Launched : HaleyRae Cannell
BRAND AND WEBSITE REDESIGN
** This is a re-creation of the original blog post from August 2018 **
This project was easy. Almost too easy.
I was waiting for the ball to drop. For it to become more of a challenge.
But that never happened. HaleyRae is easy going and knows what she wants. This made her project easy peasy and felt like a dream.
Don’t get me wrong, it had it’s challenges as every project does. The challenges for this project just had little to do with the actual project and more to do with nailing down aspects of my business.
SOME OF MY CHALLENGES:
♥Creating all my client discovery homework. *THIS TOOK HOURS!* The end result was over 80 pages and more course form than homework. I’m not in love with how they ended up looking but I am beyond proud of all the content I’ve created for them. I’m so so excited to spruce them up a bit and have them ready for my next client. This was a huge challenge but also a big win.
♥ Working on my business around my lulu work. This meant working 80 hour-ish work weeks and being exhausted. If you know me, you know I NEED ME TIME. We all need this but I seem to need recharge time more than most. I love what I do so much that working for 12 hours was not a problem. It was when I had to work at my day job that I’d start to feel the crash and burn creeping in. My lulu Mondays were BEYOND challenging and I really felt the tole of working two jobs on these days.
♥ Finding time for me and my loved ones. This one goes with the one above. Working that many hours between two jobs meant it was super tricky to balance my personal life. I’m just lucky I have such an awesome man in my life who supports me in my goals.
♥ Working on two projects at once. This was unexpected and I wouldn’t do it again. I completed Nicholas Bardon’s project on the same day HaleyRae + I launched her website. Nick and I had started his project back in February but put a pause on it due to some missing details. Of course as things go, both projects ended up overlapping. This gave me a couple different learnings. First: I CAN complete two projects at once. Second: I don’t plan on doing it again. It really showed me that it doesn’t value either clients time when you’re attention is split. This made me even more sure of my client process for future projects.
♥ Completing it in the summer. I love summer. I love to camp where I have no service. SO working on my weekends when I love to camp and explore and be active was a bit of an oops-y on my behalf. The client homework took me far longer to create than I expected. This meant HaleyRae’s project got pushed back. I could have pushed it until September but I decided it was more important for me + my business to complete it as soon as possible. Also I really wanted to stay integral to HaleyRae since she’s such an integral person herself.
With big challenges comes big rewards. This project also had all kinds of big wins.
SOME OF MY BIG WINS:
♥Getting to test out my client process properly.I have been DYING to nail this down. Every project I have completed before this hadn’t quite worked with my process. When I took on HaleyRae, this was of major importance for me. I needed to test it to see if it worked. If I could do it. I needed a dress rehearsal. And this was it.And it worked.
♥ Seeing I could complete a project from start to finish in 3 weeks (well working basically 2 other jobs). Like nailing down my client process, I wasn’t sure if the three week timeline would work out. In theory, I knew I could do it but that didn’t stop the little voice in the back of my head from telling me otherwise. When I made it happen this was a HUGE relief. I felt and still feel excited because it gave me a glimpse into how my business is going to run. Smooth. I’m so excited now to use my process to help another client achieve their dream brand and website. It gave me confidence.
♥ Nailing down my Asana project timeline and most of my client docs. I used Asana to nail down a timeline, by whens, to-dos etc. This was a game changer and really helped me make the 3 week process happen. Also mostly completing my client docs meant that I’ll be able to get future clients set up with homework while I’m completing a project for another client. Basically, it will make my business more efficient and easier to maintain. This is a big win for future Lauren.
♥ Showing myself I could be my own boss. I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to work for myself. Every project I’ve done until now have had very undefined timelines which has meant they went on and on. These worked well with my lulu work but I was concerned when it came down to actually having to have a timeline, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I was so proud of myself for sticking mostly to my timeline and completing the project on time with the exception of a few little things (such as this blog post).
♥ Last but not least, working with HaleyRae. This gal was as much of a dream to work with as I knew she would be. Integrity is a keyword I would use to describe this project. She consistently was in touch with me, did all her homework on time, communicated her needs, asked when she needed more time, gave me consistent feedback, and trusted me to do my job. This dress rehearsal project was exactly what I wanted it to be and more. Thank you HaleyRae!
So without further ado, I’m so darn excited to show you what we created. Enjoy and as always, if you have any feedback send it my way.
THE BRAND
BRAND VISUALIZATION
You step onto the beach and the evening sun hits your face. You instantly feel alive, happy + grateful for the beautiful place you live.
As you walk along the water, step by step, the sand gives below your freshly pedicured toes. They’re your favourite shade of hot pink. A wave comes in and washes over your feet, causing your nails to sparkle in the most magical way.
You look up towards to sky and notice a stunning sunset. Light pink clouds dance across a pale teal sky. Their resemblance to cotton candy makes your mouth water. As you watch them float by, you feel almost as if you’re floating on one of them. Flying high in the sky, taking in all this magical world has to offer.
You continue to walk. Gradually stars start to speckle the nights sky, peaking through the clouds like tiny diamonds. You breathe in the fresh night air and take one more look at the beauty of this gorgeous night. Feeling fresh, clear + ready to take on anything, you walk into the sunset, towards the rest of your life.
What you need to know about HaleyRae is she’s basically an actress version of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde.
She does HaleyRae every damn day.
This girl is authentically, beautifully herself and is really something special.
Pink, Sparkly, Feminine, Fun, Disney, Passionate, Girly, Authentic are some words I would use to describe what we wanted to create for HaleyRae’s brand.
When creating her logo, she new EXACTLY what she wanted. I can’t really take full credit for the logo we created as she drew me what she wanted. I then took what she drew, worked some graphic design magic, and turned it into her logo. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
As for her colours and fonts, it was the same thing. Again, she knew what she wanted and we used some of the fonts + colours she loved from Discovery Homework: The Brand.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we went quite pink. This is 100% HaleyRae. She is pink through and through.
Truth time: when I took on her project as a portfolio piece, I was a little concerned because it was yet another pink website. Most of what I’ve showcased in my portfolio so far has some pink (or you know, lots of it). I was afraid doing another pink brand. My concern was it would tell potential clients that’s all I could do.
BUT you know what. I don’t care. This brand is SO HaleyRae + I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.
CORE VALUES:
♥ Determination
♥ Optimism
♥ Love
♥ Happiness
♥ Adventure
WANT TO EXPLORE MORE OF HALEYRAE'S BRAND?
CHECK OUT HER BRAND TOOL KIT:
THE WEBSITE
When building HaleyRae’s website, my main focus was organizing her content so it was easy to navigate.
This gal has SO MUCH GOING ON. From acting to hosting to performing as a Disney princess and more, saying HaleyRae is “busy” is an understatement.
Figuring out a way to showcase all of these talents was tricky but I was up for the challenge. Take a look below for a peaky at how it turned out.
Coming Soon
AFTER
"Lauren was wonderful to work with from beginning to end of this project.
She did a truly EPIC job at creating a website and brand that was perfectly me and even better than I ever dreamed it could be. I loved how I was able to throw her all my thoughts, ideas and visions of what I wanted and she did all the technical magic to produce haleyraecannell.com .
Thank you so very much Lauren! I would definitely recommend her to all of my family, friends and anyone else in the market for a website, which in 2018 should be EVERYONE! Do not hesitate on choosing Lauren to design your next website! She is the fairy godmother of websites. She waves her wand and ta-da you have a website even better than what you were expecting!"
I’ve said it and I will say it again, I am so happy with how this project came together.
As I’m sure you’ve gathered, this gal is the boss-y-est boss babe I’ve probably ever met. This girl HUSTLES. She works her booty off. She makes her goals happen. She’s an inspiration and a beautiful human. She’s HaleyRae.
HaleyRae: Thanks for being a wicked awesome client and friend. I am SO SO SO proud of you and all the hard work you put into this project. I hope you are so excited about what we created. Enjoy, goal crusher! You did it!!!
A little secret: my favourite part of the project isn’t the final product.
It’s all about the client. It’s about our experience together. We create a friendship and memories and that’s beautiful. It’s truly magic.
Check out the magic HaleyRae and I created here.
Enjoy ♥
P.S. Curious if we'd be website besties? Me too! Send me a little email over this way. Pretty sure we'd make a great team? Fill this bad boy out and let's get this show on the road!
P.P.S. If you'd like to know more about some of my past projects, give these other blog posts a gander:
