130: New Artist Website with Shop on Squarespace 7.1 for Stephanie Ruble

Update: This site no longer active shows my design. From time to time clients will move on to other platforms or even shut down their business. This is such a case where my original design is no longer visible on this client site. That happens. And it’s okay. I am leaving this blog post for SEO and to give you ideas and as a record of my work!

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day + bonus 2nd day
Client Site: www.sruble.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Art & Design
Location: Delaware, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette includes the blue from the logo for accents and highlights and bright orange for links and navigation.
White: #fff
Black: #000
Green: #3aa251
Blue: #2c71b6
Orange: #ff9933
Purple: #794f99

Fonts Used:
Headings: Acumin Pro
Paragraph: Poppins
Miscellaneous: Poppins

Fresh off the website oven! Last week, I was on a two day project to create an artist website for Stephanie Ruble. The project was over Monday, Tuesday and because of some unexpected scenarios, I needed an extra day to complete the project. Through it all, Stephanie, was calm and composed and readily supplied any new materials or info I needed for the project.

Usually, I tell my clients that we have only three main checkpoints on any day we work together. But on this project, we had multiple email threads to get some things taken care of and my client was very attentive to my requests responding in light speed throughout the two days of our project. The main issue was the size of the images and renaming all of them. This is an important point to consider if you are designing an image heavy site to make sure the site does load fast despite lots of images: ask for both jpegs and pngs of the artwork and ask for both the original and small sizes. There are a lot of tips around image prep that I can possibly put into a separate blog post. But for now, suffice to say, that we have a lovely site with fun, creative artwork in different categories that showcases Stephanie’s versatile artistic skills.

The site showcases a home, about, commissions, portfolio and a shop with three products. My client has already begun adding new elements and started a blog. This is always a good sign telling me that my handover Squarespace training was good enough to build confidence in my clients to start working on their site and developing it further.

This was a Website In A Day + Bonus Day project built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engine.

---

Trivia: Stephanie’s artwork is fun and creative. I enjoyed so much working with her art on the website. A lot of her work is adorable but the frog in the pond is my absolute favorite. While Stephanie has illustrated children’s books, she has a vast skill set including creating fun patterns. And oh, she loves cows (her about page bio will make this obvious!).

---

Kind Words from the Client :

“Sophia was wonderful to work with and went above and beyond to make my site come to life. She patiently answered all my questions, found solutions for the complicated things I requested, and came up with a design idea I absolutely love.” ⏤ Stephanie Ruble, sruble.com

---

Here you can see the frog that I love so much.

Your Turn:

What’s something amazing you’ve noticed about your clients while working with them on their websites? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

123: Website In A Day x 2 - Artist Website for Theodora Miller on Squarespace 7.1 (Using Fluid Engine)

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day x 2 (built over two days)
Client Site: www.theodoramiller.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Art & Design
Location: Richmond, Virginia, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette is soft cream and light olive green and grey for section backdrops and some title colors. The navigation and links are in the main brand color of teal.

Fonts Used:
The fonts are light and elegant.
For Headings: Minerva Modern
For Paragraph text: Montserrat

This week I got to work in a completely new way. Most of my projects are done either via my Website in A Day workflow or my Two Week Website workflow. Theodora Miller, a fine artist in Richmond, Virginia suggested a third way: Website In Two Days! Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we collaborated on moving her 7.0 artist site to 7.1 and up-leveling the design and functionality in the process.

This 6 page-site features a portfolio of her art work, commissions page, a shop for prints and gifts, an about page, a contact page and a home page. Of course, SEO, keywords, image optimization and mobile optimization plus an hour training of Squarespace was part of the package. Theodora has an inspiring healing story which guides her art that takes inspiration from her Greek heritage. Even before she hired me, I looked at her work and started dreaming of a vacation in the Greek islands!

This was a Website In A Day * 2 Project (Built in 2 days) and built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engines.

---

Trivia: Theodora takes inspiration from her Greek heritage and memorizes inspirational quotes in Greek and then transmutes those words into her art!

---

Kind Words from Theodora:

She is truly excited about her website and this is what she had to say about our work together:

"Sophia has been an amazing partner from the moment of our initial free consultation to our customized 2-day sprint. She has the perfect mix of technical prowess and creativity. She was thoughtful about making value-added design solutions that delighted me and elevated my brand even further than I had imagined. Her compelling expertise of Squarespace 7.1 features made the training portion of our project a breeze. In a very short duration of time, we developed a comfortable rapport that made the collaborative nature of this initiative so enjoyable. All of this is attributable to Sophia’s willingness to think outside of the box, investing the time to understand my unique needs and developing a web design that showcases my art in the best light.

As if that was not enough, she blew me away with the SEO capabilities that she built into the site and taught me do so I can optimize performance in the days and months ahead. She’s joyful and optimistic to work with and I will likely have withdrawals tomorrow after working together for two solid days.

I can’t wait to see what my friends and art collectors say about my new website.” ⏤ Theodora Miller

This is the commissions page.

Your Turn:

What inspiring moment you can recall while working with your clients? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

122: Website In A Day - Squarespace Website for Actor and Voice Over Artist (Using Fluid Engine)

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day
Client Site: www.jenniferugarriza.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Entertainment
Location: Connecticut, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette is monochromatic with black and white as the main colors with a splash of terracota orange to add some color for links and buttons and footer.

Fonts Used:
The fonts are elegant and modern at the same time. Squarespace offers a plethora of font combination options so there’s no lack of choice there.
For Headings: Acumin Pro
For Paragraph text: Poppins

This week, I had a lovely opportunity to build a Squarespace website for an Actor/Voice Over Artist - and I built it in a day!

Jennifer purchased my Website In A Day package to get a lovely site that serves as a digital business card for her acting and voice over work. We presented her voiceover demo on the Media page along with acting clips as well as a separate page for all her headshots. With everything in one place, she can send the link to this website to potential clients, agents and post it on her profile.

This was a Website In A Day Project and built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engines.

---

Trivia: While we were doing Zoom calls to review the new design I created, Jennifer’s dog, Paco, a little dachshund, was barking softly while sleeping, which I found totally adorable!

---

Kind Words from Jennifer:

"I loved working with Sophia--she made the process super easy and seamless for me and was responsive to all of my questions. The website design turned out exactly how I wanted--actually even better than I had anticipated! I would recommend Sophia, she is friendly, professional, and knowledgable in graphic design. Thank you for your great work!!”
⏤ Jennifer Grace Ugarriza

Your Turn:

What inspiring moment you can recall while working with your clients? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

121: New Squarespace Website for California's Regional Association LACFDA

Type of Project: New Website Build - Two Week Web Design
Client Site: lacfda.org
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Non-Profit/Association
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

Recently, I had the opportunity to create a website for a non-profit organization out in California. It's not very often that I get a request from an organization of this nature. So, when the President of the Los Angeles County Funeral Directors' Association contacted me to rebrand their existing website, I was intrigued. Ms. Jenna Moerk is a fountain of sunshine, has an amazingly sweet personality and was a total delight to work with during this two week project. It certainly is one of my larger projects with lots of detailed pages.

Jenna wanted me to design a fresh, clean and uplifting site which exudes the coastal California flair. And yes, that means, you will see a lot of palm trees on the site! It includes an extensive Member Directory, Resources page, password protected Members page as well as a way for members and vendors to purchase tickets for an upcoming event.

I often pick up a nugget of insight or wisdom from my clients. And this project was not an exception. One of the things that Jenna told me during our off-boarding call when I handed over the finished website was a reminder that (I am paraphrasing): "Life is too short. Don't wait for an opportunity to do what you love.”

This project was a Two Week Web Design Project and built on Squarespace 7.1

---

I learn so much from my clients and in this project my client reminded me to “not wait for an opportunity to do what you love”!

---

Kind Words from Jenna:

"Sophia has the best eye for design. We love the creative ideas she created for our website - from the look to functionality, we are extremely happy. I strongly recommend her services."
⏤ Jenna Moerk, President, LACFDA.org

Your Turn:

What inspiring moment you can recall while working with your clients? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

119: New Artist Website on Squarespace Brings Happy Tears to My Client

When a client sheds happy tears when they see the website you’ve created for them, then you know you’ve got a job well-done.

Recently, I was fortunate to experience such a moment with my client, Debra Hille. She is a fine artist based in Tennessee, over the border from us here in North Carolina (hello, neighbor!). She creates personal sanctuaries through art and values peace, beauty, and meaningful engagement. For the last ten years, she has worked in healthcare by offering patients a positive diversion by making art. She also oversaw the selection, purchase, and installation of original art in multiple hospital and healthcare settings, channeling more than $100,000 in art purchases directly from local artists. She has also curated and installed art shows in hospitals that brought staff and visitors joy and respite. Now, she is back in the studio crafting the next chapter of her artistic journey.

Debra found me via Squarespace Marketplace and shared that she wanted to move her site from Wix to Squarespace. She loved the idea of a Website In A Day. guided her with all the prep materials she needed to send me over. And on our design day, I set about to create here website. Below is the result.

---

Magical moments with clients makes my web design work so rich and satisfying!

---

Kind Words from Debra:

"Sophia was a pleasure to work with, professional, prepared, patient, and friendly. A winning combination. She provided a welcome package on design collaboration and a step-by-step document, so I knew what I needed to do and provide for her. I must admit I became emotional on the first view of the website design. It was just right!

After completing the website, some issues connecting my third-party domain to Squarespace arose. But, again, Sophia was right there to troubleshoot and make it all work.

I look forward to working with Sophia again and recommend her without hesitation."

⏤ Debra Hille

View fullsize

---

FREE TRAINING FOR FREELANCE WEB DESIGNERS

If I had known 3 years ago what I know now, I could have short cut my progress towards becoming a successful web Designer. I could have saved myself from heartache and progressed my business faster and seen these benefits earlier. And I am sharing these insights with you in a brand new free training, so if you are freelance web designer or making your plans for starting your freelance web design business (and quit your 9 to 5), then come to my free training where I share the 3 Essentials to Earning $10K+ Months. Sign up here.

---

Your Turn:

Have you experienced a magical moment when working with your clients and showing them their newly designed website? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia