and style guidelines for the project which will be used in the website design. The agreed ‘house style’ will adopted by the project continued through print, signage and marketing material for the building. Depending on success of this contract there may be further work for the designer to deliver these elements.

The website design needs to be clear and easy to navigate. It needs to reflect the heritage and character of the LSI but also be contemporary and clean.

The website needs to be designed to enable easy in-house updating with news and information. A straightforward and easily obtainable website management software such as WordPress should be employed. As far as possible ongoing website updates need to be managed by in-house staff without the needs for external specialist input.

Content

The website content will be developed over the course of the capital project. For the first 12 months the website will be primarily a news portal giving updates and information on the capital project. As the project nears completion page content will be amended and additional pages added. The website will include a number of images at all stages.

Corecontent will be:

  1. Home Page – general overview
  2. Business support services – to include information on office space letting, training room hire, meeting space, work hub and other support services. This may need to be spread over sub-pages for clarity and ease of navigation.
  3. Programme – to include training courses, talks and other events
  4. Online booking system for use of meeting rooms/work hub – linked to 3.
  5. History of the Building/project – this page will be constant during and after completion of the project.
  6. News/updates – this should be easy to update. Ideally newsletter updates created in a template will be accessible from this page – a live news/blog feed to the front page would be desirable to maintain interest.
  7. Support the LSI – this will cover ways of giving financial/other support and be developed as plans for friends’ groups etc. are agreed.
  8. Contact/visitor information – address/contact details, map/directions, opening times, accessibility etc. this will include links to café website
  9. Links – to funders, local organisations etc.

Some of these pages will be live from the outset, others populated with content as the project nears completion. The website needs to have options to download supporting documents on the project.

During the final six months of the project (December 2016 –May 2017) the website content will be developed to include all areas outlined above.

Copy will be supplied in MSWord format and images in an agreed digital format. The site will include links to other related sites and also be linked from other sites. In addition, the site needs to be registered with all of the key search engines to ensure favourable rankings on searches.

6. Process

We are seeking quotations from a number of design companies. Based on the information received we will then select the designerwe feel best fits the brief.

Following appointment, the designer will be requiredto develop the LSI logo, website structure to incorporate all elements outlined above and create designs for the website from the brief supplied. Present designs for discussion, feedback and approval. On approval of design and from all copy and images supplied, to produce and publish initial website by the end of May 2016. Additional pages and amendment of page content will be required before final complete website is live in March/April 2017.

The appointment will be made by Bridport Literary and Scientific Institute Management Committee and the contract will be with Bridport Area Development Trust.

7. Quotation

Please include design, publishing and hosting costs in your quotation. Please also include some examples of other relevant work that your company has previously produced and an outline proposal and schedule of work with resource allocation to meet the brief.

Please send quotes and accompanying information to support your application, including details of previous relevant experience by Friday 19 February 2016 to:

Crystal Johnson, Activities Coordinator

Bridport Area Development Trust, c/o Mountfield, Rax Lane, Bridport DT6 3JP

Or email:

If you would like to discuss the projects in more detail please feel free to contact Crystal Johnson, Activities Coordinator on 07968 577867 or email