Fox Cities Chamber Website Redesign

Website Design & Development

Client: Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce
Industry: Chamber of Commerce & Economic Development
Platform: WordPress + Elementor Pro
Hosting: WPEngine
Integrations: Chamber Master / GrowthZone (membership directory)
Design & Sitemap: Adobe XD, Octopus.do
Accessibility: ADA
Role: Lead Designer & Developer, Stellar Blue Technologies
Year: 2022

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Fox Cities Chamber Website Redesign

The Brief

The Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce has long been a driving force behind economic growth in its community, championing the success of local businesses. In 2022, they were unveiling a brand new brand, logo, colors, the whole identity, and they needed a website to match, ready to go live the moment they revealed it.

The brief was to build a new website around that new brand and integrate it with Chamber Master, the platform that powers their membership directory. The catch, and what made this project unforgettable, was the timeline: the whole thing had to be built and launched in sync with a public brand reveal, on a specific date, in secret, in about a month.

The Challenge

This was a big, fast, high-stakes project with a hard deadline that couldn’t move.

  • A 70-page website had to be designed, built, and launched in roughly one month
  • The launch was tied to a public brand reveal on August 29th, so the date was fixed and immovable
  • The new brand had to stay confidential until the reveal, so nothing could go live early
  • The site needed to integrate with Chamber Master (GrowthZone) so the membership directory worked from day one
  • All of it had to come together with a limited team working in parallel against the clock

Scope of Work

The goal was to create a website that:

  • Brought the Chamber’s brand new logo and branding to life across 70 pages
  • Integrated with Chamber Master so the membership directory lived natively on the site
  • Was ready to launch in perfect sync with the public brand reveal
  • Stayed confidential right up until the moment it went live
  • Met ADA accessibility considerations along the way

Tools Used:

  • Adobe XD
  • WordPress
  • Elementor Pro
  • Rank Math SEO
  • Markup.io
  • Chamber Master / GrowthZone
  • ADA
The Solution

I was the lead designer and developer on this one, taking it from the first mockup all the way through to a launch timed to the minute. It was a true team effort, and my job was to hold the design and build together while we all moved fast.

Strategic Foundation

  • Started with the mockup and sitemap, mapping the full 70-page structure before a single page was built
  • Designed the homepage first in Adobe XD so it could set the visual direction for everything else
  • Got the mockup approved, then moved straight into building

Design & Development

  • Spun up a staging site on WPEngine hosting WordPress, so the whole build stayed private until launch
  • Built the front end in Elementor Pro, translating the approved homepage into the live site
  • Created reusable templates from the homepage sections, so the rest of the 70 pages could be laid out quickly and consistently, which is what made the timeline possible

A Team Moving Fast

  • Worked in a divide-and-conquer rhythm with a small team
  • The Marketing Lead transferred all the copy from the old site onto staging, so I could focus on laying out pages
  • The Project Manager reviewed each page as I finished it to make sure it was mobile optimized, adjusting as needed
  • A week out, we worked through internal review and client feedback, with a few more team members jumping in for final touches

The Launch

  • To keep the new brand secret while building anticipation, we put up a “coming soon” landing page with a countdown timer the Thursday before the reveal
  • On the morning of August 29th, timed to the brand reveal itself, I switched off the landing page and cleared the server cache at the exact moment, so the new site went live right as their event began
  • I swapped in their new favicon, made the final touches, and connected their Chamber Master (GrowthZone) account, bringing the membership directory online with the new site
  • The result: a website that launched in perfect sync with a live brand reveal, exactly as planned

Results & Impact

We designed, built, and launched a 70-page website in about a month, and brought it live in perfect sync with the Chamber’s public brand reveal, no small feat with a hard deadline and a limited team. The membership directory was connected and working from day one, and the Chamber walked into their big event with a finished, on-brand site behind them.

The work earned a 5-star review from the client, which is exactly the outcome you want on a project this visible.

In Their Words

Alice was such a pleasure to work with on our Chamber web site rebrand. She nailed the design right away and we love the finished product! She really captured the energy, feel, and look of our brand and effectively translated that into a new site that not only looks a million times better but is so much more user friendly. Would highly recommend Alice!

Laura Wiegert, Executive Vice President - Brand Experience & Engagement

Why This Project Matters

This is the project I light up about, and it’s one of my all-time favorites. Taking a 70-page site from a blank mockup all the way through development and a to-the-minute launch, under a real deadline that couldn’t budge, is about as exciting as web work gets.

What made it special wasn’t just the speed. It was the coordination: a whole team pulling in the same direction, a brand reveal riding on our timing, and everything clicking into place right when it needed to. Getting to be the person who flipped the switch at exactly the right moment is a feeling I won’t forget.