Caroline Bird

Custom Solution · Squarespace · Branding · Design · Copywriting · 3rd Party Integrations

The challenge

Caroline Bird is an award winning poet and playwright whose work moves across poetry, theatre, performance and teaching. With a substantial body of published work and an active programme of readings, workshops and events, her previous website no longer provided the right platform for everything she does.

The challenge was to redesign her online presence around the breadth of her work, while creating something that felt unmistakably Caroline.

The thinking

Caroline’s work has a distinctive energy, wit and voice, so the website needed to do more than organise information. It needed to create a space that felt editorial, expressive and personal, while remaining clear and easy to navigate.

The structure was designed around the different sides of Caroline’s practice, giving her poetry, plays, books, workshops and appearances their own space while making it easy for visitors to discover the connections between them.

The visual identity and tone were developed together, creating a digital environment that gives the work room to breathe without getting in the way of it.

The work

I developed the branding and visual direction, redesigned the website and wrote the copy, building the new site as a custom Squarespace solution.

A strong mobile experience was a key part of the redesign. The site was carefully considered across smaller screens, making sure Caroline’s writing remained engaging and readable, navigation stayed intuitive and the overall experience retained the character of the desktop design.

I also integrated Google and other third party tools to support the practical side of Caroline’s online presence, including events, enquiries and keeping visitors connected with her latest work.

The result

A new website that gives Caroline’s work the space and flexibility it deserves, while making it much easier for readers, audiences, promoters and workshop participants to discover what she does.

The redesigned experience works beautifully across desktop and mobile, giving visitors a clear and engaging way into Caroline’s work wherever they encounter it.

Rather than imposing a conventional structure on a multifaceted creative practice, the site is designed to move with Caroline’s work and give each part of it room to speak in its own voice.

“Bird is irrepressible; she simply explodes with poetry. The work erupts, spring loaded, funny, sad, deadly. You don’t know if a bullet will come out of the barrel or a flag with the word BANG on it.”

Simon Armitage