Local Website Design and Rebranding

Maintaining consistent revenue during the ever-fluctuating global pandemic of COVID-19 was a difficult path to maneuver for many small businesses. Many struggled to keep doors open while the people of the city were encouraged to stay home, stay safe, and maintain distance as much as possible.

Due to this shift in a year of unpredictability, we saw businesses, organizations, and local creatives pull together to help each other, inventive virtual shopping experiences made available to the public, lots of delicious food options served at the curb-side, and even new businesses emerging from the ashes of unpredictability.

We are pleased to highlight not only what is labeled as a new business in the Spokane area but maybe more uniquely a purchasing and rebranding of an already accepted and loved local business.

At the beginning of the seemingly typical year of 2020, the Stanley sisters, Kelly and Shelly of Spokane, Washington, had looked for a business venture that would connect their passion for support for their community, offer a purpose to utilize their strengths in business, to work as a family-owned establishment, and simply to have fun!

Four years before purchasing the business called “Spice and Vine Mercantile,” Kelly and Shelly had been avid customers of the shop. They played with the idea of purchasing the store when the original owners had mentioned the idea of retirement. The timing was not right for the sisters then, so they put the idea to rest. 

In March of 2020, Kelly and Shelly found themselves at the end of their previous careers and decided to see what their favorite local spice shop was up to.

To their delighted surprise, upon approaching the spice store, the sisters saw a literal (and presumably figurative) sign hanging in the door that read, “FOR SALE.”

The sisters then made it their daily pursuit to learn the business from the inside out, determine the next steps to buy the business, rebrand with modernity and their own personal flair in mind, and work hard to create a business that served their community as a whole.

When designing a new website with inventory and sales purposes in mind, Kelly and Shelly were advised by others that using simple online website building platforms would suffice for their products and needs. However, they were not convinced they wanted to do this on their own and knew they not only needed a website that looked amazing and matched their aesthetic, but they also wanted to be able to work the website with ease on the backend to load inventory themselves without always having to contact someone else. Making it easier for customers to trust that the website reflects in-store product availability is important, and the sisters did not want to settle. 

They knew they wanted a professional website with a modern approach to an already thriving business. They knew they needed help and that’s why they decided to hire us!

In June of 2020, Kelly and Shelly reached out to Brandon, the head of communications and website development at Vexing Media. Brandon then became acquainted with their choices of colors and basic designs and proceeded to work with our head of branding and design, Airam, to create a fresh logo and overall website aesthetic. Airam created a logo the sisters loved and continued to produce quality formatting and fresh media consistently approved by the pair.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to know you met the needs of a client and brought their vision to life; it feels even better to nail it on the first draft,”

Says Airam. Elz Taste and Tea’s new owners felt the same way and continue to utilize the media they received to create properly formatted and personalized newsletters, banners, signs, and social media posts.

While the redesign of the business’ branding was taking form, website development was underway. Our team designed the website from scratch based on the content needed and used fresh and reliable custom templates built for SEO optimization, user experience, and E-commerce utilization.

“We wanted a simple and effective design that allowed us the freedom to maintain the website yet also have someone in our back pocket in the case of bugs or glitches,” states Shelly. “Vexing Media offered just that. We know that with one call, Brandon will be able to help us figure the tech stuff out so we can focus on our shop and community.” 

The Vexing Media team was delighted to work alongside Kelly and Shelly (Kelz and Shelz) in dreaming of the possibilities for their new website, rebranding, and the future marketing of the business. After hearing the website not only ran smoothly during the wild holiday season of 2020 with online shopping and curbside pick-up a must, we could not have been happier to see this new business thrive in the way it deserves.

For more examples of our awesome clients, see our case studies page!