There were nearly 900 million websites in the world in 2015, according to Internet Live Stats.
Fast-forward to now, and the number balloons to just over 1 billion.
Some websites have a clear vision with who they are and what they offer, like one of my favorites: Coveteur, a brand with a minimalist website design for all things fashion, beauty, health and wellness, travel and lifestyle.
But other websites leave readers in the dark with what their vision might be, like this website: Suzanne Collins, an online profile that leaves viewers confused.
At CalgaryJournal.ca we have some work to do in figuring out our brand. Which is why we approached a well-known Calgary digital designer.
Lauren Popadiuk is the co-founder of Salad Studio, a Calgary company that specializes in website and brand design for individuals and small businesses.
Popadiuk has designed content for Our Daily Brett, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, and Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters, to name a few.
I reached out to her because I am one of the fourth year editors, placed into the role of co-social media coordinator, working to revamp The Calgary Journal’s social media pages and overall brand.
I wanted to understand what steps a brand and website designer with a solid reputation would take when advising businesses and individuals on their brand.
Natalie Holland, our co-lead editor sums up our challenge this way:
“The Calgary Journal has a wide variety of content that comes in each month, so our brand has had some difficulty being defined. As students we want to broaden our horizons with different type of content, but as a publication we want our audience to know that we are true journalists.”
Popadiuk rose to the challenge, and offered five tips to think about when revamping a professional brand.
Her five tips are useful not only us, but to you too. If you are driving one of the world’s billion websites and need to create or update your personal brand, check out Popadiuk’s tips here.
The editor responsible for this piece is Brendan Stasiewich, bstasiewich@cjournal.ca