AV Interior Design Website Launch
It's been a while since I wrote about this client because we had some difficulties working with the images she had available initially. But not to worry! Her Creative Consultant hired a photographer to recapture and edit her work. Turns out he did an AMAZING job!
Now, Back to the website building process...
We had decided to use a template design given her lower budget. But after putting everything into place, it just wasn't something I could stand behind :(
Main image from original homepage:
The image/collage is great but it just didn't do it for me. The homepage is the first thing a visitor sees when they come to your website - therefore THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of your website. I found there wasn't enough "wow" factor. Time to rethink the design.
Woke up in the middle of the night (which is normally where my best designs come in) and went to town on a completely different design. Not exactly what she paid for but I couldn't let it go.
First Draft for initial homepage - Didn't love it, but I wanted to incorporate her logo
Scratched the 2nd design. What's new...
The third times a charm. We were in luck!
Took some inspiration from Pinterest and finally figured out her design
Pinterest Insporation:
So now I had to incorporate her logo elsewhere. I had originally taken it from the top left corner because I did not like the "Interior Design" aspect making the navigation bar wider. So, back to photoshop where I simply deleted it. Duh! Now I had a much simpler logo to work with.
Original Logo:
I just took out the INTERIOR DESIGN wording to make it fit the navigation perfectly - see in video below
Initial image and navigation done, now onto the rest of the homepage.
Naturally about comes next, so I just picked my favorite piece from the about section, pasted it and added a button to read more. Because who is going to read her entire bio first time visiting the site am I right??
*Most people visit a website to see what you can do for THEM. Once interested, then they will want to learn more about YOU.
Katherine - The Creative Branding Guru had made an amazing collage that we were initially going to use for the homepage. Turns out - as I stated above, it just wasn't sitting well with me. So I just reorganized and placed it on the site as a breaker. I think the collage was a neat aspect. Different from her staged work while still showing her sense of style.
And last we needed a call to action. I had been reminded of this by one of my favorite companies (Go Live HQ) that a website has to have a clear understanding of what you do right off the bat and a clear call to action so visitors know what to do next. So here we go.
What's neat about this call to action, also called a CTA, is that when you click on it, it pops up rather then sending you to a new page. Basically, the visitor never really has to leave the homepage.
And of course we had to finish off with the social links along the bottom.
Other pages include her detailed about bio, a gallery for those interested in exploring more about her work, and last a noncommittal contact page for questions and conversations.
*Note: this gallery would not have been the same without great photography - key to an amazing website!
Now, watch the video of her final site and tell me what you think!!!