With enough fairy dust and a little bit of luck, I bet we can pull something together that's really great.

Or maybe we should focus on strategy instead?

Fairy dust is great in a pinch, but there's a whole lot more that goes into creating an impactful brand and an intentional website that speaks to your ideal client and highlights your passion for what you do. Over the past several years, I've refined my design process to ensure I'm delivering a brand that's exactly like you envision and a website that serves you better than you could ever imagine. I love a good process that delivers consistent results every time, so here's a little sneak peek into what you can expect when working with me.

the brand design process

Chapter One

The Introduction

Chapter Two

The Design Stage

The mood board is one of the most important steps in my design process.

It's how I ask “Is this what you're envisioning?” before I ever begin the tedious and time intensive process of designing your brand. I’ll include inspiration for color scheme, imagery and icons, photography and style, and fonts and layouts that I have in mind for your brand based on all the research and discovery we’ve completed thus far.

If you're on the fence about two different brand directions, I’ll design two mood boards so you can decide which style fits your vibe better. This ensures we’re on the same page visually before I ever put pen to paper or mouse to screen to begin designing.

Now comes the fun part.

This is the fun part for me and where you get to kick back and relax while you anxiously await your new brand identity. The design stage is the most time intensive part of the process as you would imagine, so if you don’t hear from me for a week– don’t sweat it, I’m just designing my little heart out bringing your brand to life.

I’ll create two concepts with a primary logo, alternate logos and a brand mark for you to choose from and curate those into a brand presentation for your review. Keep in mind that your brand package will consist of tons of logo variations for you to choose from, so the brand presentation is just a glimpse of what’s to come.

it's finally here!

After I've finalized your two brand concepts, I’ll send a brand presentation your way for review and feedback. The brand presentation will walk through the strategy and intention behind your brand and then showcase your two brand concepts with the primary logo, a few alternate logos, and the logo mark. It will also include your color palette, fonts, and some mockups so you can really start to visualize how your brand will look IRL. Based on this presentation, I’ll ask you to choose your favorite concept and then submit any revisions you have. I offer three revisions on your chosen logo concept; this is usually more than enough for clients to reach a brand identity they LOVE.

time to make sure everything is absolutely perfect.

Take your time reviewing the brand presentation, show it to your friends and family, and really reflect on each logo before sending which concept you want to move forward with and any revisions you’d like to see. You don’t have to send three revisions at once, sending one at a time and then seeing what you think is often the best approach unless you’re confident in your exact changes.

Chapter Three

The Conclusion

Now we package it all up with a cherry on top.

Once your revisions are submitted and I have finalized your logos, it’s time to package it all up with a cherry on top and send you on your way to landing those dream clients. Your brand package includes every file you need for print, digital, web and merch to ensure you look professional, consistent and beautiful on every platform. I include your primary logo, alternate logo and logo marks with numerous color and layout variations of each. You’ll also have your brand style guide, font files and a how to use your new brand document that details each file type and their best uses.

It's time to say see ya later, but not goodbye forever!

If you ever decide you want additional deliverables, you have questions about implementing your brand, or you just want to drop in to say hello - I’m always just an email away. I LOVE when clients send me photos of their brands in action, so please feel free to send photos my way as you start to implement your new and beautiful brand throughout your business.

Finally, I always ask my clients if they would be so kind as to leave me a Google review after our time together has drawn to a close. These reviews are incredibly valuable in helping me build trust and be discovered by potential clients, and are vital to the success and growth of my little business. If we have already worked together, you can use the link below to add your review to my Google business profile.

LEAVE ME A GOOGLE REVIEW

the website design process

Chapter One

The Introduction

Let's get to know each other, shall we?

After you’ve browsed my website, social media (if she hasn’t been updated in a while rest assured I'm still designing - I just have a love/hate relationship with social media), or if you’re coming here as a referral, the first step in getting things rolling is to inquire through the contact form on my website (just click the button below!) or send me an email. Please include a few details about your business, your website goals, a link to your current website if relevant, or any websites you really like (they don’t necessarily have to be in your niche).

Once I’ve received your inquiry and reviewed the information to see if we're a good fit, I’ll send you a link to schedule our video discovery call. During this call, we’ll get to know each other a bit, and start to dive into your target audience, your business goals and strategies, and the vision you have for your website. I’ll also answer any initial questions you may have about working together.

INQUIRY FORM

Now that we've connected, it's time to make things official!

I’ll send a proposal with your invoice and contract for you to review and sign. I require a 50% deposit and signed contract to officially add your project to my schedule.

As a solo graphic designer, I can’t guarantee your timeline, but I always do my best to stay on schedule and update you when life happens and things are running behind. I’m as excited as you are to make your brand come to life, but good things take time - and I’ve been known to be a bit of a perfectionist. After you’ve officially booked, feel free to start browsing and collecting websites that you love the design and layout of for inspiration.

I’ll also get your client portal set up during this stage- this is where I’ll share your proposal and any other documents, and communicate with you to keep you updated on your project, ensuring we both stay on track and never miss a thing.

In our discovery call, we started to reveal the why behind your business. Now we'll dig a little deeper.

In this content questionnaire, I’ll ask you to dive into the details and special qualities that make your business unique. I’ll ask about your target audience, your services or products in detail, website strategy and your goals as a business owner.

Two facts: One, you are a professional in your industry and no one knows your business better than you. Two, I’m not a genie nor a mindreader (although I wish I was). In order to create an intentional, impactful website that tells YOUR unique story, we have to start with you. The amount of work you put into this phase will directly impact the quality and personality of your website, so I urge my clients to brainstorm and write copy to their heart’s content with no filter, we’ll edit and revise later to ensure it’s website perfect.

This content questionnaire should be completed while you’re waiting for your project start date so that I have everything I need to hit the ground running when it’s your time to shine. I’ll also conduct website and market research to uncover what other businesses in your niche are doing to help us craft a strategy for what your website should include. This is where we start to mold and work the clay that will eventually turn into your dream website.

After you’ve submitted and I’ve reviewed your website content questionnaire, I’ll send you a link to schedule our Content Deep Dive call.

During this call, I’ll ask you to elaborate and dig just a little deeper on areas that might be lacking to continue crafting the chapters of your story. This is a conversational call as it’s often easier for clients to brain dump aloud than while staring at a blank sheet of paper (or questionnaire), so this allows you to flow while I take all the notes.

Chapter Two

The Design Stage

the design stage begins with curating your website style through fonts, colors, photography and imagery.

If we’ve already worked together to create your brand or you already have an existing substantial brand, this step is already completed. However, if you only have a logo or your brand needs a refresh but you aren’t ready to commit to my brand design package quite yet, this website style guide will develop a consistent style so your website looks intentional, professional and unique. Bonus, you can carry the colors and fonts I curate for you across your business platforms to start to build a consistent brand identity.

This step is what sets your website apart from the rest.

Similar to the mood board being the most important step of my brand design process, this is the most important step in my website design process. This step is what sets your website apart from the thousands of templated, stock websites across the web.

The website mockup is a custom static PDF design for each page of your website where I start to bring the magic to life- I bring together all the content, media, and copy you’ve provided me and start to layout the structure, organization, design and flow of the site. My website package includes five main pages with an additional fee for each page added. During this mockup stage, we can decide what needs to be a page and what can be combined, and whether or not you need to add additional pages.

We’ll work through three rounds of revisions here. The goal is for this mockup to be as close as possible to the actual website design - saving both of us time and headache down the road. It’s way easier to move things around and add to the mockup than it is once I begin the website build, so I urge clients to be as thorough as possible during these revision phases. The program I design in allows me to create a shareable link for you to quickly drop pins and comments across the design during your review, ensuring your feedback is easy to follow and implement.

I exclusively design websites in Wix for service based sites and Shopify for product based e-commerce websites.

I’ve used several website platforms throughout my career, and these two continually stand out for their design experience and endless customizations.

Wix is a powerful, user friendly and completely customizable platform that allows me to create beautiful, custom websites with YOU in mind. My goal is for you to feel empowered to manage and update your website post launch (although I’m always just an email away to help out with updates too) so Wix’s Content Editor allows you to make quick updates to copy, images, and links without breaking a sweat.

As for Shopify, it's a robust e-commerce platform that is trusted by retailers everywhere to sell their content and manage their customers. Shopify focuses on a clean user experience with an emphasis on product organization that allows customers to easily navigate your website and find exactly what they’re looking for. It also possesses a powerful back end management system allowing you to view client data, send marketing emails, monitor your website analytics, and so much more.

things are starting to get real, so we need to give your website a home.

Depending on whether you’re a service based or product based business, I’ll design your website using Wix or Shopify, respectively. Wix and Shopify are called website hosts, think of these as the landlords that allow your website to live (for a monthly “rent” of course) on the world wide web. For 95% of my clients, I recommend purchasing the Basic Plan for $19/month for Wix websites. Feel free to check out what’s included here. For my Shopify users, the Basic Plan at $29/month is generally perfect for their small business needs. Check out what’s included here.

Next, you’ll need a domain if you don’t already have an existing website. The domain is quite literally your address, or your website’s “home.” This is how your potential clients will find you, how you’ll market yourself, and how you’ll be discoverable on the floating digital rock. Generally this is just your business name smooshed together (sonderdesignco.com) I always recommend purchasing a .com domain for the best visibility and trust online. You can purchase this domain directly through Wix or Shopify so everything is easily managed under one platform. Price varies here, but they’re usually only $12-$25/year.

This is the phase where you get to kick back and relax while I work.

For Wix websites, I’ll build your website under my account and add you as a Co-Owner and Collaborator to the site. This means I don’t have to keep track of a thousand different logins and I’ll always be able to easily pop in to help you out with website updates in the future as requested.

For Shopify, you’ll need to create an account and share the login information with me before I can get started. With both platforms, I can build your website almost entirely on the free plan so you don’t have to upgrade to a paid, premium plan until we’re close to launching. However, it’s a good idea to secure your preferred domain as soon as possible just so it doesn’t get snatched out from under you.

Once the website is mostly completed, I’ll ask you to hop in for your first review. In Wix, you can follow a similar approach to how we did revisions on the mockup through a pin/comment feature; for Shopify, we’ll have to do things old school with just an email/notation for changes. We’ll complete three rounds of revisions here as well to guarantee your website is a perfect and accurate reflection of your business.

Basic seo and keyword optimization is included on all my websites.

I don’t claim to be an SEO expert because that’s a career all on its own, but I do complete Basic SEO and keyword optimization on all my websites. This includes meta titles and descriptions, alt text for all images, and ensuring all pages have appropriate links and headings/paragraphs. For Wix websites, I will also index your site on Google which allows it to be viewed and discoverable in search results.

I write content for humans, not Google, so you won’t see me writing paragraphs just to bury keywords, but I’ve found this to be an effective strategy because the more engaged a human is on your website, the longer they stay, and that makes Google think “oh this must be a good website” so I’ll rank it higher and try to show it to more humans.

I also highly recommend creating a Google Business Profile (it’s super easy and drastically improves your reach in search results) and collecting reviews from happy clients via that business profile. You can then recycle these and post them on your website. Businesses with plenty of 5 star reviews rank higher on Google than those with none. I can confidently say this has made the biggest impact on generating client leads and being discovered on Google for my business. If you want to dive deeper, hiring an SEO expert is always a great next step after we launch your website!

Chapter Three

The Conclusion

i want you to feel empowered and confident to maintain your website.

An up to date website attracts more clients, appears higher in search results, and is a trusty sidekick in your marketing endeavors. I’ll create video tutorials showing you how to manage basic updates on your website and I’m always happy to answer questions about specific updates you’d like to tackle. Additionally, I’m just an email away if you’d like to hire me at my hourly rate for website updates post launch. I do my best to fit these into my schedule as soon as possible and will send you an invoice when the updates are completed and approved.

If your website was built in Wix, I’ll transfer site ownership post launch to ensure all marketing, billing and customer emails are directed to you. I’ll leave my account as a Co-Owner of your site so that I can easily manage updates if you request them, but you’ll have full permissions to do whatever you want with your new website. For Shopify sites, since the website was already built under your account, there’s no transfer process needed.

It's time for me to let you soar, but it's not goodbye forever!

If you ever need website updates and don’t have time to mess with it, it feels too complicated, or you just aren’t interested in spending your valuable time editing your website, I’m always available to manage edits and updates. If you have questions about website settings or specific updates, or you just want to drop in to say hello and update me on your website success- please don’t hesitate to reach out. I LOVE when clients send me business updates and successes, so feel free to stay in touch and I promise I’ll be your biggest cheerleader!

Finally, I always ask my clients if they would be so kind as to leave me a Google review after our time together has drawn to a close. These reviews are incredibly valuable in helping me build trust and be discovered by potential clients, and are vital to the success and growth of my little business. If we've already worked together, please feel free to use the button below to drop a review on my Google business profile.

LEAVE ME A GOOGLE REVIEW

attention, attention: ALL CLEAR for launch!

After we’ve completed all rounds of revisions and you’ve signed off on the website, we’re ready for launch!

If you haven’t already, I’ll walk you through purchasing a premium plan and we’ll connect your domain a few days prior to launch since this can take up to 72 hours to connect. Finally, I’ll publish your site, complete a final round of review/edits once it’s live as things can always look just slightly different on the live website and it’s time to celebrate! As an added bonus, I’m available one week post launch free of charge to iron out any bugs or fix anything you notice once your website is live.

Now, get ready to start sharing your new and exciting website with the world!

brands & websites for your unique story

Beautiful collaborations, visions brought to life and pages well written.

EXPLORE MY WORK

Let's get to know each other, shall we?

After you’ve browsed my website, social media (if she hasn’t been updated in a while rest assured I'm still designing, I just have a love/hate relationship with social media), or if you’re coming here as a referral, the first step in getting things rolling is to inquire through the contact form on my website or send me an email. Please include a few details about your business and your brand goals, and feel free to drop the link to your Pinterest board if you’ve already started brainstorming (I LIVE for a good Pinterest board).

Once I’ve received your inquiry and reviewed the information to see if we might be a good fit, I’ll send you a link to schedule our video discovery call. During this call, we’ll get to know each other a bit, and start to dive into your target audience, your business goals and strategies, and the vision you have for your brand. I’ll also answer any initial questions you may have about working together.

INQUIRY FORM

Now that we've connected, it's time to make things official!

I’ll send a proposal with your invoice and contract for you to review and sign. I’ll ask you to decide if you’d like to include any add-on deliverables at this time so that I can add them onto your initial proposal. I require a 50% deposit and signed contract to officially add your project to my schedule.

As a solo graphic designer, I can’t guarantee your timeline, but I always do my best to stay on schedule and update you when life happens and things are running behind. I’m as excited as you are to make your brand come to life, but good things take time - and I’ve been known to be a bit of a perfectionist. Once your project is officially booked, feel free to start that Pinterest board or begin saving logos that you love for inspiration!

I’ll also get your client portal started during this stage- this is where I’ll share your proposal and any other documents, and communicate with you to keep you updated on your project, ensuring we both stay on track and never miss a thing.

In our discovery call, we started to reveal the why behind your brand. Now we'll dig a little deeper.

In this design questionnaire, I’ll ask you to dig a little deeper on target audience, brand placement, strategy and your goals as a business owner. I’ll also ask you to continue visualizing your brand: what colors are you drawn to, what fonts resonate with you and your audience, what icons or imagery represent your business? This design questionnaire should be completed while you’re waiting for your project start date so that I have everything I need to hit the ground running when it’s your time to shine.

I’ll also conduct brand and market research to uncover what other businesses in your niche look and sound like while creating my own Pinterest board based on all the details you’ve provided. This is where the magic starts to come together to bring your dream brand to life.