RUBY TODD

Squarespace Author Website, Australia

A laptop positioned on a stone stool displaying the Squarespace author website

Squarespace Website Redesign

Ruby Todd is an award-winning Melbourne-based writer and creative arts researcher. Her debut novel, Bright Objects, will be released in April in Australia and July in USA.

Location:
Melbourne, Australia
Industry:
Author, writer, novelist
Services:
Web branding, Squarespace web design day

A red balloon floating in a blue sky above a road, with an overlay of stars

The project

Ruby contacted me because she wanted to work with a professional Squarespace web designer to help her to refine her website through a design day. Although she had initially designed the site herself, she wanted it to better reflect her work as an author, particularly with the upcoming release of her first novel soon to be published in Australia and USA. The aim was to have the website mirror the narrative, mood and atmosphere of her new book. After our consultation call, we both agreed that along with a design day, a website branding was also necessary to achieve her goals.

The website redesign process

Our collaboration began with developing her brand. Using a detailed design questionnaire, I conducted extensive research to create a brand moodboard. This helped her in looking for stock photography. I created a cohesive color palette, finding design graphics inspiration, and setting up a typography system to reinforce brand recognition and support her book's narrative.

During our design day preparation call, we prepared a checklist of design tasks prioritized by importance. We reviewed her existing copy and website structure, and identified areas for improvement regarding her web copy and SEO. We prioritized the website narrative and the addition of new pages, such as a Press page and a dedicated book page, featuring clear calls-to-action for easy access to her book purchase.

Following thorough preparation, I successfully completed all tasks for our dedicated design day. These tasks included implementing new branding, adding new pages, refining the overall design, curating stock photography, editing photos, and creating custom animations. The next day, I provided Ruby with a video recording and a PDF of the custom-coded elements, allowing her to update her website independently with ease.

The result of our web design collaboration is a distinctive and memorable website that clearly reflects her personality and accurately represents the atmosphere of her book “Bright Objects”.

Cosmic Thriller Mystery

Romantic Dark

Astronomy Mysticism Gothic

“Audrey is outstanding to work with, and I cannot recommend her more highly! In addition to her high-level tech skills, she is extremely organised, an excellent communicator, gracious, and generous. But in my opinion, one of the most unique things about Audrey as a web designer is the way that she blends both her artistic and aesthetic talents (which are considerable) along with her intuitive ability to truly listen to a client's vision, and bring it to life in a carefully structured process of research and dialogue. Audrey exceeded all my expectations, and I'm already looking forward to working with her again!”