Year in Review: 2021
Looking back on 2021, it was really time to take my long-time dream of building my own web design & creative studio and make it a reality.
I’ve been geeking out about website design for years, bookmarking obsessively in my browser every site I found beautiful, checking its source code to find out on what platform and how it was built.. It was getting out of hand!
In 2020, I was lucky to have enough savings when Covid-19 struck and cancelled all my tourism consulting and Kyoto guiding work, so at least I haven’t been stressed over my ability to pay living expenses. It was a year of internet browsing and checking the news every couple of hours, but also of thinking a lot about what I’d like to do with my life moving forward. 2020 has reset the priorities for all of us to some extent, isn’t it. I kind of took the whole pandemic situation as a nudge from the Universe to use this forced gift of spare time to establish an online business that I love instead of just taking on random jobs as I did before.
The resolve to officially start my digital design business has set the tone for 2021: intense learning of different aspects of brand strategy process, working on client management workflow and levelling up my web design and development skills.
Major shifts and changes of the year:
1// Switching from WordPress to Squarespace and new website.
I've built a couple of WordPress websites before, for my own projects and for people I know. When I started to think about offering web design services professionally, I realized that I’ve somehow grown tired of WordPress, its server side, hosting companies, constant worries about website security, plugins and other million things to think about when working with it. After looking for the best platform for service-based businesses, I decided to try Squarespace and I loved it! Simple to manage, secure and very customizable when you know a bit of coding - it was a no-brainer. I don’t like to manage websites for clients on an ongoing basis (which is often necessary with WordPress websites), so the possibility of working with a platform that is so simple that you can explain to a client how to update their site and not worry that it will break or get hacked was liberating. I also became eligible to be a Squarespace Circle member which gives me some exclusive benefits and access to its members-only forum.
2// Investing in my skills and my business, a lot.
They say that if you want someone to invest in you, then you must invest in yourself first, and it can’t be more true in the design business! There’s only so much you can learn by watching random videos on YouTube or getting close and personal with Google-sensei spending countless hours trying to find code snippets that you need. There are self-taught brand & web designers out there who managed to gain their skills through finding free resources only. As for me, I have a hard time when I don’t have some kind of a learning structure and support. So I decided to invest in a couple of courses that would make me equipped for the type of work I wanted to do. Here they are:
Simply Profitable Designer Summit
It wasn’t exactly a course, but I’m including it here because my learning journey started with purchasing the ongoing access to the presentations and trainings by 30+ speakers of this lovely online summit for designers. It was such an inspiration! Being my first investment in an online workshop or a course since the pandemic started, it took me some self-persuasion to pay $97 for the possibility to watch and rewatch the presentations and get access to a ton of valuable bonuses. Now, after investing thousands of dollars in my design and biz education last year, $97 doesn't seem like a huge sum for such an incredible value, but interestingly enough, it really helped me to improve my money mindset and relax about investing in online education.
I’m so grateful for this course. It’s the most comprehensive online course on Squarespace design and coding you’ll find out there. I enrolled for its coding modules and was blown away by the extent of knowledge packed in it. Rache doesn’t only teaches you how to create outstanding websites with CSS and JavaScript, but also how to position yourself as a designer, how to onboard clients, set up a client relationship management system and approach website builds with strategy. Almost everything I needed to start my web design business and creative coding tricks & techniques, I learned from her!
After designing and building a couple of websites by asking my clients to fill out a branding questionnaire, I discovered another way to ensure that my designs are not only beautiful but strategic too: brand strategy workshops. After a deep dive into the Brand Clarity Course by Marisa of Quill & Co., I was so fascinated by brand strategy and the way it helps to build meaningful online experiences that I decided to include it in my services.
I figured out how to build stores on Shopify on my own, but I still needed more insight into the processes involved in building e-commerce stores which are not the same for service websites. I’ve been following Morgan Rapp on IG for some time and I knew how knowledgeable she is about all things Shopify. She’s also an expert on value-based pricing, and her approach to working with clients is very inspiring. Also, Shopify has rolled out its new 2.0 version, so learning about it within a community of fellow designers is reassuring.
Through studying the brand identity design phase of the brand-building process, I started the discovery of my own design style which is definitely more type-based than illustrational. This course by Jamie of Spruce Road was exactly what I was looking for. To be able to offer brand styling services for websites that I build, I needed to learn how to work with typography which is definitely the backbone of every design project.
The Creative Copywriter Academy
Copywriting skills are quite essential for writing not only my own copy but also some bits of messaging for my clients. I was looking for a systematized overview of writing formulas & techniques, and this course by a UK-based copywriting agency proved to be really helpful. I’m still in the discovery phase of my writing tone & voice, but now I’m equipped with the fundamental know-hows and methods of storytelling and digital marketing essentials.
3// Adding Shopify store builds to my services
Almost every business needs an online shop nowadays, and while Squarespace e-commerce capabilities are enough in some cases, it has its limitations. Shopify is the best scalable option for online product-based brands, especially those who plan to sell internationally and in multiple currencies. Becoming a Shopify partner allows me to build development stores and then transfer them to clients, so they can start to pay Shopify fees only when their site is ready to launch.
4// Including brand strategy in all custom website projects
Brand strategy workshops are sure a challenge to the introverted me, and I would do all communication with my clients in written form if it were enough, but it isn’t! I felt the urge to dig deeper with brand strategy and all the goodness that it unlocks if tackled: brand mission statement, its values, voice, tone and personality, a way of differentiating it from other similar businesses using market research, customer profiling & sales journey. It is truly a necessary step for every business who wants to stand out and be successful in the crowded online market.
Plans for 2022
This year, I plan to mainly work on three aspects of my business: client experience & project management system, my design & coding skills and content marketing. Here are a couple of projects I plan to tackle:
Learn more advanced coding techniques in both Squarespace and Shopify;
Create at least 2 Squarespace templates to offer in my online shop and to use in my Website in a Week package for Squarespace site builds.
Start blogging consistently. There’s so much I’ve learned that I want to tell you about!
Dive into Pinterest marketing to drive traffic to my website. I’m not really into playing with Instagram’s algorithm, so Pinterest is the best option for me.
Also, I’d love to challenge myself with packaging design in the future! Maybe not in 2022 as I already have so much on my plate, but it’s definitely something I want to give a try one day. It would be so satisfying to design brand identities centred around packaging for the e-commerce websites I build. I’m currently eyeing the Brand & Packaging Design Course by Laura Evans from Our Kind studio.
And that’s it. Take a peek at my current offerings here →
Wishing you all the best in your own projects!
