Health, spiritual wellness, and happiness for the masses… yeah, we’ll help promote that.
At Overit, we’ve had the great opportunity to work with best-selling author and wellness activist Kris Carr on a variety of marketing initiatives, helping to better engage her existing audience and reach more men and women looking to achieve healthier lifestyles.
It’s pretty cool, and we’ve learned a lot along the way.
And not just about juicing and smoothies. Check out some highlights below!
Logo Design
Everyone has different reasons for going into a website redesign, and for Kris, the reasons stretched from development considerations and how content was organized to the brand itself. Her advice has evolved, her work has matured – and it was time for her brand to mature, as well!
Besides, a new modern website with an old, out-dated logo? It just doesn’t quite work.
So, that’s where we started. We begin with some analysis, and identified that:
- The logo needed to speak Kris. It needed to be more refined than the previous logo while being personable.
- The logo should feel more like a signature, typography-based without a graphic mark attached.
- Her logo would be used in a variety of different formats and had to be easily applied in any situation.
And then we were off to the races…. Using what we had learned, the Overit design team started working on a logotype that would utilize customized script lettering. Numerous script typefaces were researched and narrowed down to represent 21 distinct style directions.
From there, the team identified a typeface that felt most suitable as a starting point. The typography was set and specific letterforms were identified in need of refinement to increase legibility. The team worked on these letterforms with specific care to insure that they blended seamlessly with the other letters, creating a natural looking cohesive mark. The result was exactly what the client was hoping for, with the assistance of our team to help bring it to life.
Website Creation
Now, where was that new logo, not to mention a couple hundred highly-trafficked articles, going to go?
Every website has its own custom requirements – just like every brand, right? For Kris, we knew her readers are looking for articles to help improve their physical and mental health. A frustrating website experience is not the answer.
Planning
So… what’d we have to know to get started? Just a few things like…
- Juices are not smoothies. How you make them is different. Ingredients may be different – some foods you just can’t juice! And how you optimize them for search? Totally different. SEO research was a critical factor.
- Men want to be healthy, too. Now, this is an “of course” to some, but a “must” to remember. Demographic research – gender, age, interests – was key.
- “Laptop? Cell phone? iPad? Just tell me how to meditate! Wellness tips are in-demand, regardless of device.
- Party over here, party over there… 3rd-party integrations were required for multiple purposes. Seamless transitions had to be made.
- Opt-ins work. Placement is key. Kris Carr offers a lot to her readers. They have to be able to find and engage with it instantly.
And much, much more.
You don’t migrate a site the size of Kris Carr’s without accounting for every article, backlink, keyword… Her content is in demand. Her audience needs to find it.
Design
The site needed to not only “look like Kris” but also provide the user with a fluid and intuitive experience, performing across all devices and browsers equally well. Like any website, we must focus on user experience.
Luckily, looking at what hasn’t worked in the past provides a couple hints. For instance, we knew that we wanted to improve how her readers browsed her recipes. We identified that too much clutter meant not enough engagement. We knew the site needed white space. It needed to breathe. The use of white space assisted in balancing the weight of information while letting a user easily scan the page to find what content speaks most to them.
And typography? It needed to be clean, modern and easy to read. Based on this, we chose:
- Oswald (headlines and special call-outs) – clean, modern, sophisticated but not snobby.
- PT Sans (body copy) – highly legible in letterform and size.
- Satisfy (selected messaging highlights) – a script with touch of hand-drawn quality.
We paired that typography with down-to-earth, warm and honest imagery that speaks to the content and represents a tone that fits the brand.
During image selection, I chose photos that I would want to hang on my wall. I thought Kris would, too.
Also, unicorns. We knew the site needed some unicorns.
Development
Every site has its unique challenges. And that was certainly true for Kris Carr’s.
Over the years, the previous site had accumulated a tremendous amount of features supported by more than 30 plug-ins. Other features were created in custom code with no supporting documentation and relied on 3rd-party libraries.
Quite simply, there was too much that could break at any given time, and too often, one small update would cause a larger issue.
From quickly loading many gigabytes of media files to tackling corrupt files, from adding features to reducing load time, and we can’t forget accommodating existing users with custom log-ins…
Yeah, this one was a crazy (sexy) development project. But luckily, those are the most fun ones to do.
So, What’s Next?
We never want it to be a hand-off and say goodbye type of project. We continue to work with the Kris Carr team and look forward to new endeavors. Besides, we’re not done learning.