THE SOCIETY OF GARDEN DESIGNERS (SGD)

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The Society of Garden Designers (SGD) has been championing excellence in garden design for over 30 years. It is the only professional association for garden designers in the UK and counts some of the UK’s leading garden and landscape designers among its growing membership. It is active both nationally and internationally, promoting its aims through its Garden Design Journal, workshops, conferences and annual SGD Awards scheme. Since 1981, they have been supporting their Members to train, work, develop and continually maintain the highest standards.

The organisation was founded as the Garden Design Society by a group of eminent landscape designers, who came together to establish garden design as a serious profession. The Society now boasts a diverse Membership of both individual designers and practices. They are all experienced, competent, creative professionals, all have gone through a robust process of accreditation, abide by the SGD’s Code of Conduct and they work across a broad range of projects from roof terraces and urban courtyards to large country gardens and public parks.

THE BRIEF

LightMedia were awarded the contract to design and develop a new website for the SGD which needed to reflect the society’s values of excellence, learning and belonging.The main challenge was that SGD had three separate websites and three separate CRM solutions which needed to be brought together and present a consistent revised brand to the public. SGD also wished to take their professionalism to the next level through a website with an increased functionality, and to reduce or replace repetitive manual administration tasks - which meant automating many functions, effectively building an improved experience for the association members whilst reducing administration overhead. They needed a website that presented the impact SGD members can have on outdoor space and which reflected the professionalism and design excellence of its members.

HOW WE HELPED

After discussions with the SGD and their senior team — as part of our collaborative design process — we created a number of design concepts and wireframes, and finally agreed a detailed specification/blueprint for the project. LightMedia built and integrated a new CRM solution into the website, enabling the administration efficiencies desired and providing the improved personalised experience for all members.

Our new, tailor-made website solution for SGD provides:

Interesting and engaging content that reflects the culture, expertise and ethos of the SGD, conveying a professional clear image to its members and the members’ potential clients, advertising and emphasising the skills and standards its members adhere to.
A personalised member’s area which, amongst many features, allows the member to promote their individual business and automates the administration effort associated with being a member of the Society.
A search facility enabling clients to find a professional accredited designer.
An Events Module allowing the SGD to promote its events, and its members to book and pay for seats at all SGD events including its annual conference.
A News Module allowing the SGD to publish latest activity and emerging trends in the world of garden design.
A training area promoting Garden Design as an excellent career choice and promoting training courses to enhance the skills of existing and potential garden designers.
An integrated user-friendly Content Management System that allows the SGD to add, remove, change and move pages, as well as update content including text, images and videos.
A fully functional CRM solution providing a user friendly personalised experience for its members and ensuring that any changes made by members are reflected in all subsequent communications.
Improved journeys for new and returning customers.

THE OUTCOME

The completed output matched the brief: the new SGD website is straightforward, highly functional (creating the administration efficiencies desired) and is logical to use. The site is attractive with professional imaging that reflects the skills of its members. This site was built using LightMedia’s methodology which helped both the SGD and LightMedia meet expectations and budget.

Feedback from the public has been very good.