Earlier this year, Jala Design won the ‘Health & Wellness – Website of the Year’ at the Australian Web Awards (AWA), for our work with Belongside Families. The site was also named a finalist in the Not For Profit category, which is recognition we’re incredibly proud of, and one we’re just as happy to share with the team at Belongside.
Having accomplished this, our team wanted to take some time to reflect back on what we have achieved & how we got here.
How the Project Began
When Belongside came to us, they were in the process of rebranding away from their former name, Kindred, and needed a partner who could help carry that transformation all the way through, from name and identity to the digital website that would represent them going forward.
It was an opportunity for us to do more than build a website. We got to help shape how an organisation doing genuinely important work would be seen, understood and connected with, at a time when they were redefining themselves for the families and professionals they support.
What We Did
Our work began with sitting down with the team at Belongside Families & listening to what it was they hoped to achieve. We gained valuable insight over several meetings & our work assisting them to achieve those goals then spanned the full journey from concept to launch, including:
- Naming and rebranding – helping shape the new Belongside Families identity as they transitioned away from their previous name
- Brand and visual design – developing a modern, warm identity that reflects the organisation’s community-first, family-led values
- UX/UI design and WordPress development – designing and building a new website structured around the needs of parents, carers and the professionals who support them
- Accessibility compliance – ensuring the site is usable and welcoming for the full breadth of the community Belongside serves
- Blog and resource management – building flexible content systems so the Belongside team can keep publishing stories, guides and resources that matter to their community
Every decision, from defining the new branding to building the new site, was made with one audience in mind: parents looking for support, often at a difficult and uncertain time. That meant prioritising clarity, warmth and ease of access over anything flashy.
How Belongside Became Belongside
When a brand already carries deep community trust, honouring that legacy while driving evolution is a delicate balancing act. Rebranding an organisation people already trust is delicate work, and every decision we made together served one goal: keep what already worked, while giving Belongside an identity that made them stand out.
That balance started with the name itself. The name captures how Belongside actually supports families, walking alongside them through the journey so no parent feels like they’re navigating it alone. That’s where Belongside was born, from showing up alongside families and giving them a sense of belonging.
From there, the focus shifted to the visual elements, which followed the exact same philosophy. Rather than starting from scratch, we kept their existing colour palette. It was already such a warm, approachable representation of who they are that changing it would have meant losing something valuable, so we carried it into the new identity as a sign that the heart of the organisation hadn’t changed. Showing existing families and supporters that while the brand was evolving, the care and trust they relied on remained completely intact.
The result is a brand identity that feels both comfortably familiar and confidently modern. By respecting what was sacred, we protected the trust Belongside had spent years building. Ultimately, it serves as a powerful reminder that the best rebrands don’t change who an organisation is, they simply make their true purpose impossible to miss.
Reflecting on the Win
In retrospect, awards are always nice & we have a strong sense of pride in achieving this one, but for us, the real measure of a project is what it’s like to work alongside the people behind it. Belongside’s team brought so much care and clarity to this rebrand, and it made the whole process a genuine collaboration rather than just a handover.
That’s what makes this win worth celebrating, it’s not just a new website, but a partnership we’re genuinely proud of.
Being recognised with a national award for this work is a huge honour, and one that means even more knowing it comes from a project we cared so much about getting right. Congratulations to the whole Belongside Families team. We’re so glad we got to be part of this journey with you, and even prouder to call this an award-winning outcome for both of us.
If you’re looking to chat about a project of your own, don’t hesitate to reach out!
The team at Jala were amazing to work with. Responsive, helpful, and solutions-focused throughout the entire process. They made everything simple and straightforward, and we couldn't be happier with our new website!
About the author
Finn is a web developer here at Jala Design, whose work bridges technical craft and genuine understanding of people. Before turning to code, Finn spent years in social work, an unconventional path that shaped how he approaches every project today.
His background gives him a rare edge, knowing how to listen closely, ask the right questions, and build solutions that actually serve the people using them, not just the brief on paper. It’s this blend of technical & human-centred thinking that makes him a trusted partner for clients looking to turn their goals into reality.
Finn’s recent work has been recognised with an Australian Web Award, a reflection of both his technical expertise & his commitment to building sites that genuinely work for the people they’re designed for.
