Creating an online identity for the new Housing Development Agency (HDA) was quite a challenge, since its name and its primary function differ somewhat. But at Flow we love challenges, and with some creative thinking the HDA website went live at the end of July.
Flow’s design studio manager Janet Berger says apart from the HDA being “a new organisation with a complex agenda, what added somewhat to the difficulty in communicating the HDA’s focus areas was the name itself, since the Housing Development Agency has little to do with housing and a lot to do with land.”
To overcome this hurdle, Flow suggested that the client include some striking and relevant photographs on their site, to which they agreed.
“The photographs provided a quick and simple way to reflect the client’s prime focus – land acquisition and facilitating development,” says Janet.
“Developing content for the site was quite a challenge since the HDA has a fresh mandate. Much of the information for the site was new and required extensive tweaking to meet the client’s evolving brief,” says Flow writer Christine Marot.
Flow’s HDA project manager and web developer, Richard Frank, says it’s always rewarding to win a job by tender.
“The tender process is often nerve-wracking, but it’s great to know that your quote and proposal can compete with your peers’ in the web-development industry,” he says.
“This project was backed up with some great images from our freelance photographer John Hogg, who managed to capture the vision of the HDA through his lens”.
The HDA is a new National Public Entity that became operational on 1 April 2009 under the auspices of the Housing Development Agency Act of 2008.
The agency is responsible for acquiring, managing and releasing land for human settlement and with providing the necessary support to municipal and provincial bodies to deliver on such settlements.