Branding, Website & Content Strategy, SEO, Information Architecture, User Experience, Website Design, Custom WordPress Development, Website Support
Client Overview:
I absolutely love working with passionate business owners/entrepreneurs and Katherine Pelz is no exception.
Katherine Pelz Architecture is a Seattle-based architectural firm founded in 2006. Katherine specializes in house lifting and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU's) and Detached Accessory Dwelling Units (DADU's). She has chosen this niche because she is passionate about increasing the value of her client's properties, improving the quality of their lives, and maximizing the use of the spaces they have.
My goal for this project was to improve her firm’s online presence and help her be seen as an expert so that she can attract, find, and connect with better clients and projects.
The Challenge:
Katherine approached me because it had been years since her DYI site had been updated, and it was no longer relevant from a user perspective. The navigation was not streamlined to services, the mobile experience wasn’t optimized for conversions, and users couldn’t easily take any actions. It didn't effectively represent her talent, knowledge, and capabilities or the quality of service that she provides. Nor did it encourage customer engagement. It was time to clean house.
In addition, it was built on a foundation that made it almost impossible for her to edit her own website.
I undertook a complete rebrand of her architectural firm from the ground up and designed and created a simple, clean, effective website that attracts her ideal clients.
Branding:
The brand design was created to invoke a professional yet contemporary vibe that would appeal to both men and women as well as clients and contractors. The palette has a balance of strong, bold colors and light, softer colors. To also make it fun and creative I added a lively pop of bright, fresh colors.
The clean, modern typography evokes Katherine's approachable, professional brand personality.
The Solution:
You can be the world’s most sought-after architect. However, if your website design does not exhibit your talent, knowledge, and capabilities, you will never be taken seriously as an architect by the visitors to your website. A major benefit of having a professional architect website is being able to market your business quicker and more cost-effectively in the competitive architecture industry.
Katherine and I started with several website/business strategy sessions so that we could get clear on the goals for the website, who she wanted to work with, what type of work she wanted to do, and what makes her unique and therefore more memorable.
In the face of stiff competition in Seattle for architects, we focused on the following two questions.
- What does your firm do really well, what are you best at?
- What skills and expertise separate you from others?
We also dove into the following questions:
- How do you help clients?
- What makes a project successful to you?
- What are your goals and aspirations? What does success look like three years from now… five years from now?
Using her answers we were able to create clearer, more engaging content on her website. Content that will help Katherine be more unique and more memorable, and help potential clients understand what makes her firm tick and how she can help them
During our strategy sessions we were able to narrow in on the type of work that she is good at and wants to do more of - house lifting, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU's) and Detached Additional Dwelling Units (DADU's). She has chosen this niche because it increases the value of her client's properties, improves the quality of their life, and maximizes the use of the spaces they have.
We also added project case studies and testimonials to help build trust between Katherine and her prospective clients. Too often, architecture firm websites rely on galleries of project images to represent their work. Beautiful pictures are great. But where websites are concerned, a beautiful picture with words is even better because Google cannot scan your portfolio images and understand them. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - this is why written content is so crucial.
Katherine is a talented architect, and she finally has a website to match.
SAMPLE PROJECTS
