Tips and Tricks for Your First Website

I wanted to design a website to be able to let people know more about me and the voice behind my songs. I wanted to share my work in an organized, creative way, and having a website seemed like a good way to do so.

Designing a website is another new thing for me. My mom actually designs websites so she has been working to teach me to design something that fits what I want and need. I feel very lucky to have her help through the whole process of creating a website. I’ve learned a lot about how it all works.

We used Squarespace. I like it a lot! It’s been pretty easy to use and understand. We started with a template that we mostly deleted and then built a new one from scratch, and chose our own color palette. Before we even started I talked through what I wanted and my mom was able to tell me ways I could design the site. We talked about what is possible. It's been really fun to create a platform that I can express my work on.

My vision for my website was something that was about my music. I also wanted something clean and minimal with warm tones that felt welcoming. It needed to be true to my personality, pleasing to the eye, and a place where visitors can feel intrigued and have fun understanding what I am doing! Having these visions of what I wanted helped me a lot with the process.

Creating a website required a lot of dedicated time. I found it easiest to work in the morning. I had the most energy and creative spark then.

Tips and Tricks

Same fonts - Keep them clean and organized and don’t use too many!

Stick to a color palette - 4 ish colors that you really like.

Minimal and clean - Keep written content concise — You don’t need a ton of words to explain yourself.

Have a vision/map it out - A game plan is really important.

Have content ready - Photos, videos, blogs, a bio, etc are nice to have beforehand so it’s quicker to design the website.

Keep a good mix of stock photos and your own photos - You never really know what’s going to work until you see it on your website.

Write with honesty and realness - Keep it true and genuine to you!

HAVE FUN -- Stay in creative mode and take breaks when you need them.