The Brand & Website Glow-Up
Geraldine from Velada Events originally came to me wanting to revamp her website a little bit, and we discussed some creative direction options together. After an initial consult, I think Geraldine realized there wasn’t anything wrong with her brand, it just needed a bit of a refresh to truly reflect the level of luxury she already gives her clients so naturally. So we wanted to keep that essence and elevate it, rather than reinvent it.
The overall direction ended up being pretty similar to what she was already doing, just more elevated! We started with the color palette, focusing on expanding the purple palette a little further. Geraldine really wanted to keep her signature lilac, the one Velada has become so recognized for, so we expanded around it: deepened some of the purples, brought in some soft neutrals, and mixed in a bit of the new while keeping the parts that were already working (and that she already had brand recognition through).
From there, we moved into aesthetics, the overall feel of the brand. I asked Geraldine some of my go-to creative direction questions: How do you want people to feel when they work with you? What are some trends in your industry you don’t love? What are some common practices you do love, and don’t? Basically, how do you want people to feel not just working with you, but looking at your brand?
That’s where we landed on six core brand keywords. As I design, I love making things beautiful, of course, but I also like to be able to tie every single element back to at least one of those keywords, so everything has meaning, everything has a story. That’s exactly what we carried through for Velada.
Once everything was solidified, we moved into the concept presentation, which kicked off the font journey. We didn’t want to stray too far from what Geraldine originally had, but we did want to elevate it. She’d started with an original Canva logo, and the whole point of us working together was to take that foundation and make it more custom, more tailored to her and to how her business has grown. We landed on a beautiful serif font, easily legible, but one that pretty much screams elevated luxury, especially throughout her brand and website.
During the concept process, I explored a few different directions, as I always do. There are always a few iterations before a brand is ready to meet the world. I actually started with hand-drawn elements and a hand-drawn icon, but quickly realized that wasn’t it for Velada. So I pulled it back to fine-line, minimal luxury elements instead. We scrapped the illustrations entirely because they just didn’t fit the brand, and really honed in on what Velada wanted to be known for, and how we could set it apart visually.
You’ll see the full brand kit below and how it flexes across different spaces. I love giving my clients a range of logo options they can pull from depending on the element and the scenario they’re working with.
The Website
Once Geraldine’s brand was finalized, we moved into the website, something we’d already talked through in terms of what she needed it to do for her business. That meant migrating from Squarespace to Showit, which gave us so much more room to play: larger galleries, SEO-friendly blog scheduling that integrates with HoneyBook, and a bigger, more customizable portfolio overall.
I found a template as our starting point and then made it entirely Geraldine’s, with her custom colors, custom fonts, plenty of that signature lilac purple she’s known for, and gorgeous photos pulled from some of her most recent weddings woven throughout. It was genuinely so fun watching her real work come to life on the new site.
And the response spoke for itself. When we shared the “coming soon” sneak peek of the new brand, it pulled in over 100k views! Seeing that kind of excitement before the site was even fully live told us we were exactly on the right track with this one.
If you’re dreaming of a brand and website that feel as elevated and true to you as Velada’s does now, I’d love to be the one to help you get there. You can inquire here for more information.
Leave a Comment