You are a year or more into your business and know that you want a new website: perhaps a total brand overhaul?
You feel kind of stuck as to how that should look: What logo? What colours? What theme?
If you are anything like my clients (and me), you love the idea of evolution and transformation. It can feel stifling when faced with the challenge to visually brand you and your business…so soon! You want to be able to try things on for size, see how they fit and feel, and then iterate over time.
Can you relate?
I like helping people, like you, get past the glitch of what to look for. An effective re-frame is to become a Living Brand. Instead of stalling at logo design and over-designed themes, think about the visual narrative that can weave throughout a website and brand to convey the story of you and your business. The essence of what you want your audience to connect with.
We all love picture books!!
Picture your very own unique illustrations, peppered throughout a website and social media that can convey a perfectly imperfect digital storybook of you.
Lisa’s story
I would like to introduce you to one of my clients. Her name is Lisa Barber from Roots and Wings . She is a perfect example of a Living Brand. She allows herself to be part of a wonderful journey of transformation as she crafts her niche. It is through keeping open to possibilities that she now has the most wonderful living narrative running through her new website and brand.
Lisa hired me at the beginning of January to create the website of her dreams and to perfectly complement the nature of her work and its context. I think we have done an amazing job! Take a look here. Lisa has a strong background in sales & marketing, and also a definite love of the countryside and her kitchen: her home!
So, we set to work. After questionnaires, chats, and Pinterest board sharing, I developed a strong sense of Lisa’s taste and the feeling she wanted to evoke with her website.
It is our intention to convey the story of the kitchen table, the cute cat, and the visiting pheasant..We even crafted a 404 page that captured the embarrassment that may occur if a client opened a door to one of her spare rooms (we all have a door we hide stuff behind, don’t we). Mugs of tea, cake, and a sense of fun were portrayed with the occasional glimpse of wellies, or a favourite fluffy toy.
As well as her business, this is her life and she wants to share some of that with you, on her website, so that you can get a sense of what working with her can be like. To feel you are on a retreat, to gain business nourishment within a delightful country home setting.
Through working with Lisa, I have fallen in love with her idea and the visual story of her business. I hope you can see this too when you take a look around.
It takes courage to invest in your business brand
When it comes to investing in your business, there is nothing worse than paying thousands of pounds on a re-brand, only to feel afterward that the brand is not quite you. There is something missing. Maybe it was created based on what you think the client expects to see, or what your peers are doing, or rigid formulas applied that are not resonant with you.
We are connecting more and more with the vulnerability of being human and this can make all the difference when a prospective client finds your online home…We look for those written words that we can connect to. Perhaps we can also visually connect and enhance our written words in a way that shows our authenticity and uniqueness: our quirks?
Sure it takes courage to invest in your business, as we fear we may get it wrong.
But, there can also be a visual dance connecting and uniting your brand and unraveling from your website to flow into your social media. Breadcrumbs of clues on each page. A cohesive story of your tastes and interests right now… A visual narrative that sits within a robust and well-functioning, yet simple, website.
Your needs may change over time, but that’s okay as your evolution and story will inevitably change too. Stay open to it…
And there is me
I am passionate about what
As much as possible, I aim to make every website as accessible to edit as possible: A Living Brand! But, I am also available for ongoing maintenance packages and iterations too. You only need to ask…
Over to you
So, dive in and fall in love with Lisa and her business. The look and feel of her website help you to connect the dots and decide if you are a good fit for each other…Enjoy. We would love to know what you think.
If you or someone you know are thinking about having a website redesign and you like what you see here, then perhaps drop me a line and we can begin a collaborative conversation.
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