Kim: rebranding an education consultant

Kim posted on LinkedIn looking for a web designer to improve her website. We met and expanded the scope to include video assets, social media templates, and a brand guide to advance her coaching/consulting business in the education space. I would manage all the pieces. We decided on a one-month timeline.

Outsourcing a visual designer

I began with a bidding process to hire out the graphic/visual design work. I knew that part was crucial. Between two candidates, I decided to go with the one with fewer years of experience but more passion, vision, and energy for the project. I knew we would work well together and talk through decisions.

Brand Star, User Personas, Competitor Analysis

I hit the ground running with protocols for the discovery phase. I knew if I just started building, I might get push back. If I created alignment, direction, and value structures from the start, I would more likely have success.

The first was a “brand star” to validate what Kim’s business was all about. Then, we created user personas (based on NNgroup’s). Finally, we looked at websites Kim liked and sites that were best-of models in the coaching/consulting world.

Homepage Concept

With groundwork done, we moved into the definition phase of the project. I showed her examples of what a homepage could look like and pointed out how it was informed by our discussion of competitors, users personas, and the brand star.

Sketches, Moodboard

Then, I got sketches and moodboard from the designer. I met with Kim to get feedback. (That was my favorite part. I was nervous and excited to see what Kim thought. To my surprise, the sketches fell flat and the moodboard was actually the champion of the hour. So, for the second round of sketches/illustrations, we leveraged all that feedback.)

Video Assets

I created 9 clips from a 1.5 hour interview. I wrote the questions, asked them and shot, edited, and produced the videos in Premiere Pro. I would not recommend this one-man band approach because it is always nice to have other minds and hands on a project. Still, for a one-month job, it was a lot of fun.

Final site

All our meetings, alignment of expectations, and rounds of feedback behind us, we completed our short project with a new website, a new brand, and new media content for social. Success!