The Story Behind the New Angama.com
22 July 2015 | Inside Angama | Steve Mitchell
How can a website do this lovely corner of Africa justice? How to adequately portray Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens’ architectural ingenuity, Jan Allan’s sweeping tents, Nicky’s knack for storytelling and that famous Kenyan hospitality? How to showcase just the right amount of everything but enough already with all the stuff?
The web development team at Angama did some browsing seeking inspiration for our new site. We loved videos from Etthem in Sweden, the pre-launch site of the new Pumphouse Point in Tasmania – only the Aussies could been that organized before they’ve even opened their doors – the quirky content of those funny fellas at TrufflePig, and the inspiration of Fathom and Babylonstoren who both just make you wanna pack your bags and go.
Inspiration from Babylonstoren, TruffelPig & Pumphouse Point
And we planned. And pondered. And mocked-up. And waited … for the lodge to open and for Fermob furniture to finally arrive from France (wasn’t it due in March?). And on Day Three we turned ourselves inside out for the photographers who captured the lodge every which way – the people, the places, the textures, the style, and of course, the view.
We asked our first guests to be the models, the master tent maker to fly in his enchanting children Nina and Tor, and we somehow captured perfect images amidst the frenetic chaos of the opening days – more on that here and here if you don’t know what it’s like to open a lodge.
Some of our first guests who posed as models
Building and opening a safari lodge is not for the faint-hearted. Designing and building a website to showcase it to the world – and inspiring travellers to come to the beautiful Maasai Mara – was the final leg of this development journey and the cherry on top. So indulge yourself in some lovely imagery in the lodge gallery, plan your Perfect Day, learn about the highlights of a journey to East Africa, read the official press release or just tell us what you think.
Postscript: Steve gives special thanks to the two extraordinary people who made this website happen, Anne Scharlow of The Owl Studio and Joanne Reidy.
