Mara Velour
A five-page website for a 12-tent safari camp in Kenya’s northern Mara. It shows couples and families why their game drives will be quiet, and asks for their dates before anything is booked.
Mara Velour is a 12-tent camp brand I created, on a Maasai-owned conservancy in the northern Mara. The website had to show the quiet game drives as clearly as the tents.
The challenge
A couple planning one big safari, often for an anniversary, pays a lot for it. What they fear is arriving at a lion and finding 20 vehicles already there.
- 01A photo of a tent at dusk cannot tell a guest how many vehicles stop at a sighting, or who will meet them off the plane.
- 02Before they send dates, guests want to know if the drives are quiet, if the camp feels personal, when to come and how to get there.
- 03I planned every page from one sentence in my strategy notes: “A 12-tent camp on a Maasai-owned conservancy in the northern Mara, where no more than five vehicles may stop at a sighting and your guide stays as long as the animal does.” The pages answer the guest’s questions in the order they ask them, and end at the enquiry form.
Will we share every sighting with 20 vehicles?
Answered byNo more than five vehicles. The rule comes first, with an aerial photo of one vehicle on an empty track at sunrise. Then four numbers: 12 tents, 5 vehicles at a sighting, 350 acres for each guest bed and a 45-minute flight from Nairobi.
Will the camp feel like a hotel?
Answered byWho looks after you. Four people, each with a portrait, a first name and a job. Lemayian, the head guide, grew up 20 minutes from camp. Achieng, the camp manager, answers your first email.
Which month, and how do we get there?
Answered byPlan Your Stay. Two seasons by month, the flight from Wilson Airport drawn on a map, and the time to be at the airport by. The questions guests ask before booking, from children to entry to Kenya, are answered on the same page.
What happens after we send our dates?
Answered byThe enquiry. Within 24 hours, the camp manager emails which tents are open and a first plan for the stay. A deposit holds the tents only if the guest likes the plan.
Five pages: Home, The Tents, Food & Drink, The Camp and Plan Your Stay.
Scroll to move through the pages
Design decisions
Each decision came from the guest’s questions or from the camp photos.
Colours taken from the photos
Eight colours, each sampled from the camp photos, so the page carries the same light as the pictures. Linen is the main background, Acacia green is used for the footer and the large blocks of colour, and Dusk blue is for the nights. Ember, a burnt orange, appears only where a guest can book.
LinenCanvasAcaciaDuskEmberSavannaJadeUmber
Thin headings and book-style text
Headings are set in Helvetica Neue in a thin weight, with one phrase heavier and one word in italic, as in “The tents”. The body text is Old Standard TT, a typeface in the style of nineteenth-century printed books.
A logo made from two tents and the sun
The mark is a circle for the sun at the edge of the plains, a horizon line and two tent peaks. The peaks make an M, and the dip between them makes a V. A small dot above is the first star after sunset. A band of square beads, based on the beadwork of the Mara, sits under the hero and above the footer, never more than twice a page.
Captions that add a time or a fact
Each caption has a small gold pin and one or two short lines, and adds something the photo cannot show. Under the aerial photo: “6.40 am. Most mornings we pass no other vehicle on the way out.” By the pool: “The pool is not heated. By 2.00 pm on a hot day, you will be glad.”
A stay told day by day
“A five-night stay” shows five moments, from the first drive at 4.00 pm to a night drive with a red spotlight. On a computer, the row of day cards moves sideways while the section stays in place, with a bar that shows how far you have read. On a phone, guests swipe, and each card’s text appears once the card is in view.
Motion that matches the time of day
When the guest reaches “Evenings by the fire”, the page turns from Linen to Dusk blue. The aerial photo opens out as the guest reads down the page, and on Plan Your Stay a small plane moves along the flight route. If a guest’s phone or computer is set to reduce motion, everything shows at once without animation.
Copy with times and names
Coffee comes to the deck at 5.45 am. Soft bags can weigh up to 15 kg each. Lemayian meets the plane. The nearest tent is about 60 metres away. Words such as “unforgettable” and “breathtaking” were left out, and so were reviews or awards the camp does not have.
One button, one label
“Check dates” is the only booking button, on every page, always in Ember. Dates chosen in the booking bar on the first screen are copied down to the form on the same page, so a guest does not type them twice.
Built by hand
Built by hand in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with motion that follows the scroll. On phones and tablets, every food and kitchen photo has its caption under it.
The result
Guests see the quiet game drives first, then the tents, a five-night stay and the people who look after them. They send their dates in one form, and they know who replies and how soon.
The same website would suit
- Safari camps and lodges
- Tour and safari operators
- Boutique hotels
- Beach and island retreats
- Conservancies and private reserves
- Wellness retreats
Planning a website for your camp or lodge?
Send what your camp offers, the pages you need and when it has to be live. You’ll hear back within two business days.