Our partner network is growing and we’re so excited to have had the chance to work with Marissa Mazanares Photography. She originally worked with our new partner Ronke of The Pink Creative. Ronke is so talented and we love her approach to design: neutral, bold, and minimal. She is an amazing addition to our roster of brand partners and we had the pleasure of being introduced to Marissa because of her to create her custom website.

Marissa is one of those special souls you meet only a few times in your life. Her kindness, light, and truly giving spirit is so needed in this world and we love working with people like her. Not only is she passionate and talented, but she knows how to boost you up (and even got me a couple of pumpkin spice lattes to drink while I was working, win!). With the dream team of Ronke and Stephanie of Steph Laffy providing the copy for the site, we were able to create a unique and distinct look for Marissa’s work to really shine.

Strategy

Marissa and I had an amazing strategy call when we first started her project. She showed me some amazing websites we used as inspiration and I was so excited to approach a new design direction than I’ve ever tackled.

We decided prior to Marissa booking that we would have less pages for her site. Technically there’s 3, her homepage, experience, and blog pages. In reality, her site is made up of 21 pages! But we used these pages, most of which are focused galleries, to add a lot of custom details with a super simple user experience. We wanted to focus on the connection not only the couples Marissa photographs share but the connection she also builds with each client. Keeping the site streamlined less us really focus on her work and what it’s like booking her.

Design & Development

Probably my favorite part of Marissa’s site is the line grid system we created. Her brand is super warm and bold so we avoided using white in the design and opted for the cream in her palette softened a bit. It makes you feel like you’re enveloped by her site as you explore it. We also avoided using too much of the almost-black shade in her site, opting for only the lines. The warm, leather color is used for almost all the text other than the links, where we used the cognac color that was a bit darker.

We also incorporated a lot of white space so that her photos and copy could breathe. My personal favorite feature is the menu (on desktop especially). The screen goes dark and then the menu slides out. It took some trial and error and I love this small detail because it adds such personality to the site.

Marissa’s site is on Showit which allowed us to create my favorite pages, the galleries. I created some opportunities for Marissa to feature special photos from each shoot and I just love how each one has a large moment to take in a featured photo.

Launch

Marissa hosted a fantastic giveaway to announce her launch. She knows her ideal clients perfectly so she offered a date night gift box. For new bookings, they received an album with their photos. People are loving her new site and she’s already seeing amazing results!

Stefani I am crying — only been a week and got an inquiry!

– Marissa Manzanares

And looking at the inquiry, this one is an ideal client, even using some of her brand keywords to describe the type of photography she is looking for!

Make sure to check out Marissa’s new website!