Behind the Scenes

Sep 10

Design VIP Day With Ms. Anna Lee

We are so excited to begin offering Design VIP Days and couldn’t wait to share some of the exciting things happening behind the scenes! First up is Ms. Anna Lee, a fine artist, fashion designer, and creative guide (through her incredible chakra portraits!) based in the Minneapolis area. Anna did two half day VIP sessions so that we could focus on two key areas: getting her new Squarespace site up and running, and building out a social media strategy to promote her upcoming offerings.

“I loved my personal and professional experience with the Design VIP Day! It was highly productive and an impactful use of resources. So satisfied with my experience working with Meg at Due West Design.”

Anna Lee, Owner, Ms. Anna Lee

Pre-Planning + Homework

Prior to both of the half day VIP sessions, Anna and our designer, Meg, connected for a planning session to review her pre-work and requests. During these meetings we focused in on overall business goals and then overlaid what could be accomplished during each VIP session for the biggest impact. We also reviewed Anna’s existing assets, like her new brand photography, branding guide, and digital presence, to see how we could best incorporate and leverage her materials.

Session 1: VIP Half Day to Focus on Squarespace Design

In this session, Meg audited the existing site and created wireframes for the main pages of Anna’s new web site. With Anna’s input she created a site map, then organized the business offerings and outlined a clear user experience starting with the home page and weaving through to the various services and specialties on the internal pages. Recommendations were made for calls-to-action, incorporation of brand elements and photography, and site wide improvements to help with usability and search engine optimization.

Session 2: VIP Half Day to Focus on Social media strategy

For the second half day, Meg focused on building out content pillars and potential post topics in a Google Doc, before diving into Adobe Illustrator (which Anna uses—we also design in Canva, Microsoft Office, or whatever platforms you use for your business) to create templates for Instagram. Anna had a beautiful rebrand and styled photography by Pegboard in Minneapolis. Using her vector art, photography, and branding guide, Meg was able to create Instagram post, stories, and highlight graphics for Anna to use as she promotes her upcoming workshops, readings, and fine art shows. Throughout the day Meg checked in via email with previews and to make sure the design direction was on track. When it was time to wrap up, the final Google Doc and art files were sent over for Anna to begin implementing.

Post-VIP Day Support

Our Design VIP Days include an hour of post day support to wrap up any loose ends or make final edits to the project files. Anna used the wireframes to lay out her Squarespace site on her own and add in her content. We used our final hour to review the site together and make live tweaks via Zoom to tighten up spacing, color usage, and troubleshoot a few technical issues.

According to Anna, “As a creative entrepreneur, I flow between being expansive with ideas and focusing in on what is important, often with varied degrees of success. Having Meg in my corner as a design professional that understands my unique goals and can put the right tools and methods to work is invaluable. I recommend her to any creative who thinks they should be able to do it all, but keeps learning otherwise.”

If you’re interested in a Design VIP Day to knock out your business to do list, check out all the details here! Meg offers a free discovery call to discuss your project and see if we’re a good fit. And if you’ve ever wanted to learn about chakra portraits, check out Anna’s amazing Creative Guidance sessions at www.missannalee.com!

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