How I Created Sara Blakely's Conceptual Homepage Mockup

My obsession with Spanx started long ago, but only escalated once I had babies and looked for something to wear that would give me the confidence I was lacking with my post-baby body. What Sara has created with the Spanx empire is an inspiration for all entrepreneurs, therefore she was an obvious choice for a conceptual homepage mockup.

When I was younger and hadn't yet secured a full time agency role, a Creative Director at an agency I was applying to gave me advice. He said, "Even if your portfolio isn't where you want it to be, you can design conceptual designs for brands you love to show your capabilities."

I thought this advice and concept was game-changing. Since then, I've loved designing mockups like this to show my interpretation of a brand. This one is no different, though because it was only going on social (and not my portfolio, trying to land myself a job), I only spent about 3 hours on this. However, for what it's worth, I still think it represents Sara well.

Since I started posting these conceptual reels to Instagram, I realized that there's so much more I want to share about each brand than I have room or time to say in a short reel. Therefore, I'll use these blogs as a space to dive deeper.

With that said - I'm going to break the whole process down for you. Keep in mind, all in all it was only about 3 hours of work, whereas when we work with a client, by the time we get to the Homepage design of their website, we've already spent countless hours on branding, strategy, design foundations and thinking around their brand. However, the whole idea with the Conceptual Homepage series is that they're my quick attempt at designing the homepage for a personal brand we all know and love.

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Step 1. Plan and Get Inspired

Before jumping in the design, I always start by researching the person. I pulled images I felt represent Sara well. I've followed her on Instagram for years, so even though I don't know her personally, you get the sense that she's spunky, bold, and not afraid of putting herself out there. I wanted this homepage to reflect that.

This research brought me to create a really simple yet bold color palette consisting of a black, neon chartreuse (inspired by her shirt in the photo above), a light pink and neutral beige. I also started playing with font exploration, finding fonts that felt both confident and commanding but also sleek and feminine. She doesn't have a personal brand website (WHY, SARA, WHY!?) so I wanted to think a bit more strategically about what WOULD be on her website if she had one.

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Step 2. Consider the Layout and Sections

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Before designing any conceptual homepage, I spend some time thinking about what sections are needed to tell their story. I think of a homepage as a cliff notes to their entire brand, or in this case, their businesses and entire ecosystem. Therefore, I wanted to make sure all of Sara's latest projects and press would be included.

The way I thought about Sara's homepage is: 

1. Top banner that presents her with a strong statement that feels on brand.
2. Introducing her and who she is -- a short bio that would lead to a more detailed about page
3. An opt-in to drive email signups and grow her list (to later market to)
4. Podcast episodes and her masterclass - ideally paid offerings but they can also drive awareness
5. Social CTA to show your mug shot (based on her IG series)
6. Social proof / logos to show credibility and authority

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Step 3. Design it out - thinking about balance and flow

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Once I knew the sections I wanted to include, it was time to get into design. When I'm designing any Homepage, I think about 3 things the most: 

1. Color usage
2. Layout - keeping things interesting as you scroll through the page, so it feels fluid and engaging
3. Overall balance. Less is more most times!

While we want a strong and ownable design, the key is not overdoing it. We want to create a page (and typically an entire website) that feels cohesive and brand aligned with every section. The colors should be used in a way strike the right balance and tone that you want to create (depending on what the brand is). For instance, I wanted to use the chartreuse more sparingly so it wouldn't feel overwhelming or make the text hard to read. A color like this is great for buttons though because it immediately draws your eyes to them (which is what we want!)

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