Rewriting the Platform, in Little Time!

I was approached via message by Award Winning Tattoo Artist and Multiple Business Owner, Andrew Bisell for a brand new website for his first and brand new Tattoo Shop, 7Inks Tattoo Collective in Mentor, Ohio. To give more background on Andrew, he has put together some of the most popular tattoos in the industry, is a well respected Artist and owns multiple businesses in the Greater Cleveland Area. Andrew handpicked skilled and highly talented Artists to work at the shop full-time. Andrew and even a few of his hand-picked Artists have also tattooed well-known celebrities.

Andrew’s need for a website was highly needed and the case was time sensitive. The website was put on a stall, a domain was never purchased and it was doubtful anything was in a server ready to view. With the shop opening up within the next couple months, which at the time was estimated in a couple weeks time, the client needed a website ASAP! I approached Andrew with my normal questions of needs for the website before we setup a meeting  for the website. At the meeting, we discussed the current state of the tattoo industry in the general area with Web Design. Most websites I have come by were one page layouts with a few pages, but little to no written content! It was clear that we wanted a game changer for the website, something fun to view, engaging, innovative and something that goes the extra mile. 

Andrew signed on to be on my Managed WordPress Server and we got the Domain, Server, and SSL Certification taken care of right before the start. When I was going into sketching up my mockups for the website, I took a huge leap back and spent even a few days of research of the current state of the tattoo industry abroad the entire United States to see what is standing out. Like I have said before, I came by very little written content and just landing pages for the most part. I wanted to build something that will give a lot of variety in terms of getting to know the Artists of the shop, more content strategy and more engagement that tacks together the actual art these standouts put together for their clients.

It took me two days and several concepts to make a design that would differentiate and compete with the best shops in the country. I wanted to create something that would be in comparison with the current websites, but also multiply it by hundreds. I added the availability to have the Artists explain who they are, what they do and have the availability for contact on demand. I also added the availability to showcase their Portfolio on separate Portfolio Pages and make the overall look a dynamic one. Once the design was completed, I was surprised to have Andrew give me the go ahead immediately to build the brand new website from scratch.

A Problem Solved

The issue at hand is that there is very little to no content availabile for most of these websites out here. Content is very serious and provides more insight on the customer’s hand and for marketing purposes. More content, more oppotunity. I’ll say it once and I will say it again. That is the issue I wanted to tackle here on the website. I also gave the client the opportunity to sign on the site and upload and add more content on their profiles, portfolios and main pages to showcase their work and deliver more heartfelt content coming straight from them. 

A Quick Build and a Succcessful Launch

Using WordPress, the build was put together with a total of 25+ pages and an event post with custom functionalities. The website comes with responsive design and principles, artist profiles and invidual portfolio pages, event posting, eCommerce, sliders, background videos, parallax animation photos, contact forms and custom code to compliment page speeds. I came forward with best practice principle for SEO and Page Speeds. With a design intact, I built most of the website in a day and half. I spent another day and a half revising and adding content that Andrew and all of his Artists gave me for their Profile Pages and Individual Portfolio Pages. The collaboration between the Artists and I was seamless and if it was not for them, we would not have successfully launched the way we did. 

The launch commenced on August 21, 2019, right before I left for California and I was left with very little revisions to make. The client also signed on for continued support, additions and marketing strategies for the business online. The client will eventually sell products online such as clothing, art and much more. 7Inks Tattoo Collective opens today to the public for future appointments on October 15, 2019. What makes this site different from the others? Check out below from my designs officially residing on the website.

Custom Tattoo Website Design