The home page of History ~ Newburyport. Both the beige and the dark teal color are from the 1851 map.

At the beginning of the pandemic I decided to create a new website that co-ordinated with the interactive history map, Newburyport – Keeping the Story Alive. I hired GridPlay Designs, and they did a gorgeous job in creating History ~ Newburyport.

It was a collaborative effort right from the start, I wasn’t even sure what the domain name should be, it is HistoryNewburyport.com, and it was so reassuring to have someone to think through that very basic and critical component.

An example of the slide show that GridPlay Designs incorporated, postcards from Atkinson Common.

I gave them a section of the Newburyport 1851 map and a piece of the 1771 survey for Frog Pond, and told them I wanted it to be both historic and modern, I had no clue what it should look like. And they came up with this beautiful logo and design. They pulled the colors from the 1851 map and figured out how to use some of the calligraphy from the 1771 survey. I thought it was so elegant that I wasn’t sure I was worthy of the design.

I love the way GridPlay Designs incorporated the sage color in the 1851 map in the design of every page.

They are very patient with me, I don’t process things in a linear fashion, but process things the way I would create a painting (I am a professional artist). It has been an ongoing collaborative achievement that has been both exciting and fun. We work together on every page, I provide the content and they create the page. I am always amazed at what they come up with. And if I think something needs to be tweaked, they are so patient and responsive, and things get thought through and updated immediately. It is rare, almost unheard, of to get such customer service.

An example of the slide show that GridPlay Designs incorporated, old photographs of Unicorn Street.

We are still working on History ~ Newburyport and together we help it evolve. And the fact that together we were able to create a website, with 24 stories, full of content and historic photographs in two months, is remarkable. The website has been described as “beautiful,” “exciting,” “artistic,” and it would not have been any of those things without GridPlay Designs.

The home page of GridPlay Designs

“We are passionate about working with entrepreneurs and small businesses that embody our values of honesty, integrity, kindness, creativity, and hard work.” ~ GridPlay Designs