Apollo Brush
Apollo Brush is a painting supplies company based in Buffalo, New York. When their team came to me, it was because they were in need of a web design intervention. They had designed their existing Squarespace 7.1 website, but it wasn’t brand aligned or as polished as they would like. With a great bunny mascot and even better commercials, they needed something nifty to elevate the customer experience.
They were a perfect candidate for my Custom Web Design package. And while I don’t normally design websites for bunnies, I figured I could make an exception just this once.
What a pleasure it was to give them the website they deserve!
Kind words
“We recently had the pleasure of working with Kristen on the revamp of our company website. From the outset, Kristen showcased immense technical knowledge, creativity, and a keen understanding of our brand's needs. She delivered a website that not only looks visually appealing but also performs flawlessly across all devices. Her communication was top-notch, keeping us in the loop throughout the development process and addressing any concerns promptly. What stood out the most was her genuine enthusiasm for our project, which shone through in the final product. We wholeheartedly recommend Kristen to anyone in need of a skilled and dedicated web developer. The experience from start to finish was nothing short of excellent.”
The Apollo Brush Team
The original website
Apollo Brush’s original website didn’t match their branding, and it was a bit difficult to navigate. Importantly, the website copy hadn’t been optimized for search engines, so a Google search didn’t turn them up until page 9. Worse, it wasn’t as easy as it could be for contractors and DIYers to buy or for wholesalers to get information and place orders.
To give you an idea of where we started, here’s a look at their original home page:
The web design process
The Apollo Brush team was prepared with brand assets right from the get-go. They’d worked with a videographer to create high-quality commercials showcasing their products (and a hilarious angry bunny). A photographer took high-resolution product images that showed off the products themselves and showed them in various lifestyle settings. And finally, a graphic designer created a bold brand—complete with brand guidelines, a logo, a mark, a color palette, and a font palette. Talk about an embarrassment of riches!
The Apollo Brush brand is bold and minimalist, anchored by an electric royal blue. Their product labels are color blocked and use rounded edges and curves to create interest. I brought that look to their website, but added drop shadows for depth and subtle hover effects and animations for interest. I had some fun creating a custom, half-width menu bar with rounded corners and some subtle hover effects to give it the minimalist, techy vibe the team wanted.
The site is connected to MailChimp to give them a free way to send branded blast emails and to Printful so they can sell high-quality, branded merch like hats and water bottles. There’s now a hub for wholesalers to download product spec sheets and easily reach out to express interest in placing an order. Oh—and those angry bunny commercials? Too good not to use.
Last but not least, I did everything I could to improve the site’s search engine optimization. Related words are now in their headlines and paragraph text, there are relevant ALT tags for each image, image names contain their focus keywords, and every page has a meta title and description. I also added a few other bells-and-whistles on the back end. It takes time for a site’s ranking in search results to change, but the Apollo Brush team is set up for success.
Take a look at their new website home page!
