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Most of what I do is branding for small businesses and organizations. Sometimes a client comes to me for a website refresh and I (of course) end up talking them into a logo refresh too. This isn’t an upsell--it’s just that if a client keeps their (sometimes outdated) logo and wants a refresh on their website, it just doesn’t work out.
Here, my client wanted a lighter look--but her logo and colors were pretty “heavy”. She was very attached to her logo icon, and had a complication of a long business name AND long personal name AND long title…
Jill's old logo:
After a lot of juggling, we ended up highlighting her name (Jill M. Udoutch) along with her business name (Integrative Counseling Services) in her logo, since her name is generally a lot easier to remember. We also changed her domain name (website address) to her personal name. Now we’re dealing with a “personal brand” which is easier for people to identify with than just a business.
Jill's new logo:
After lightening the logo a bit with a change of fonts and sizing, I went to work choosing photos for her website that would match but also have a lighter look. I knew it as soon as I saw it--a beautiful photo of dandelions in sunlight. That set the tone for the rest of her site.
I really couldn’t have made such a dramatic brand change if we had kept her logo the way it was when we started.
We also had the challenge of not having a lot of personal photos for Jill’s site, which meant a heavy reliance on stock photos. Typically, when a site has too many stock photos, it can feel very distant and canned. The more professional-looking personal photos you have, the better. So we tried to incorporate everything Jill had to make the site feel as personal as possible.
One of the primary contributions I like to get from my practitioner clients are client testimonials. They are always instrumental in making a site feel more personal, and giving new clients a better understanding of what type of results and professionals they will be dealing with.
All said and done, I loved the result of my collaboration with Jill, and was so happy to see this transformation! Check it out and see what you think: www.jillmudoutch.com