Kalpana: Brand Development, Visual Identity + Website Design

A world turned virtual allowed me to attend a business networking event early this year. One of my favorite skincare brands held an intimate conversation about entrepreneurship, so I thought I'd join. Little did I know I'd be meeting my amazing client Kalpana there!

Kalpana is a Chicago-based Lifestyle & Travel Influencer, Activist, Coach, Entrepreneur, Beauty & Fashion Enthusiast, and Professional Makeup Artist. Her mission is to empower women, push them outside of their comfort zones, and open up a beautiful world of adventures. We instantly aligned!

Evolving the Brand

After speaking with Kalpana one-on-one in a virtual consultation, we concluded that her brand no longer spoke to who she had evolved into. Given the pandemic, she wanted to shift her focus to lifestyle and make travel a smaller category within her brand. She decided it was time for a new website that would truly allow her to spread her wings and fly! However, before that, we needed to clean up her branding and build something that represented her true self.

The first step was re-introducing the brand from "Koco Travels" to "Kalpana." By doing so, we've focused the conversation around her lifestyle rather than just a small section of her brand.

For Kalpana, it was really important that this brand not only empower others but also represent her South Asian roots while speaking to the Parisian style she loves so dearly. The key design concept needed to be bold yet minimalistic. We also wanted to play with florals and opted for an abstract lotus as it showcases resilience, power, growth, and flourishment.

Redefining the Brand Identity

When she initially launched, Kalpana felt she needed to fit a cookie-cutter version of what an influencer's brand should look like, with blush tones and a generic vibe that didn't truly speak to who she was. With her rebrand, Kalpana wanted the colors to represent her style and ethnic background. We noticed that red played a predominant role in her mood board. It was important to bring this shade in but balance it with colors and font palettes that would allow her to continue to elevate her brand as she grew.

Building the Dream Website

Kalpana's initial goal was to build a new website that was beautiful and functional. After taking a look at her old website, I realized one of the main problems was that she lacked a clear vision of who she is. After our initial consultation, we decided to start our adventure with her brand development. Once this was complete, it was time to build the website of her dreams.

Kalpana's old website was a simple WordPress blog, that was dated and lacked functionality. The site was putting her at a standstill in her business and limiting her growth. She needed a website that would easily allow her to expand her blog functionality while showcasing her various services and continuing to build successful brand partnerships. Alongside this, we wanted to introduce a monthly newsletter that would help her expand her growing mailing list.

Our Checklist for Kalpana's New Website

• Turning a WordPress blog into a proper influencer website

• Creating forms that would allow her to book ideal clients

• Mobile and desktop website that has a user-friendly experience on both ends

• Sliders that showcase her Brand Partnerships, alongside downloadable media kits

• Finding ways to showcase her charity work, affiliate codes, press, and more while staying on brand

• Most importantly, a dual-navigation blog that was easy to use and would allow her to share images, videos, embedded HTML codes (perfect for brand partnerships), and more
  

It's safe to say we met all this and more for Kalpana, allowing her to expand her brand and finally cater to the needs of her ideal clients, all on a website that truly reflects who she is.

Check out her site live here: heykalpana.com

Kalpana's Experience In Her Words:

At the start of the year, I was looking for an agency to help me with my brand identity. It’s something I thought about before the new year began and wanted to find the right agency to work with. I was on a live webinar hosted by Ranavat for an Entrepreneurship call when I met Puja who is the Founder of Roop Creative Agency based in Toronto, Canada.

It was a beautifully organic way we had met and we had connected on our passion for entrepreneurship and digital marketing. We hopped on a call and immediately Puja understood my brand and vision for the long-term. I wanted to bring out my vibrant personality in the brand identity and custom website, she described my persona and brand perfectly… “the bold minimalist”.

The entire process from beginning to end was smooth and simple, Puja was there to help me every step of the way and addressed each of my questions leaving me more confident in her and her expertise knowing she had my best interest at heart and I entrusted her with working her magic on my personal brand.

I highly recommend working with Puja and Roop Creative Agency, she is down to earth while maintaining her professionalism and really cares for her clients going above and beyond!

She clearly heard my vision and killed it on my brand identity and customized my website to look clean, posh, and bold while being all-inclusive to include my blog, newsletter, ways for brands and clients to work with me plus so much more! I also wanted to stay consistent throughout my social media platforms and with Puja’s help, I now have a brand identity and website design that has a consistent look and feel. I'm beyond excited to elevate and take my digital influencer business to the next level this 2021! Thank you very much, Puja and Roop Creative Agency, truly grateful to you and your team!

#branding #design #logodesign #visualidenitity #graphicdesigner