What is important here is what was done with the existing website for Gilcrease and what we
did with the original content and integrated a postcard-like handout the staff gives out when
you come to the orchard.
Integrated in one (1) web page versus the existing three plus the content of the handout.
I asked the lady at the exit cash register if their website included such info as found in the
handout, eg, produce calendar schedule and was assured that it was robust and superior to any
other website(s). Now, I may be a little critical as a professional designer and
publisher, but the (web) site was lacking in many respects, but that is why I chose it as an
illustration. I wanted to take their existing images; logo and message text and
transform it (along with the produce schedule found on the handout.)
The background color is their choice and appropriate for a produce farm orchard (green.)
Graphic Imagery
All images, without exception, were reduced in size (artificially.)
That is, when you save the image(s), they are larger than displayed on the web page
and size adjustment is made by simply coding the html with smaller width/height dimensions.
I prefer to use their (robust) size versus shrinking them and allowing
the visitor the ability to see the photo details better.
You should have a browser window open for the existing site so that you can compare our work, anchor page,
with theirs.
Please note that the illustration is our intellectual property and Gilcrease Orchard is not an advertiser
with Shop Las Vegas; not solicited after the "conversation" with the staff and of course, her opinion
that they do not need any more than what they have. What they have is a website invisible to
consumers, ie, a search on Yahoo came up empty and a website not really designed to assist their potential
consumers.
Strictly as a courtesy, we have added a banner link for them on our
Farmer Market
and Outdoors Pages.
Before you take the "learn more" link below to view our work, here is the handout integrated and not found
on their website for your complete background information.
The only thing that I would add is the pricing for the fruits and vegetables to the produce calendar we designed
for them. I can only remember the zucchini was 40 cents each and it would not be proper to say more
under the banner of business advertising and liability.
When we got there, my wife and I, there was a school bus from a local school that brought students to the orchard
to enjoy the farm atmosphere and to buy fruit and vegetables.
 1024 x 768 resolution
670 (x 768) resolution *
* The original site uses a width of 660 pixel possibly because of the desire to print properly
where anything higher than 670 pixel will truncate the right side. As such, the images
would have to be decreased in size (and quality,) but hardly to the point of the
original publisher.
Lessons Learned
Several things we would like you to come away with from this illustration lesson:
(1) Choice of background color so that you do not have to use a bold font versus regular font
for most text; besides optional point size (small) versus larger point sizes (regular and above.)
(2) The Orchard images all had borders or frames from the original background (darker,)
and it would be too much work to remove same for this illustration, but in some ways it helps us
show why a lighter green background is better.
(3) You don't need a website nor multiple pages to deliver your message -- especially
in this case. The photos, the brief wording and of course, the addition of the produce
calendar (with pricing, of course) gets your point across nicely.
(4) This Shop Las Vegas Anchor Page is an excellent example of choosing "screen" over
"print" capability. In other words, message content utilitizing the maximum width of
the computer monitor (standard being 1024 x 768) versus limitation of less than 700 pixel width.
Wallpaper
Exercise
Background Story
The future of the Gilcrease Orchard, where generations of Las Vegans have harvested fresh fruit, was debated Tuesday night at a county advisory meeting.
An item proposing a zoning change for 40 acres of former orchard land turned to discussion of the value and preservation of the orchard.
"We love that orchard. We don't want to lose it. I've been picking fruit there for too long to let it go now," said Leah Canfield in remarks typical of the public comment.
Canfield said she has picked fruit at the orchard for three decades. She and others said turning 40 acres of the 107-acre orchard into homes is not what the family would have wanted.
"Ted Gilcrease told us, 'Don't worry about the orchard. It'll always be there,' " Canfield said, referencing the orchard's late owner.
But the item on the Lone Mountain Citizens Advisory Council agenda Tuesday night only concerned zoning for 40 acres of the orchard on Tenaya Way at Grand Teton Drive in northwest Las Vegas.
Representatives of the Gilcrease Orchard Foundation said the 40 acres has already been sold to bail out the financially troubled orchard.
"It's just been a tough year, year after year,"
Mark Fierro of Fierro Communications said.
"The bottom line is, to get right down to it, they are land rich and cash poor."
The orchard is the only working orchard remaining in Las Vegas.
Residents visit the orchard to pick and purchase fruit and nuts. Fierro said declining demand for the orchard's produce has left "tons of fruit' rotting on the ground.
Attorney Chris Kaempfer, representing Spinnaker Homes, asked the advisory board to support a zoning change to allow 120 homes on the orchard's former land.
Kaempfer said money from the land's sell will go to preserve the remaining 67 acres of orchard.
"The more money they have from this sale, the more money they can put into maintaining the orchard and the Gilcrease home," he said.
The price of the land sale and how a zoning change may influence what has already been sold was not made clear to the council.
"So you want us to feel horrible for the Gilcrease people and make sure they get more money?" council member Donna Tagliaferri asked. "It's a zone. It's not a human interest story."
Ultimately, the five-member council rejected the zoning change item and recommended only 80 homes be allowed on the parcel. The issue next goes before the Clark County Planning Commission.
County and Las Vegas staff have recommended developers not be granted zoning changes to allow 120 homes.
Many of the more than 70 people who packed the Mountain Crest Neighborhood Services Center attended to discuss the orchard.
"This is the last bastion of agriculture that we have in this valley. We want to see it preserved and we want to see it saved," Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross said in presenting a petition to the council.
Grizel Herhold wondered why money could not be found to preserve the orchard in its entirety.
"We should preserve it the way it is. There's lots of money rolling around," Herhold said. "If I had all the money in the world I would buy that land."
Joe Thomson said he represented Bill Gilcrease, the only surviving family member. He said he visits Gilcrease regularly in his history studies as a doctoral candidate at UNLV.
"He has no personal connection and it's improper to use Bill Gilcrease's name as leverage to increase profits in this holding," Thomson said.
Fierro said keeping the orchard intact was unworkable and no longer an option.
"The 40 acres is sold," he said. "It's going to be houses or it's going to be houses."
Source: Las Vegas Sun (July 27, 2005)
"Gilcrease Orchard's future
debated at county meeting
Zoning change is proposed for 40 acres"
By Eric Leake
Las Vegas Sun (August 21, 2003)
"High school near orchard approved"
By Sito Negron
Nearly four hours of listening to mostly opposing viewpoints failed to persuade the Las Vegas City Council late Wednesday to prevent the construction of a high school next to the historic Gilcrease Orchard.
"It's unfair of you folks to come here without being prepared to discuss what's going to happen," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said of fears the school would irreparably damage the orchard near Floyd Lamb State Park in northwest Las Vegas.
The council heard few scientific facts but plenty of concern that 2,700 students converging on the nearly 40-acre site would increase vandalism and traffic, add to pollution and otherwise ruin the last vestige of a farming community in the Las Vegas Valley.
"I don't believe a man would endanger his life's work," Goodman said of Bill and Ted Gilcrease, the octogenarian brothers who sold the land to the Clark County School District specifically to build a high school. Their family has been farming the valley since the early 20th century.
The council voted 7-0 in favor of the rezoning request that will pave the way for the school that district officials say is needed to reduce overcrowding in other area facilities. The Las Vegas Planning Commission in late July voted 5-0 against the project. City staff had recommended approval.
Many residents argued that the school should be an agricultural institution with no more than 900 students.
School officials, however, said a new, full-size high school was needed to meet the rate of population growth in the area. Also, school officials have argued that they cannot build new high schools that do not offer amenities that established high school have, such as ballfields and sufficient parking.
"This is one of the few rural neighborhoods in the community and we must keep it intact," said Philippe Jaramillo, who lives near the proposed school adjacent to the southeast corner of Grand Teton and Buffalo drives.
"We may have to forge through streams to get home like we did yesterday (during the fierce storm and flooding) but we love it out there."
Patricia Gorlick, another nearby resident, said, although nobody is quite sure what the impact on the orchard will be, she said: "We don't want to find out when it is too late."
[Robert Kurk, Gilcrease Orchard Sales Manager]
/Excerpt/
Disclaimer: the small photos were borrowed from
MeganEdwards.com
Another good background story written by Megan Edwards,
"Living Las Vegas".
Now, for those of you that got this far, thank you.
Promoting Gilcrease is a community obligation, a way of life that we that want to call Las Vegas home
want to preserve for future generations of Las vegans.
Best wishes for your own business advertising campaign, and we @ Shop Las Vegas hope to be
an intrical part of it -- good luck !
-- Frank Picchione, Owner & Operator (702) 363-3290
Map - Whispering Sands Drive and Tenaya Way
| Produce Calendar | Cost |
All Year |
May | June | July | August |
September |
October |
November |
December |
| Acorn Squash | |
|
Summer and Fall | |
| Apples or Juice | |
All Year |
| | Apricots | |
|
| |
| Butternut | |
|
Summer and Fall | |
| Cantaloupe | |
|
| |
| Figs | |
|
| |
| Peaches | |
|
| |
| Pears | 50¢ lb |
|
|
| Pumpkins | |
|
| |
| Tomatoes | |
|
| |
| Watermelon | |
|
| |
| Zucchini | 40¢ ea |
|
| |
© 2006 All Rights Reserved Intellectual Property of Shop Las Vegas
See Handout the basis for the Produce Calendar above.
Subject to change without notice.
All imagery has been optimized for Web usage.
Shop Las Vegas Nifty Nickel ®
Visit also
Gilcrease Bird Sanctuary
Map - 8103 Racel Street
(702) 645-4224
(A block or two away from the Orchards)
Map - Whispering Sands Drive and Tenaya Way
(Click on the bird for web info)
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