Borromeo Seminary
Borromeo Seminary is the Diocese of Cleveland’s college seminary, one of a small number left in the country, where men discern the priesthood while earning their undergraduate degree at John Carroll University. Briefcase Marketing built the seminary a new website from the ground up: new brand identity, full copywriting, and a custom design meant to run on its own.
The Challenge.
The old site had gone quiet. About four years back, the team scrubbed it down to a static page and mostly stopped touching it. The logo on file was 130 by 128 pixels, no brand kit behind it, no style guide. The navigation still carried a bunch of old links.
There's also the name problem. Search "Borromeo Seminary" and Philadelphia's St. Charles Borromeo Seminary comes up as easily as Cleveland's, and the confusion runs both directions: mail meant for Philadelphia regularly lands at the seminary's door in Wickliffe instead.
The seminary was direct about one more thing walking into this project. They told us upfront they didn't have staff to update a site regularly, and that had to shape the entire build.
There's also the name problem. Search "Borromeo Seminary" and Philadelphia's St. Charles Borromeo Seminary comes up as easily as Cleveland's, and the confusion runs both directions: mail meant for Philadelphia regularly lands at the seminary's door in Wickliffe instead.
The seminary was direct about one more thing walking into this project. They told us upfront they didn't have staff to update a site regularly, and that had to shape the entire build.
Our Role.
We took that constraint as the design brief itself. We named the actual audience, discerners first, parents of discerners second, faculty third, and kept the build small: Home, Formation, and Academics from the original discovery scope, with an About page added along the way.
The nav also carries a Donate link, but that one points straight out to the Diocese Foundation rather than to a page we built. History moved off the homepage onto its own page. The virtual tour got cut. Anything that needed regular tending got routed somewhere already built for it. Donations go straight to the Diocese Foundation's existing priestly endowment fund instead of a payment system the seminary would have to run themselves, the same reasoning Fr. Andrew Turner gave us: centralize the giving instead of paying for another transaction site.
The brand palette comes off the seminary's own crest, since no brand kit ever existed to work from. And the SEO is built specifically around "Borromeo Seminary Cleveland," so search finally tells the two seminaries apart.
The nav also carries a Donate link, but that one points straight out to the Diocese Foundation rather than to a page we built. History moved off the homepage onto its own page. The virtual tour got cut. Anything that needed regular tending got routed somewhere already built for it. Donations go straight to the Diocese Foundation's existing priestly endowment fund instead of a payment system the seminary would have to run themselves, the same reasoning Fr. Andrew Turner gave us: centralize the giving instead of paying for another transaction site.
The brand palette comes off the seminary's own crest, since no brand kit ever existed to work from. And the SEO is built specifically around "Borromeo Seminary Cleveland," so search finally tells the two seminaries apart.
The Results.
Borromeo Seminary launched on August 18, timed ahead of the seminary's new parent orientation.
Reviewing the near finished site in Basecamp, Fr. Andrew Turner put it plainly: "The Borromeo site is looking fresh, engaging, and new!"
Reviewing the near finished site in Basecamp, Fr. Andrew Turner put it plainly: "The Borromeo site is looking fresh, engaging, and new!"
Custom Icons
We created 3 custom icons for them to use on their site, as well as other marketing materials.
The icons represent:
– A house of formation
– An undergraduate degree
– And a community of brothers
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