The brand re-fresh. What went down?
HEY! WELCOME TO MY FIRST BLOG POST ON THE NEW SITE 🌟
I thought it would be a nice introduction to chat about how the refresh came about, and what went down with the design and build…
WHY?
Let’s start with the most important question. Why. Why did I choose to put myself through such a big overhaul and give myself 10 months of work on top of everything else? Well, l felt it was time to have a shop front I was truly proud of. My last website was made in 2017 and the world has changed a lot since then, and I have too. After being self employed for six years, I’d learnt some important lessons about how to sell my services to clients and how to communicate better about what it is exactly that I do. Something which I feel a lot of self employed designers struggle with. After all we’re designers, not self born business owners. Learning how to market your business is something that isn’t taught at design school, which is something I feel definitely should if you want to enter the self employment world. This was the most important lesson I’d learnt, what wasn’t working. I gave myself permission to represent myself more, and talk directly to the type of clients that I love to work with. This in turn, gave me a stronger proposition and a much more unique way to engage with potential clients.
HOW?
Just like any other project, I started with completing my own client questionnaire. This gave me the framework to see clearly what my strategy is as a brand, and gave me the right tools to position myself within my industry. This is the exact same questionnaire that I give to my clients, and the exact same strategy document that I write for my clients too, after all the proof is in the pudding right? One of the most important parts of having a brand strategy is to see clearly what makes you different against your competitors, which you then use as a tool to stand out. I knew my offering was stronger when giving my clients a deeper strategy phase to their brand, and this became my biggest difference to my competitors. With this came an update to my design to now reflect this better. Below is a couple of slides from my strategy document so you can see how it all came together.
THE DESIGN
Naturally, the design phase for me is the most exciting part. Any designer will tell you how difficult it is to design for yourself. But with my trusty strategy document in tow, I had my brief and direction set out clearly. I wasn’t seeing this as a big re-brand, but more of freshening up my existing design, and giving it a polish to make the most out of the new website. I tweaked my colour palette, updated the fonts and added to my bank of branded illustrations to give me more to work with. With my strategy document telling me directly how to stand out against my competitors, my new illustrations and strapline, ‘where brand strategy meets brand design’, all came together very naturally.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Brand photography is something I can spend hours talking about, and is one of the areas within my clients remit that often gets over looked. This was an area for my brand that needed a complete over haul. The decisions and work that went into my photography is much more suited to a separate blog post so I can chat in more detail and give it the time that it deserves to show clearly. But as a general insight, I wanted the photography to be much more brand-able for me, and be different to the ‘classic’ graphic designer head shots we are so used to seeing. In essence, I didn’t want to feature a desk or a laptop in any scenario, as not only is this not unique, but it doesn’t tell you anything that you don’t already know.
When looking at my personal story, the connections that I carry forward from my past and growing up next to the sea in Devon, to where I am today is a strong link to my work and the style that I create. Working with my friend Aiste who is the most incredible brand photographer, we got to work and brought to life this vision of mixing the sea into a brand photo shoot. I was incredibly nervous and just the very thought of having this type of photography on a designers website felt very alien, let alone that horrible feeling of judgement from others. But I knew it would give a stronger connection to my audience, and allow my clients to get to know me and my style better - so it was something I learnt to just dive into. I’m really looking forward to showing the behind the scenes of these shoots along with our early planning mood boards, because Aiste absolutely killed it, and I will forever be in-debted to her and what she has created for my business.
THE BUILD & GOING LIVE
To pull all of this together into some kind of conclusion, the build part of my website was made a hell of a lot easier with Studio Soph coming on board with her skills in custom development. It’s fair to say I has been around the houses with my own build, having switched platforms from Squarespace to Showit, and back to Squarespace again (a long story 😅) so it only felt right for all of this hard work to truly shine with a custom build.
There are parts of my website that are super important in converting stalkers into clients, most noticeably my design packages and what’s included in them. Sophie worked her magic to transform these areas from my idea of stationery tabs, into moving, clickable and interesting parts to use. She created bespoke carousels, dynamic menus, bespoke testimonial banners, bespoke graphic buttons plus working her way through my endless list of tweaks and changes to my designs (sorry, Soph!) But working with both Aiste & Sophie taught me the valuable lesson in collaboration, and it’s OK to not do everything yourself.
The build and design of my website took 10 months, a hell of a lot longer than I anticipated, but it feels great to finally have a representation of my offering and brand that tells a better story, and shows my services in a way that attracts the exact type of client that I love to work with. And that’s the power of thoughtful brand design.
