# Temple Solel design research and brand-direction brief

## Strategic diagnosis

Temple Solel has better raw material than its current website reveals. The public site already defines *Solel* as “Pathfinder,” connects the congregation to fresh approaches and Jewish tradition, shows a distinctive Paradise Valley campus, and uses a memorable blue wordmark with a yellow sun, orange mountains, and a white path. The redesign should turn that inheritance into behavior: help each visitor find a next step, understand what participation feels like, and see a living congregation rather than a set of announcements.

The current homepage is useful as a content inventory but weak as an arrival experience. Its large rotating photography area has no persistent proposition or newcomer action. Below it, High Holiday tickets, weekly services, membership renewal, the member directory, cantor search, and event promotions appear as separate modules with uneven visual language. Calendar, registration, donations, directory, livestream, PDFs, Facebook, YouTube, Google Calendar, and ShulCloud open across multiple systems. The public nav is organization-led—About, Join, Education, Jewish Life, Social Action, Ways to Give—while a newcomer’s likely questions are action-led: “Can I come Friday?”, “What is this community like?”, “Is there something for my child?”, “How do I register?” Generated image labels such as “Black and Gold Classy Minimalist Circular Name Logo” and links such as “here” are accessibility warning signs; they merit a formal audit rather than a claim of conformance.

## Eight useful reference sites

These are design references, not a ranking or evidence of measured performance.

1. [Central Synagogue](https://www.centralsynagogue.org/) puts High Holy Days, livestreaming, giving, and contact in a utility layer, then shows upcoming events and a distinct weekly service schedule. Event entries expose dates, times, and places before the click. Its livestream page gathers viewing options and prayer-book support, while the footer makes disability access explicit. Transfer: give Solel a persistent service/livestream path, and separate the predictable worship rhythm from the broader program calendar.

2. [IKAR](https://ikar.org/) leads with “This week at IKAR,” category-tagged event cards, registration when required, and add-to-calendar controls. Its event details can surface in-person/virtual access, childcare, ASL interpretation, and program-specific instructions. “I’m new here” is a first-class route. The writing is unusually specific and human. Transfer: combine warm editorial voice with operational detail; every event should answer who it is for, where it happens, how to join, and what accommodations exist.

3. [B’nai Jeshurun](https://bj.org/) places “Next Service,” full calendar, livestream, and service schedule at the top. The homepage distinguishes “Today at BJ,” upcoming items, featured events, services, learning, action, community voices, and a content library. Remote-only and multi-location events are labeled in the listing. Transfer: a compact “Next at Solel” utility can serve regulars without making the whole homepage feel transactional; sermons, music, talks, and community writing can become a durable library rather than disappearing in social feeds.

4. [Sixth & I](https://www.sixthandi.org/) cleanly separates “Jewish Life” from “Talks & Entertainment” while keeping both in one calendar. Ticket FAQ, directions, venue information, mailing list, and account access stay close to events. Transfer: Solel can let worship, learning, family, culture, and justice keep their own character while sharing one event model and one discovery surface. Do not copy its urban entertainment emphasis; copy the legible program lanes.

5. [Skirball Cultural Center](https://www.skirball.org/) begins with visitor utility: current open status, tickets, calendar, visit, parking, accessibility, dining, and tours. Event cards expose audience and category, and image carousels include pause controls and meaningful alternative text. Its newsletter signup explains frequency and topic options. Transfer: treat “Visit Solel” as hospitality—arrival, parking, building access, security expectations, dress, children, and whom to contact—while letting people choose communication topics instead of subscribing to everything.

6. [92NY](https://www.92ny.org/) demonstrates useful search behavior for a large program catalog: search suggestions are grouped into events, classes, and pages; programs can also be explored by interest and life stage. Transfer: design the underlying information model so “preschool,” “Shabbat,” “adult learning,” and “social action” can be found by both program type and audience. Solel should keep the visible taxonomy much smaller than 92NY’s.

7. [Desert Botanical Garden](https://dbg.org/) is the most relevant local-place reference. It foregrounds current hours and heat-related operational notices, frames programming as daytime and nighttime experiences, and uses a “Plan your week” section with clear dates and descriptions. The desert is treated as living context rather than decorative texture. Transfer: show timely campus/service notices, make sunset and seasonal light part of the visual system, and use authentic Sonoran photography rather than resort-style desert stock.

8. [Castle Hot Springs](https://www.castlehotsprings.com/) packages a complex experience into clear lanes—stay, dine, explore—and offers suggested itineraries and “what is included” explanations. Its imagery and story connect the place to Arizona history and landscape. Transfer: a “Your first Friday at Solel” itinerary can reduce newcomer uncertainty from parking through Oneg. Do not import exclusivity, wellness language, or luxury cues; the useful lesson is expectation-setting.

## Three connected brand directions

All three retain the current logo’s essential assets: cobalt, sun, mountain, and path. Keep the original logo. A carefully redrawn small-size companion is an optional refinement, not a requirement. Photography must show real congregants, intergenerational interaction, music, learning, care, and action. Empty architecture can support the story but should not lead it.

### Desert Modern — recommended

This is the strongest balance of Jewish warmth, Paradise Valley specificity, and long-term usability. Use warm ivory, current cobalt, sunrise saffron, clay, and a restrained sage; pair a literary serif with a highly legible humanist sans. Derive a fine path line and low horizon shape from the logo, used sparingly as dividers and crops. Photography favors low desert light and candid proximity rather than panoramic luxury.

Website sample: a full-width gathering image with “Find your path into Jewish life” and two actions, “Plan your first visit” and “See what’s happening.” Directly below, a slim cobalt “Next at Solel” rail gives the next service, livestream, and calendar. The next sections are “Come as you are,” three audience-aware program entries, a short Pathfinder story, and “Care, lifecycle, and community.”

Calendar sample: list-first cards with a saffron date block, plain title, time/location, audience tags, in-person/online status, registration state, childcare/accessibility indicators, and Add to Calendar. Filters remain to five or six stable choices: Worship, Learning, Families, Community, Justice, Online.

Email/social sample: a warm-ivory weekly email with a cobalt masthead, one “This Friday” feature, three “This week” rows, and a pastoral/contact footer. Social uses edge-to-edge real photography, a small saffron horizon bar, and one sentence of invitation; date and action remain readable without opening the caption.

Risk: overusing sand tones can drift toward generic Scottsdale hospitality. Keep cobalt dominant, people central, and Jewish vocabulary present in plain language.

### Living Mosaic

This evolves the same logo into a more energetic community system: cobalt, sky, apricot, saffron, sage, and ivory; a confident rounded sans with a quieter serif for teaching and reflection. Cropped circles, horizon fragments, and path segments form a flexible mosaic, but never a busy pseudo-Middle-Eastern pattern.

Website sample: the hero is a four-image composition—Shabbat, preschool, teens, and social action—with “Many ways in. One community.” Program cards can vary in scale so a major holiday and a small recurring group feel related without looking identical. Audience entrances—Families, Adults, Teens, New Here—sit beside activity entrances.

Calendar sample: color supports category scanning, while text labels carry meaning for accessibility. A “For you this week” row can highlight family, adult, and community choices without algorithmic personalization.

Email/social sample: a modular email assembles reusable blocks from the same event data. Instagram carousels use slide one for the human invitation, slide two for date/time/location, and slide three for what to expect. Stories use consistent category colors and a visible registration deadline.

Risk: it can resemble a generic youth or arts nonprofit if typography becomes playful or every block gets a color. Preserve ivory space, adult programming, ritual imagery, and the strong Solel wordmark.

### Sacred Horizon

This is the quietest evolution: ink blue, sunrise gold, ivory, muted clay, and very limited pale blue; an elegant editorial serif with a neutral sans; generous space; horizon-scale photography; restrained motion. The feeling is contemplative, musical, and cultural rather than formal or exclusive.

Website sample: a slow, static hero image of people gathering at dusk, “A place to gather, question, sing, and grow,” and one grounded action. A high-contrast schedule rail keeps the page practical. Long-form rabbinic writing, music, oral history, and the Czech Torah story receive magazine-like treatment.

Calendar sample: a refined chronological agenda with strong date typography, minimal category accents, and prominent service/holiday groupings. Event detail pages use generous reading width and give practical logistics equal weight with meaning.

Email/social sample: a short weekly letter opens with a clergy or community note, followed by the next three actions. Social alternates documentary photography with accessible quote/teaching cards using large type and source attribution.

Risk: solemnity can hide family energy and feel donor-oriented. Use joyful people, visible children and teens, direct verbs, and no faux-luxury photography. This is best as an editorial layer within Desert Modern, not necessarily the whole system.

## Functional priorities

**Launch-critical:** task-first navigation; “New Here / Visit”; persistent next service, livestream, calendar, member login, and give actions; a native responsive event list plus calendar view; reusable event detail fields; robust site search; accessible contact and lifecycle-care paths; fast mobile performance; redirects and analytics; and clean connections to ShulCloud or its successor. A public event record should be the source for website cards, weekly email modules, and social export copy so staff do not re-enter dates three times.

**High value after launch:** sermon/music/teaching library with transcripts; audience landing pages; staff and clergy pages with clear reasons to contact each person; preschool and religious-school inquiry flows; volunteer opportunities with commitment level; holiday hubs that replace one-off homepage takeovers; emergency/campus alert banner; and optional newsletter preferences.

**Defer until evidence supports it:** member personalization, a custom app, complicated recommendation logic, community message boards, and bespoke CRM replacement. These would increase staff burden before the core publishing system is proven.

## Operability and accessibility guardrails

Use a small component library and a small set of required fields. Staff should be able to create an event from a template, preview mobile and desktop crops, set registration open/closed/waitlist, reuse a recurring series, and schedule expiration without editing layout. Assign one owner for calendar taxonomy and one owner for homepage curation; run a monthly stale-link and expired-content check. If registration remains in ShulCloud, preserve a consistent event title/ID and return path so the handoff feels intentional.

Target WCAG 2.2 AA from design through acceptance. Use real headings, keyboard-visible controls, generous touch targets (44 pixels where practical; WCAG 2.2 AA specifies 24 pixels or qualifying spacing/exceptions), sufficient contrast, reduced-motion support, captions and transcripts, descriptive link text, and alt text written by someone who understands the image’s purpose. Do not rely on category color alone. Avoid an iframe-only Google calendar as the primary mobile experience. Publish access information on every event where relevant—step-free route, seating, hearing support, ASL, childcare, food notes, and online access—using plain English alongside Hebrew terms and transliterations. A formal audit with keyboard, screen reader, zoom, and actual users should be part of launch acceptance.

## Recommendation

Choose **Desert Modern** as the foundation. Borrow Living Mosaic’s modular event system for family and cultural energy, and Sacred Horizon’s editorial restraint for worship, music, teaching, and lifecycle content. The combination evolves the current mark without severing recognition, feels native to Paradise Valley without resembling a resort, and gives staff a disciplined system they can operate every week.

Accessibility sources: [WCAG 2.2](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/), [WAI forms tutorial](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/forms/).

Research boundary: public-page review, not analytics, usability testing, full link audit or a staff interview. Current branding is observed; proposed design benefits are judgments to test.