Rainbow Turtle Website Makeover

The Internet - a global network of computers - allows many people to communicate, access information, learn, buy and sell from around the world, one home, workplace or cafe to another. Businesses and organisations across the UK develop Website's everyday to provide services and information for their clients and the public.

One of the website concept designs. Click image for a full-sized view.

A new Rainbow Turtle website has been in production for the past 2 months, which involved a gathering of information, ideas and prospective designs. Tony, with his experience in computing technology and digital art, began working on designs and content structure; however, as the required information and content began to grow, the designs were remodelled to accommodate new photographs, products and in particular usability for expected website visitors.

This was no easy task, as organising all the information and content to be accessible from different people's perspectives required deep thinking and discussion among Rainbow Turtle colleagues; many ideas had the potential to make one aspect of usability better while conflicting with another, and understanding and accepting the balance between different ideas was found to be the most successful route.

A similar approach was adopted when considering the look and feel of the website; we needed something that provided an accurate presentation of Rainbow Turtle, balancing boldness in colours with a clean, professional and minimal look. Various designs were considered for their strengths and weaknesses between staff and the management committee. At fist, there seemed to be no balance between different feelings towards the contrasting designs; however everyone's ideas began to coalesce into form when Sam, a prominent volunteer at the warehouse, brought fourth a beautiful collection of photographs of the Rainbow Turtle Shop in Paisley (gallery available here).

Tony was able to use the photographs to create potential backgrounds, and designed a clean and readable white page to sit inside shop photographs. With a simple Black, grey and white colour scheme, pages were made very readable and pliable to a large variety of background pictures. A touch of colour through a rainbow strip under the title completed the theme, and the new Rainbow Turtle website was born!

The new website has been developed for ecommerce - the online selling market - a perfect way of selling Pedro's Clerical Stoles, and a new avenue for Rainbow Turtle to take in promoting trading fairly through fair trade business practices.

However, like all web-technology we remain vigilant in case anything goes wrong, and are still making little updates here and there to further improve the website and keep it in fashion! Please contact us if you have any comments regarding the website, or if you spot anything that needs tweaking ;)

We've got that fantastic Fairtrade Fortnight Friday feeling!

In 1997 the Fairtrade Foundation pioneered an event known as Fairtrade Fortnight, in our very own Scotland. This was an event to promote ethical trading values and raise awareness of trading fairly; the campaign was successful, and was celebrated to the rest of the United Kingdom in 1998.

Fairtrade Fortnight has since grown to be celebrated in many other countries worldwide, and provides an exciting time of year in which many Fairs, Fashion Shows, Fetes and food tastings are made in encouragement of Fairtrade products.

This year, Fairtrade fortnight was termed "The Big Swap" and was celebrated February 22nd to March 7th, creating an opportunity for all involved to enhance the profile of Fairtrade in the local community and further afield. Schools throughout the country work on projects to generate interest and raise concern for the younger generation and their families.

During this time of the year, Rainbow Turtle took on an exciting (and slightly terrifying) challenge of providing service above and beyond normal duties; sales and orders increased, and sale or return orders skyrocketed. We worked hard each day to manage order information, safely keep on top of stock, host stalls at local events, arrange and pack stall after stall for local schools and churches, and accept incoming requests. Throughout this time, the Rainbow Turtle shop remained open for sale, promoting Fairtrade in Paisley (with some giant inflatable Cups, I might add).


Teamwork was an essential part of success, and we couldn't have made it through without the generous help of our volunteers, both in the shop and in the warehouse. The busy fortnight also became a time for new staff Tony and Simon to learn a great deal about Rainbow Turtle's products and administration, as well as an opportunity to meet the clients and volunteers who all work hard to promote Fairtrade.

This year 30 million people knew about Fairtrade Fortnight, making 10 million people more than last; with Fairtrade Fortnight over, we can rejoice in the success of spreading the word of Fairtrade, as well as making it through and out to the other side. We can also begin to think about next years Fairtrade Fortnight, and hope that it is even more successful than this year's!

Links:

·       The Fairtrade Foundation BigSwap page (2010)

·       The Fairtrade Foundation page about Fairtrade Fortnight 2011

Rainbow turtle Completes The 90kg Kilombero Rice Challenge

On Saturday 25th July we completed the Just Trading Scotland 90kg Kilombero Rice Challenge in the shop. The challenge, to sell 90 kilos of fairly traded Malawian Kilombero rice, represents a great way to make tangible the impact we can have on Developing World producers by buying fairly traded products.

If a Malawian rice farmer sells 90kilos of rice at a fair price he/she makes enough money to send one of their children to high school for a year. Only 1 in 3 children can currently afford to go to high school in Malawi and as education is a vital tool in overcoming poverty, any increase in this statistic is extremely valuable.

The challenge has been taken on by many individuals and groups already but this was the first time Rainbow Turtle Shop had done it. With the 45th Anniversary of Malawian Independence being celebrated this July, we felt it was a great opportunity to promote the trade links established by Just Trading Scotland - the partnership organisation between Rainbow Turtle and The Coach House Balmore - and Malawian farmers.

Celebrating the success of the Rice Challenge.

We created a vibrant window display, handed out flyers around the town and received valuable support from M.S.Ps, Renfrewshire Council and the Paisley Daily Express. The promotion paid off, attracting many new customers and thanks to the support and generosity of all our customers, both new and regular, we managed to sell all 90 kilos within the month.

The rice is always available to buy at the shop and anyone interested in taking on the challenge and helping to eat someone out of poverty can get details from www.justtradingscotland.co.uk

Provost's Community Awards

On Friday, 27 March , Provost Celia Cameron hosted the 2009 Renfrewshire Council Provost's Community Awards. This was a gala evening to showcase much positive action taking place in our community. The event took place at the Normandy Hotel where nominees and nominators all enjoyed a celebratory meal.

For the first time there was a category among the 7 awards for Fairtrade: "The Spirit of Fairtrade Award". This was sponsored by the Piazza Shopping Centre. There were 4 groups short-listed for this award.

The Abbey Cafe, Paisley 

Bishopton Faire Trade Village 

The Junction, Lochwinnoch 

Rainbow Turtle, Paisley 

It was very exciting when Rainbow Turtle was announced as THE WINNER and Colum Scriven accepted the lovely trophy on behalf of Rainbow Turtle.

This award recognizes the work done by all connected with Rainbow Turtle whether working in or buying from the shop, campaigning or supporting the many and various Fairtrade Fortnight events.

The real winner of the evening, however, was Fairtrade itself because for each of the shortlisted groups there was a well narrated video and every one of these sent out the same message, namely that Fairtrade is about justice and all stressed the difference that we can each make by asking for and using fair trade products whenever possible.

Please do come along to the shop and see the lovely trophies for yourself which are on display in the shop window; the large trophy we have for the year when perhaps we shall win it again! and the smaller one we keep. Remember the "we" is you! This award truly is for all who have been involved in any way during the life of Rainbow Turtle. Well done!