Work
Ski Sundown
![](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Hero-Image-_TKP5008.jpg)
Winter made better.
When it opened for the first time in 1964 as “Satan’s Ridge,” Ski Sundown had three slopes, one mile-long trail and two lifts. Over fifty years later, they’re up to 70 skiable acres, 16 trails, 5 lifts, 2 terrain parks, and to top it all off, they can make snow on 100% of their trails.
Project Goals
Ski Sundown joined forces with Julia Balfour to help establish them as a leader in mountain sports and activities within Connecticut while editing, rebranding, and restructuring their current website.
Hitting the Slopes
Design
With the exception of Ski Sundown’s well-instituted bright color palette, our creative team was given freedom to expand their brand for the web. First, a secondary palette of neutral colors was developed to add some layers to the design, and make the bold orange and blue pop. To better express their personality, a system of modern typefaces, as well as a set of textures and icons, were used throughout the site. Finally, everything is grounded with dozens of real photos provided by Sundown’s fantastic marketing team.
![Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Texture](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Texture.jpg)
![Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Photo](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Photo.jpg)
![Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Text](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Text-1.jpg)
![Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Color-Palette](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Color-Palette.jpg)
![Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Button](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Button.gif)
![Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Mountains](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Design-Elements-Mountains.jpg)
Mountain Strategy
Custom Functionality
Ski Sundown needed a few pieces of custom functionality that would help their website work a little harder for them, and we put all of it front-and-center. The masthead of every page houses three very important pieces of information: the weather, the conditions report, and a very important call to action. Right next to the real-time display of the weather at the mountain, you’ll find a link to the Conditions Report. It’s fully editable, so they can let their visitors know when a trail is closed at a moment’s notice. Also, depending on the time of year, Ski Sundown’s visitors are looking for a few specific things. In the fall, for example, they’re looking for season passes. We built them a friendly widget that gives priority to those seasonally-important items.
![](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Feature.jpg)
![](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Screenshot.jpg)
![](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-5050-Images-01-1.jpg)
![](https://www.juliabalfour.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ski-Sundown-Case-Study-Flatlay.jpg)