Kaitlin Ann Illustration & Art
What she needed:
Kaitlin is a fellow artist and recent grad entering the workforce. She came to me with a DIY Squarespace site but she really wanted the expertise of a Squarespace specialist to build a fresh, new website to a) showcase her résumé and portfolio of artwork in a way that wows, b) make it super easy for potential employers to view her work and get in touch, and c) reflect her vibe and design sense. She was already sold on Squarespace so our redesign would be simple and familiar for her to update.
Client: Kaitlin Ann Illustration & Art | Industry: Art & Design
What we did:
Kaitlin came ready to go with a full portfolio of artwork, a résumé, and an idea of some of the color schemes she liked as inspiration for her color palette. After an initial full site draft, we tweaked the color palette twice, tried out two fonts, and then I designed a slick custom animated logo and incorporated some adorable motion animations into her site to mimic sunrises, sunsets, and subtle movement while still letting her artwork and content shine as the star of the show. The result is a super professional artist’s portfolio site for Kaitlin to use as a pro tool in her job search. If you’re hiring, check her out!
Scroll the Home Page
One thing Kaitlin knew she wanted was a little logo animation for her name and title. After we dialed in the color palette, we nailed down a font, and then we had all the pieces of the puzzle to make this cute animation.
Peep the logo animation
Made with six layers of her title shifting each color one space for each layer, I smoothed out the transitions to create more of a fade than a flash, and a gif was born just in Kaitlin’s style. Then we coded in some custom CSS animations to make her sun graphics rise on her first page, set on her last page, and animate creatively on each of her other pages. Hot tip: Don’t miss typing in some nonsense at the end of the url to see her custom 404 error page! <— (here I’ve added “avocado” to the end of her url. She does not, in fact, have a page named Avocado.)
See all the animations in this speedy live site click-through
A full site tour in 37 seconds!
Last but not least: the mobile nav menu
Our final design step was to customize her mobile navigation menu with — you guessed it — a little bit more CSS, and it was the perfect place to incorporate her favorite pale yellow. Check out the before and after!
Slide the slider for a before and after reveal
Or just poke around yourself!
Final preparations for launch included SEO page titles and meta descriptions and Kaitlin was ready to fly into her job search with this perfect applicant package with everything she needs to dazzle any hiring team.
