The Background

Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (RAMWC) was founded in 1974 to preserve and share the stories of Canada’s aviation history through exhibits of bush planes, military aircraft, and some of Canada’s earliest aviation innovations.

In 2017, RAMWC temporarily closed its operations, moved its collection out of its previous location, and started making plans to construct a new state-of-the-art, purpose-built facility. Winnipeg Richardson International Airport would be the museum’s new location.

The Opportunity

RAMWC needed a refreshed logo and brand identity to match its new building.

After an RFP process, RAMWC selected Relish to develop its new logo and brand identity and to launch its new corporate website.

During the museum’s construction, the website needed to communicate the organization’s raison d’être, build anticipation for the opening of its impressive new facility while growing its newsletter subscription base and Capital Campaign donations. After RAMWC’s reopening, the website needed to offer e-commerce functionality for selling admissions, memberships and merchandise to drive its revenue objectives.

The Solution

In collaboration with the museum’s staff and the facility’s architects, Relish designed RAMWC’s new brand – a contemporary look befitting a Royally designated organization preserving Canadian aviation history.

With the updated branding in place, Relish’s Development Team set to build RAMWC, a website to stimulate excitement and create interest in what was happening at the museum for the roughly 12-month period leading up to its reopening.

An interesting aspect of this project was that the museum itself did not physically exist as the Development Team mapped out the website. The new building was still under construction, which meant that the Team had to “reverse engineer” the website anticipating its structure, content, features, and functionality that would best serve and represent the facility before it was a reality.

The mobile-responsive website went live with rich content and capabilities, including lead-generation mechanisms, eCommerce functionality, and a Capital Campaign page for driving donations. The architecture was designed and built, mindful of the need for RAMWC’s staff to update its content regularly and for Relish’s Development Team to scale the platform up and add features and functionality in lock-step along the path to RAMWC’s reopening and beyond.