One of the hardest things about being an independent operator is knowing when it's time to redo your website or brand identity. There's no magic moment of clarity. No one's going to swoop in and tell you it's time (not even me). You just have to figure it out yourself. Which is, of course, insanely difficult.
Having just gone through this, here's what I was feeling right before I finally pressed go:
- Dread and embarrassment every time I opened my own site. I never wanted to send it to anyone or show it off (kind of the whole point of a website).
- My messaging wasn't landing. It wasn't inspiring, fun, interesting, or distinct. "A brand studio for everybody" was very inclusive, but it wasn't speaking to anyone in particular.
- Endless updates. Every tiny update created three more problems to fix. Nothing was straightforward because the foundations had been built piecemeal and shoddily over four years, and everything was cracking under the weight of all that layering.
- A chicken-and-egg spiral. I couldn't redesign the site until I'd nailed my messaging. I couldn't nail my messaging until I thought about how it would live on a site.
- My work had evolved but my website hadn't. It was a showcase of past value, not current offerings.
- And yet! Despite all of this, my website still worked. It functioned. It wasn't beautiful or delightful, but it did what it needed to do, which made redesigning it feel superfluous. It's honestly a miracle I ever got myself to do it.
But I did! Thank god.
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