Christchurch, NZ ·

← All work

Takitimu and Kahurangi Toi Ātea

Two websites in Māori performing arts. One has to start a conversation. The other has to take a payment.

At Creative Marketing NZ

takitimu.ac.nz

Two home pages side by side. Left, Te Wānanga Whare Tapere o Takitimu: a red menu over a photo of performers, with the heading Growing leaders in Māori Performing Arts since 1983. Right, Kahurangi Toi Ātea: a lime and cyan logo above a video frame, with the heading Nau Mai, Haere Mai.
The two home pages. The Kahurangi page is cropped to its upper part, which leaves out the line under its heading. Logos, photography and video are the clients’.

The school wanted more people asking about its programmes. Kahurangi wanted to sell courses online.

Te Wānanga Whare Tapere o Takitimu was founded in 1983 by Tama Tūranga Huata. It is at Waipatu in Hastings, on one site with a Kōhanga Reo (pre-school), a Kura Kaupapa (primary) and a Wharekura (secondary).

Kahurangi Toi Ātea is an initiative of Kahurangi NZ.

The older home page: a black page with a row of red pill buttons above an enrolment poster showing seven students holding certificates.The new home page: logo, phone number, a red menu and a full-width photo of performers.
The home page in November 2020, from the Internet Archive, and today. Drag to compare.

A clearer school site

The school needed a redesign that spoke clearly and got people to make contact. I designed and built the new site in the red and black of the school’s logo, with its performers’ photos running the full width of the page.

I also did the SEO, the work that helps a site turn up in search. Here that meant optimising each page and choosing its keywords.

Six menu items in white on red, each in te reo Māori with English in italics beneath: Ko wai mātau, About. Kaupapa, Principles. Whakaakoranga, Study. Takitimu Ora, Wellbeing. Te whakauru, Enrolment. Whakapā mai, Contact.
The site’s menu, redrawn large for this page in the site’s red. Each item is in te reo Māori with English beneath.

“Call us for a quick chat.”

The site header, with a phone icon, the school’s number and the line Call us for a quick chat.
The site header.

The header carries the school’s phone number with that one line under it. The first screen has one button, Explore programmes, and the home page ends in an enrolment form.

A red panel with handwritten words Kōrero mai on the left and, on the right, a form headed Contact us now to get your enrolment pack, with fields for name, email, phone, message and a selection.
The enrolment form on the home page, empty. Its list of programmes also has Unsure, so you can ask before you have chosen.

The second site has to take money.

Kahurangi Toi Ātea has two parts, and each part has its own place in the menu. Whare Ako, which the site calls its house of learning, sells the courses. I set it up on Teachable, a platform for selling courses online. Whare Taonga is the shop, which I built on WooCommerce, the shop system for WordPress.

The site takes its lime green and cyan from the Kahurangi logo.

The Kahurangi Toi Ātea menu: Home, Whare Ako - Workshops, Whare Taonga - Shop and a cart icon.
The site’s menu: the courses, the shop and the cart.
The Poi course banner: a tutor holds up a poi on a stage, with carved panels and woven teal fibre behind her and materials laid out on a table in front.
The Poi course’s banner image on Whare Ako. The image is Kahurangi’s.
  • Composer - Canon Wi Te Tau Huata
  • Composer - Paraire Tomoana
  • Māori Kēmu (Hand Games)
  • Mataora - The Living Face
  • Matariki
  • Mau Rākau - Taiaha
  • Poi
  • Waiata-a-Ringa
  • Whai
The nine courses on Whare Ako, named as the site names them.
Four products on white, each carrying the Kahurangi mark in lime and cyan: a bomber jacket, a cap, a beanie and a tote bag.
Four of the 37 products in the shop, laid out for this page from the shop’s own images.

The two sites

2021
takitimu.ac.nz. Built on WordPress from October 2021.
2022
kahurangitoiatea.com. Built on WordPress from June 2022.

More work