Almond Valley

The client

Almond Valley Heritage Centre has stood its ground for four decades, caring for significant natural, built and cultural heritage while offering engaging play, learning and discovery experiences for families and communities. Access, inclusion and sustainability are at the heart of Almond Valley, and are what the team focuses on every day to make sure it’s still here for generations to come.

This project was part of a wider programme of digital transformation for the organisation. Not just a new website, but a proper effort to improve how visitors engage with the attraction and give the team the insight they need to make good decisions for the charity’s long term future.

In 2024, newly appointed Director Jen Howard Coombes took an honest look at where things stood. The on-site experience had grown considerably, with expanded adventure areas, a creative programme, year-round events, and more to see and do than ever. The brand and digital presence hadn’t kept pace.

The challenge

The existing site was about five years old and it was starting to show. Hard to update, hard to navigate and not doing enough to get people through the gate. Families trying to find opening times or plan a visit were having to work harder than they should.

The tone had drifted too. The copy didn’t quite fit where Almond Valley had got to as an organisation, and the heritage story, one of the most interesting aspects of the place, was getting lost. There was no clear picture of how the site was performing either.

The brand needed attention for many of the same reasons. It had to do a better job of holding the history and the fun together without losing either. To tell the story of Almond Valley.

The result

We started with the brand, working closely with Jen and the team to find an identity that could communicate everything Almond Valley offers – the heritage, the playfulness, the sense of discovery. The logo centres around the water mill, the thread that runs through everything the centre stands for, with a nod to the fascinating history of the place. The new brand balances accessibility, playfulness and curiosity – and it’s one in a mill-ion!

Beyond the logo, we developed a set of additional brand elements that reflect the range of experiences at Almond Valley, the farm, the play areas, the heritage, the events – giving the team a flexible visual toolkit they can use consistently across the site, print and social. The result is an identity with real depth to it.

The website was rebuilt around what visitors actually need. Making sure essentials are easy to find, events simple to manage, the heritage story given proper room to breathe. We brought in Beyonk for ticketing, our EVE system for the events calendar and set up GA4 properly so the team can see exactly what’s driving bookings.

Almond Valley’s team, and visitors, now find it much easier to connect with the place. We’re absolutely chuffed with how it turned out.

From the client

“To help us take a huge step forward, we partnered with Creatomatic to deliver a new website and refreshed brand identity… and we’ve been delighted with the journey.

From the outset, they understood the essence of Almond Valley: what makes people return, what makes families feel at home, and what makes this place special. That insight is reflected throughout the design.

This was a genuinely collaborative process. Our workforce came together to help shape our direction of travel, ensuring the new brand is rooted in shared values, lived experience, and inspired by those deeply connected to the site.

That’s why the refreshed brand already feels so familiar – it’s not something imposed on Almond Valley, but something grown from within it.”

Jen Howard Coombes
Director