Happy Monday, friends! It’s time for part two of our brand evolution story. Who’s ready!?
To tell you more about how we landed where we are today, we asked Ravyn from Three Fifteen Design to share with you how things came together and the thought process behind it all!
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Hi everyone! I am so excited that Ashley & Troy invited me so share some perspective on finding focus for your new website! One of my favorite parts of my job is helping my clients dream through the content they want to share to their ideal clients. A shiny, new website is always an amazing accomplishment, but ensuring your message is clear, and you’re actually appealing to people you want to work with, is the key to success. To me, there are some pretty clear steps to follow for a cohesive site that’s full of great information, and void of unnecessary clutter.
- Figure out your goals: Whats the point of your new site? It it to introduce yourself/your brand to your ideal clients? Is it to supply a little bit of information, with the hopes they contact you to go further? Is it means to dive deep into your brand? — All of these are perfectly reasonable goals of websites, but you need to be sure you know exactly who you’re appealing to, and what kind of information you want to provide to your visitors. Once you know your goals, it’s easy to translate that into your pages and content. What if you even asked people in your market what they are looking for? Such valuable information!
- For A&T, it all came down to giving their potential clients a space to take pause. Chances are, visitors are going to check out a few photographers, and we wanted their site to be a breath of fresh air. When potential clients land on their site, the goal of that the site makes them stop in their tracks and think, “These photographers know exactly what we’re looking for!”. By infusing their personalities into the site (a deeper ‘about us’ section), they are asking for a real connection right off the bat. Also, we organized the navigation of the site to carry visitors through in a intentional order … first you get to know Ashley & Troy, then you see their work. Once you’re in love with their work, you’ll learn about the details of their client experience. Last, but not least, there’s a prompt to contact them.
- Keep your message/tone clear: What are the values of your brand? How would you describe your work? How would people describe working with you to be? These keywords will give you an outline of the “mood” of your brand. If your overall tone is “simple, clean, minimal”, it doesn’t make sense to have a 25 page website that’s heavy in text. And, if your tone is “bright, colorful, and joyful”, it doesn’t make sense that you’d have a darker site. It’s all about consistency. The minute people land on your site, you want them to feel your brand message right away.
- For A&T, it all came down to staying true to their branded statement: PHOTOGRAPHY for VIBRANT LOVE. Everything needed to center around this … A & T chose beautiful, bright, and vibrant images. When potential clients look through the site, the text, images, content reminds them that it’s all about a connection (with each other, with A&T, etc.).
- Find visual inspiration: I think it’s wonderful when clients send Pinterest boards of visual inspiration. What kind of navigation do you like? How do you feel about full-screen sites? Do you like a lot of little elements, or a super clean experience? Having this visual inspiration can help guide you (or your designer) when you’re building the overall framework.
- A&T spent time focusing on what inspired them, visually. By the time I saw their inspiration board, I had an idea of their aesthetic, and we could build the site around that. I knew they liked color blocks, large photos, and text on top of images. That might sound basic, but once I had that compass for the site, it was easy to create something that spoke to them & conveyed their overall message.
- Use consistent content: Going back to your tone & message, the photographs and elements (like colors, fonts, graphics) on your site need to be consistent. Every piece of your online experience should speak to your overall client experience.
- One of the benefits of Showit is just how custom you can make a site. By using all of the fonts & elements from their brand identity, the site feels consistent. And, while A&T have thousands of photos in their portfolio, we were intentional about which ones went on the site — all of them go back to their brand values! I especially like that every page is slightly different than the last, but they all use consistent elements, which means the whole site feels cohesive. I love the A&T encouraged me to explore ways to add visual interest to their online experience.
- Review through the eyes of a client: Sometimes I will literally say, “what’s the point of this?” – I want to be sure that a potential client will find value in each and every page/paragraph/photo on the site. If it doesn’t add to the experience, it’s best to leave it out. Be sure to walk through the site as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Does it navigate well? Does it offer enough information? Can they contact you easily?
- I absolutely loved that A&T questioned different design elements. We were critical of transitions & content … in fact, I thought that they had styled & chosen the PERFECT photos for their ‘loves’ section, but Ashley worked on it until it fit perfectly with their brand, and the message they wanted to put out. Of course, the end result is perfectly them.
What do you think? Did you work through these steps before launching your site? With most things, I think it’s important to trust your gut, and march to the beat of your own drum. When it comes to websites, we can do mostly anything to make them stand out. Be different! No idea is too crazy, as long as it speaks to your brand.To learn more about my business, read posts for creatives, and see my work, please visit my website. You can also find me sharing way too many photos of my food & my toddler on Instagram.Cheers!————Thanks Ravyn for all you’ve done for us! We are so thankful! You’re just the best.
