What is TravelChic?
TravelChic – (noun) Seamless travel, styled for you.
The Process
After my research, I’m so excited to start this process with Keri! We meet for the first time at Ten Tomorrow in Kaimuki… she is so down to earth, friendly and open. I give her a background on my business, what customer service means to me, and what I love about what I do. I also give her an outline of the look, feel, and vision I wanted for my page. Basically I tell her I want the look to be simple, chic, clean, and easy to navigate, that I can also edit / maintain in the future. That’s all I could describe.
Keri immediately says, ‘I think I know what you’re going for and what you want to represent’. I can see her already envisioning everything in her head. We just clicked so quick!
We then roundtable with Summer and her photographer Nikki, on how I should start the branding and website process. Summer, who has been at this for a while now, asks me: “What is TravelChic?”. I had never thought of a specific definition, I just knew I wanted to create a quality personalized experience with customized itineraries for people who are too busy or overwhelmed with the planning process. I leave this meeting feeling energized and enthusiastic on the future of my brand, but know I have a lot of thinking to do.
At my second meeting with Keri, we dive into the details of TravelChic. You need a mission. What are your goals? What does TravelChic mean to you? We go over some words, phrases, and minor details. We end the meeting with my assigned homework— what is TravelChic?
Over the next few weeks, I take notes when any word comes to mind. I created a notepad page on my iPhone and jotted down whenever I thought of a word I liked. I put together several definitions and kept going back and forth on whether TravelChic was a noun or verb. Finally, one day in a furniture parking lot, I came up with the definition of TravelChic!
Keri creates three moodboards to choose from. This is the first time I’m seeing how she took my ideas and brought them to life. After seeing the options, I was so excited! The colors, the fonts, the adjectives to describe TravelChic… it was hard to pick one. Which one do you think I picked?
After making this difficult decision, Keri took the moodboard I chose and created my website. I always thought of myself as a creative person, but not in the artsy or the design way like Keri. What she put together was beautiful, chic, simple & everything I envisioned in my head. We did a few little tweaks, but finally I had my website!
Now the logo…
A huge part of my branding. She gave me three different options and looks. All of them I could see using on my website and marketing materials! Which one do you think I picked?
Finally, I have my beautiful website and logo!
here’s what i learned
Designing is a lot harder than I thought.
Building a website and all the little details is meticulous, even if you want a simple page. The branding is so important to represent you and your business.
You can’t just pick any web designer/company.
You really have to be able to connect with them. Very much like being a travel advisor, I need to match with my clients as well. You have to be able to communicate and turn that communication it into a real product. So, if someone doesn’t understand you, or you do not communicate well, or you do not feel comfortable being 100% honest with them, chances are, you will not get the end result you want.
Not having too many choices to choose from is great.
I loved how Keri gave me three choices with everything. It is a lot easier and less time consuming to pick from three choices versus several different choices.
This process for a new entrepreneur is a lot of work.
You, the business owner, need to create the content for your page and really put deep thought into how you want to be represented. It makes it so much easier when you have someone like Keri to help you with this.
Being a new business owner/entrepreneur, branding is so important and can expand into more than just a website and logo. I really look forward to working with Keri on expanding my brand in the future.
TIP: Ask a fellow entrepreneur who respect, questions and for their advice. Summer was very helpful in assisting me with the beginning process and a lot of other tips for my business.