Hey J. Nicole — A Personal Brand Built to Publish, Share & Sell

The engagement began in March 2019 with a four-part preparation process covering the business, visual inspiration, website content, and technical setup. I guided Janelle through questionnaires, a shared Pinterest and mood-board process, and preparation for a strategy conversation.

Her plans combined lifestyle publishing with a design-service business. I translated those needs into a website structure with distinct routes for the blog, resources, shopping, and HJN + Design Studio. Janelle supplied the brand voice, written content, and photography selections; I shaped their visual presentation and relationship across the site.

Brand preparation

Clarify the business, visual preferences, content, and technical requirements before design.

Content structure

Separate editorial discovery, email signup, shopping, and service inquiries.

I designed the Hey J. Nicole identity and a related identity for HJN + Design Studio. Logo development explored the relationship between expressive script and narrow uppercase lettering, with client review guiding the final combinations.

The parent brand and studio needed to feel related while remaining recognizable in their own contexts. I carried their typography and a palette of warm neutrals, deep green, and golden accents into the website. The archive retains both original marks.

I designed the layout for Hey J. Nicole’s Simple Smoothies eBook, carrying the brand into the recipe pages, contents, tips, and notes. Review covered both visual details and practical reading issues, including the clarity of page numbers and recipe labels.

The website connected the eBook and other resources to ConvertKit signup and download forms. The resource suite included a Personal Happiness Plan, Happiness History Tracker, and weekly planner; those client-supplied resources were part of the download experience. During launch review, Janelle confirmed the forms were working, and I explained how to reuse individual form links inside blog posts.

Editorial design

Format client-authored smoothie content into a branded, readable eBook.

Signup paths

Give visitors relevant entry points through the eBook, newsletter, and resources.

Reusable links

Support sharing a specific download from a blog post instead of always returning readers to the homepage.

The shopping experience distinguished affiliate recommendations in Shop My Style from the branded merchandise planned for the Swag Shop. I worked on the page presentation, navigation, and supporting setup so the two offers could sit within the same website.

Commerce coordination included Shopify Lite and client-provided product information; affiliate content and accounts were also supplied by Janelle. The wider Resources area brought together downloads, events, and shop entry points, with the Events page approved during client review.

HJN + Design Studio extended Janelle’s personal platform into an interior-design service. I developed its related logo through review rounds, exploring how the same script and uppercase type could connect it to Hey J. Nicole.

The studio also needed to serve people arriving directly, rather than only readers coming from the lifestyle site. That distinction informed its introduction, return-to-home wording, service content, and separate mailing-list language.

I used Showit previews, InVision comments, and Basecamp to organize desktop and mobile feedback. Review covered navigation behavior, logo placement, blog spacing, signup fields, social links, and the shopping views.

These were detailed implementation passes: preserving the portrait-led opening on mobile, refining the navigation after the hero, and adjusting alignment and page content across screen sizes. The correspondence records client feedback, follow-up changes, and the practical work of carrying a visual design into a published experience.

June 2019 correspondence confirms that the website was published, followed by final cleanup and post-launch questions. I supported the handoff around Showit and WordPress access, blog templates, resource links, and the revised smoothie eBook.

The result brought identity, editorial design, website implementation, email capture, shopping, and service presentation into one engagement. In September 2020, Janelle notified me of a subsequent redesign, so this case study presents the original archived work rather than the current site.