2021 started off in the best possible way – with a website project for Christine Nicole Photography.

Christine is a Kamloops, BC-based photographer, with such a wide range of talents and offerings. She photographs elopements, weddings, and engagements, and also specializes in family sessions. As soon as she sent me the photo content for her new website, I knew that this would be a fun project – her images are filled with energy, warmth, and candid moments.

In this post, I’ll share some of the behind-the-scenes of building Christine’s new Squarespace website, as well as some photos of the final result!

CREATING THE LOOK & FEEL – BRANDING CHOICES

Christine’s photography style is relaxed, candid, and warm. I wanted to make sure that any design elements chosen for her branding and website didn’t overwhelm or take away from her beautiful photos. We decided to select a colour palette filled with soft neutrals, a few subtle accent colours, and one more bold accent colour.

We ended up with this dreamy combo below! Throughout her site I used the cream, lace, and soft grey colours as backgrounds, with the warm golden colour for buttons or other calls to action. 

Christine recently had a new logo designed, so I used the two fonts from her logo throughout her website. The script font was perfect for brief headings and then I played with a combination of all-uppercase and regular case type-settings for the remainder of the headings and body text.

WEBSITE DESIGN FEATURES

1) PHOTOS!

Christine’s website has (not surprisingly!) a photo-heavy design, with full-width image banners across the top of each web-page and also at the bottom of each page, with a booking call-to-action button.

On the “Info” page, which gives an overview of each of her services, I also used gallery sections, to create little slideshow portfolios of each of her different photography offerings. This way, the site visitor can preview samples of her work without having to click away from the “Info” page.

2) COLLAGE-STYLE LAYOUTS

This is a web-design trend that I LOVE and I was so excited that Christine loves it, too! I used overlapping text and image blocks to create relaxed, collage-style layouts throughout her site. A great example of this is in the “maternity” section of her “Info” page. With the help of a little custom css, I created a full-height, half-width banner with the black and white photo. Then, I added an image block overtop with the pink text-background, to create a layered layout.

3) HIGHLIGHTED TEXT

Another favourite (small, but fun!) design feature from Christine’s website is the half-highlighted text, which I used for her client reviews. I think this is a great example of how adding subtle details can give value and interest to a website’s design. The soft highlight colour makes the all-caps text stand out and draws your eye immediately to the words.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS PROJECT:

Two things!

First a more technical thing for my workflow. I need to figure out the best way to have clients (and especially photographers who have so many amazing photos) deliver their photos to me through a program that allows me to more efficiently compress the images for web design. 

I’ve looked into Pixieset and I love that they have a ‘download as web size’ feature. Does anyone have any recommendations? For right now, I’m using a combination of Google Drive and an online image compression tool, but I would love to create a more streamlined process.

The second thing I learned was less of a lesson and more of a happy reminder. I was reminded of just how wonderful it is to collaborate with clients who share similar values. Christine is kind, thoughtful, and excited about her business. Her positive energy made the whole process really fun for me – which is such a bonus!

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If you haven’t already checked out Christine Nicole Photography’s new website, make sure to head over there right now!

If you like what you see, drop a comment at the bottom of this post or send me a message to chat about how we can work together on YOUR site! Apply to work together.