PLan for success
Before you do anything, do this.
It’s so tempting to dive straight into pulling your sections and blocks together in Squarespace but I promise you the whole thing becomes a lot easier when you plan ahead. The main areas in which you need to do this are:
Research on sites that inspire you
Site structure
Copy
Colour palette and font choice
When I’m creating a custom site I will spend AT LEAST 50% of my time sorting these aspects of the site out before I’ll even head into Squarespace to start building. The main reason I do this? It saves me hours and hours of time. In the following videos I’ll give you some pointers on how to use low cost options to mirror the process I use so that your site is launched as quickly and effectively as possible.
I use the Adobe suite of tools for my web design process but I’ve tried to simplify and replicate the process as much as possible in Canva to make it more user friendly. If you want to investigate Canva you can take a look here. Canva does offer a free service although some of the options I talk about are on the Pro plan. You can sign up to the Pro plan for a month at a time and it may be worth doing so just while you get your website up and running and then cancelling it if you don’t want to carry on or don’t need the pro plan benefits for ongoing use.
A quick note on branding…
This course is designed for people early in their business journey and it was with that in mind that I make the recommendations I do. I wanted to record a quick video to say that whilst I absolutely think graphic designers are worth their weight in gold sometimes you need to work with the budget you have!
Inspiration
Researching and collating sites for you to use as inspiration.
resource area
Want to take a look at my Pinterest board for ideas and inspiration?
Click here >> Ideas and Inspiration Pinterest Board
Site Structure
The importance of planning and starting to sketch out your site architecture.
Resource Area
Download the site structure Canva template here.
Copy Planning
I’ve created a copy prompt for you to help you write your copy to build your design around. You can dowload it from the resource area below.
Taking time to focus on your copy will really help you to clarify the information you want on your pages. Often this is a point with my custom clients where it really helps them to distill their business offering and how to communicate that effectively.
Resource area
Download the COMPLETE YOUR COPY workbook here.
Site Design: Planning your colour palette
The colour palette and how to use it is probably one of the biggest stumbling blocs when it comes to Squarespace. Instead of finding it restrictive use this video to create a palette that is flexible and works for you.
Resource Area
You can view my colour palette inspiration board in Pinterest here.
You can use my colour palette template in Canva here.
The ColorSpace tool can be viewed here.
Canva’s colour palette generator tool for photos can be viewed here.
Site Design: Planning your fonts
Fonts are another crucial way of communicating with your client.
For your website you need something that is easy to read and attracts your customers eye in the right way and to the right place at the right time.
In Squarespace, you get a range of Adobe and Google Fonts as standard. However, if you are relying on Canva as a design tool (for example if you use it for your social media or other promotional material too) it will be easier to choose fonts which appear in both Canva and Squarespace. If you’re happy to not be limited to Canva then there are a range of fonts available and you can view my Pinterest board of some of my favourite combinations.
As with choosing your colour palettes if you’re really struggling to make any decisions here just choose one combination for now. In the next module you’ll get instructions on how to add the fonts and you’ll be able to see how it looks with your copy in place and your colours and images around it. Then you’ll be able to see how the fonts look and whether they achieve the objective of the design aesthetic you want to achieve with your font choice.
Resource Area
You can view my Pinterest board of fonts available in Squarespace and Canva here.
You can view my Pinterest board of Adobe fonts available in Squarespace here.
Designing your browser icon (favicon)
How to create a browser icon for your Squarespace site.
Ready to get going?
Now that you’ve spent some good quality time planning your site out you’re ready to move on to the site build in Squarespace. The following videos will help you get going.