CPDMH:
Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital Donor Wall (2016 - 2025)
I had the honor of working with The Foundation & hospital stakeholders in order to create an evolving donor wall to showcase those who have financially donated to the hospital over the years, as well as their inspirational/ emotional stories to why the hospital was important to them and their families.
The Goal:
Increase awareness of the need for donations for the hospital and highlight those who have supported the hospital financially over the years.
My Role:
Creating the initial concept for the donor wall, and design something that can easily be updated by myself or another designer on an annual basis to keep the list of donors more current. Keeping the donor wall on brand with The Foundation to tie it altogther.
The Tools:
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Initial Planning of donor wall:
This project, from initial talks with the Foundation Director to the final product, took 9 years. This is mainly because of situations out of our control, such as a pandemic, in which our hospital partners needed to obviously pivot priorities.
The original plan was to create not only a donor wall, but a donor hallway, including a welcome wall with founding donors, grand donor wall, and wooden map of the large rural area the hospital cared for. All assets were being created and developed by myself and my now husband through our business, Curae Inc. Since we were artists working with sustainably sourced wood, we used that as the primary material for the project proposals, (and to also tie our work in with the older donor wall seen in the background of the map wall concept).
Mockups shown were created by photos I took while on-site for meetings with hospital stakeholders, added into Photoshop in order to work on perspective.
Initial Welcome Wall Concept
Initial Map Wall Concept
The plan was to have the donor wall span across the longest wall down the radiology hallway, where many people would be waiting for x-rays or for loved ones, and have time to view the wall in a decently quiet part of the hospital out of the way of possible emergency situations.
Main materials planned were maple sheets of wood with acrylic overlayed with transparent vinyls with donor names. Larger donors would receive a more permanent, highlighted area with a photo and biography as an enticement for those to donate larger amounts.
Second Stateholder Meeting & initial proposal of design
While the Foundation and hospital stakeholders were happy with the general design, they decided the amount of wood involved in the project would be dark in the hallway area and proposed a lighter, more acrylic based design. I agreed that this would be a good approach, and would be far easier to install, (these are the things you don’t think of during your first large installation project in your twenties!)
They also requested we use the two other walls in the hallway more efficiently as a community partner and campaign wall, using the space to entice local businesses to donate to get on the community partner wall, and to be more transparent about where current donations were going to with the campaign wall.
Initial donor wall concept
Website Experience & Page Design:
Homepage Layout:
One of my key takeaways from this year’s summit was the importance of placing critical information above the fold. While the homepage was visually engaging, I realised too much high-value space had been given to a large banner area that did not do enough to communicate trust, credibility, or immediate value.
This was an important UX lesson. Users do not always scroll to find essential details, and relying on them to do so can reduce sign-up opportunities. Moving forward, I would prioritise key conversion points, social proof, and event clarity much earlier in the page structure.
Pre-Summit Page:
In the weeks leading up to the summit, registered users were directed to a pre-summit page that gave them the information they needed before launch. This page served as an orientation hub, explaining how the summit would work, what to expect, and where to return once the event went live.
It also included a call to action for the summit package, offering early access and lifetime availability of the educational presentations and materials for practitioners who wanted immediate access or the ability to revisit content later. This helped support package sales before the free summit week began.
Home page & summit basic wireframes
Live Summit Layout:
The summit officially launched at 9:00 a.m. ET on November 10. Using visibility logic in Elementor, I scheduled the summit presentations in advance so content could roll out automatically according to the planned release schedule sent to those who signed up prior to launch day.
From November 10 to 13, a new presentation was released each morning hour by hour. Along with the prior speaker scehdule, attendees received daily emails outlining which speakers and topics would be going live, while social media content was published in parallel to support ongoing visibility and attract additional attendees throughout the summit week.
This structure allowed the summit to feel active and paced, while reducing the need for manual updates during live delivery. I would check on the hour each morning to confirm my visibility logic was correct and summit-goers were receiving all content on time.
Email Marketing Campaign:
Email Campaign Automation:
All HVS2025 registrants were added to a dedicated email automation sequence. This campaign was designed to keep the summit top of mind in the lead-up to launch and throughout the event itself.
The automation included reminder emails about summit dates, daily presentation summaries, and calls to action for the summit package. The goal was to maintain momentum, improve attendance for each release window, and encourage continued engagement beyond the free access period.
Because the summit relied on timed participation, email played a critical role in audience retention and day-to-day traffic flow.
Summit page final product & summit opening day email
Key Takeaways:
HVS2025 reinforced how important it is to think beyond aesthetics and design every element around user behaviour, communication clarity, and conversion opportunities. From early speaker outreach to page hierarchy and timed content release, the success of the summit depended on strong systems as much as strong visuals.
This project strengthened my ability to lead creative direction while also managing logistics, communications, scheduling, and audience experience across multiple channels. It also highlighted valuable opportunities for future optimisation, particularly around homepage hierarchy, trust-building content, and conversion-focused page design.