1. Gather + Create

Written By Naseem Ghannad

What you’ll need to gather and/or create:

  • Branding Guide (Logos & Browser Icon, Font Family, Color Palette)

  • Images

  • Icons

  • Copy (the writing on your website)

  • Legal Copy (your Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.)

The How-To:

To make the process of gathering and creating your content a little easier, here are our go-to resources (and our best-practice tips) to find, collect, curate, and create everything your new website needs to shine:

  • Branding Guide:

    Below are resources to help you DIY your Branding Assets. If you are looking for someone to create your branding assets on a budget, 99designs is a great option for getting that done quickly and without spending too much.

    • Logos & Browser Icon:

      • Canva - Great logos are simple and recognizable. Include your company’s name, a visual (optional), and nothing more. Use Canva’s logo template as a starting point and go from there.

        You’ll need three versions of your logo:
        1. Square (that you can use on Instagram, for example), save as high res .png
        2. Horizontal logo (to use on your website), save as high res .png with a transparent background
        3. A Browser/Favicon logo (which will appear in the browser tab). Save this as 250x250 px .png or .jpg, as it has to be low resolution.

    • Font Family:

      • Squarespace - Squarespace has built-in font pairings for you to choose from. To view them, click the paintbrush icon at the top right of your screen (while logged into your Squarespace account), click “Fonts,” and click the Font Packs to see your options.

      • Pinterest - Search “Squarespace Font Pairings” and/or “Squarespace and Canva Fonts” to find inspiration for your Font Family. Remember to consider your industry, target market, and readability when picking your font.

    • Color Palette:

      You’ll need to choose 5-6 colors, with one being white (#FFFFFF) or white adjacent and one being black (#000000) or black adjacent. Squarespace allows for a 5-color color scheme, but I like to choose a very light 6th color to add as a section background manually, which will be outlined in Step 2.

      • Pinterest - Search your “industry + color palette” for inspirational color schemes. The posts may share the exact HEX codes (the code that starts with # and is followed by 6 characters) for the scheme, but if it doesn’t, screenshot the image and upload it into Canva. You can use the color dropper to get the exact colors from there.

      • Coolors - Coolors is a color scheme generator with trending color palettes and allows you to create your own and tweak the colors. It’s a great tool if you need inspiration and want to see your colors in one place.

      • Canva - If you’re using a photo or photos as your jumping-off point, upload them into your Canva account and pull colors directly from the photo using the color dropper.

  • Images:

    Important: You must ensure you understand all the licensing requirements for any images you choose for your website. 

    Below are free stock image sites we love -

  • Icons:

    Important: You must ensure you understand all the licensing & attribution requirements for any icons you choose for your website. 

  • Copy:

    Good copy can convert your website visitors into customers. In addition to the template-specific copy guide in your Template Delivery email, I always suggest the best book on copy I’ve read. It’s a quick and easy read and is available on audio and in many libraries. If you have the time to read it before creating your copy, I highly encourage it.

    • Building a Storybrand - the book that will change how you write and talk about your business.

    • Copy Guide—This is included in your template-specific Template Delivery email. Use it to map out your copy before adding it to your website.

  • Legal Copy:

    • Termsfeed - Ensure your website is legally compliant with this one-stop-shop for your terms and conditions, privacy and cookie policies, and more.

Naseem Ghannad
Next

2. Add your Content