“My business confidence has gone up, just by having a website. When prospective clients approach me now, I send them the link to my website and it starts the conversation for me. It looks professional, it looks clean - but what’s best, it gives a really good account of who I am as an artist and professional illustrator and what I offer.”

Stef Woof is a North West Illustrator who has been steadily growing her illustration business for the past two years. With high-profile clients ranging from ITV to the Chester institution Upstairs at the Grill, Stef had been relying on social media, mainly Instagram, to showcase her illustrative work.

“Every time a prospective client got in touch, it felt like I was starting all over again. I’d get these nerves and think… ‘How am I going to come across as legitimate? How am I going to make a good first impression?’ And then I’d waste time worrying about which portfolio images I should send via email or pulling a PDF together”.

Stef knew she wanted a professional online presence to direct prospective clients to and present her full portfolio, but wasn’t sure where to start and what information to include.

“I knew I needed a website, but I wanted it to be right. Because I was busy with work, it was difficult to carve out the time to start working through the best route forward”.

Stef approached Bright Avenue to design her business website.

During our website strategy session, we discussed Stef’s business goals, and from there started to think about what her website needed to include, possible site layouts, and Stef’s design preferences.

It was really important to Stef that her website clearly captured her work, her personality and her process.

“It takes someone like Rachel to ask the right questions. Rachel didn't just ask about what I wanted the website to do or look like, but how it links to my overall business strategy and client base. Within an hour we’d had a conversation that helped me to start answering the right questions, and given me the tools to start compiling the right content”.

Following the strategy session, Stef was confident that she needed a portfolio-style website that clearly showed her illustrative process and style.

DESIGN + content DECISIONS

All the design + content choices were based on the discussions we had during the strategy session and Stef’s goals for her business, including:

🌟 Demonstrate Credibility ⇨ We showcased Stef's previous work & testimonials throughout the site. This included a small, clickable gallery on the homepage to evidence the diversity of Stef’s work, alongside beautiful portfolio pages with images and testimonials sitting side-by-side to quickly demonstrate Stef’s work and feedback.

✒️ A clear illustrative process for prospective clients ⇨ We included engaging book-style interactive tabs on the 'Services' page to talk through each part of Stef's illustrative process

✨ Showcase Stef's illustrative style ⇨ Stef's illustrative style needed to sit centre stage so we included lots of white space and a simple layout to allow Stef's work (and style) to speak for itself.

💬 Start a conversation with prospective clients → Stef’s website is the start of her conversation with prospective clients so her personality needed to shine through! We included a detailed ‘About’ page so clients have the opportunity to connect with Stef and learn more about working with her.

“My business confidence has gone up, just by having a website. When prospective clients approach me now, I send them the link to my website and it starts the conversation for me. It looks professional, it looks clean - but what’s best, it gives a really good account of who I am as an artist and professional illustrator and what I offer.

As well as a web designer, Rachel was a good critical friend and really nice to work with!

And Squarespace is great. I really like the platform as it's all very intuitive. I used to work with Wix in my previous job - but Squarespace feels more contemporary, professional and looks more expensive than it is”.