Nora Robshaw
If you’ve followed me over the years, you know I love working with supremely talented woman business owners. So when Nora Robshaw, a friend of a past client, reached out to me for help building a website, the answer was an easy yes!
Nora’s an experienced attorney here in Buffalo who handles residential real estate closings and makes the process as smooth and stress-free as possible. Working with Nora means you’re working directly with an attorney. She personally handles all of the legal work and coordinates with her clients, brokers, financial institutions, insurance agents, and other attorneys. And somehow, she manages to make it all look effortless.
It was such a pleasure to give Nora the platform that her talent deserves!
Kind words
“I thoroughly enjoyed working with Kristen. Having her build my website was a great decision for me since I am so busy with my solo law practice, that my time was better used working on my cases rather than trying to figure out website building. Kristen got back to me right away when I had questions or ideas and she was patient with me when I changed my mind a few times on the layout, descriptive language ,and which photographs to use. I highly recommend hiring Kristen to build your website.”
Nora Robshaw, Owner
Nora Robshaw Law, PLLC
The web design process
Nora had a strong vision for how she wanted her business to show up online. In a word: Simplicity.
She wanted a super simple site with Home, About, and Contact pages. The Contact page needed a quick custom intake form so prospective clients could send along a bit of information about their home purchase, but nothing more—enabling her to tailor each conversation to the client’s needs. And she wanted a classic, timeless color scheme rooted in a conservative navy blue.
Can do!
I first connected Nora to Casi Hall, a dear friend who’s also a fabulous photographer. My highest recommendation is that I trusted Casi to bring my own brand to life. I knew she’d be the perfect person to get Nora some gorgeous brand photography—and Casi delivered! She and Nora met at Seneca One downtown, where gorgeous beige stone and natural light made the perfect backdrop.
Nora needed help with creating a subtle, simple logo for her business and choosing other brand elements. I was able to whip up a rudimentary logo that she can use as a placeholder until she’s ready to work with a graphic designer.
When it came to colors, Nora knew she wanted navy blue, but everything else was open to interpretation. I love it when my clients let me play :) I grabbed a deep navy for her primary color, then paired it with white and a soft charcoal to anchor the design. From there, I layered in a grey-blue as an accent color and a goldenrod yellow as a pop color.
Nora also left the font question up to me, which was awesome! Knowing that she wanted a classic, timeless look, I selected Playfair Display for her headlines and Open Sans for her paragraphs and buttons. Playfair Display is an elegant, high-contrast serif font that I love for its dramatic transitions and graceful curves. With such a strong headline font, I knew the paragraph font had to be open, approachable, and readable. Enter Open Sans, one of my favorites!
Once we had the branding nailed down, a gallery of gorgeous photos from Casi, and wording from Nora, it was time to start designing!
I had so much fun with this one. I kept the design light and airy, with plenty of white space between elements for the eye to rest. The site uses offset photos, subtle animations, and background colors for visual interest. Of course I had to spice things up with a dash of custom code along the way :)
Take a look at Nora’s new home page!
