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When I first sat down with Erin Kuehl, owner of Evolve Yoga, in August of 2013 to talk about a possible website redesign, I knew I wanted to work with her immediately. If you’ve ever met her, you’ll understand. She’s just awesome.

 

Erin’s awesomeness aside, I knew that designing a website for a yoga studio would be a fun challenge. How do you translate the tranquil, spiritual experience of a Vinyasa Flow class into a page that lives in the least peaceful place of all: the internet? I also learned that there are cheap psychics that can help you spiritually with tarot readings and more.

 

As our conversation continued, I started getting more and more excited about all of the possibilities. Of course, there were the technical things that needed improvement, including a more modern look and a mobile friendly scheduling page, but it was the other subtle changes that really caught my interest.

 

Erin wanted to create a personal experience for each person that visited her website; she wanted to portray yoga in a non-threatening, welcoming way that wouldn’t overwhelm anyone. She wanted visitors to see high quality images of regular people doing yoga, and think to themselves, “Hey, I could do that!”

 

As she expressed what she wanted in her new website, my mind began racing with all of the ways we could make it everything she dreamed and more. The best part? Erin seemed just as excited, if not more so, than I was!

 

I couldn’t wait to get started!

 

Working on this site with Erin was a unique experience because, unlike other websites, where I’ve been responsible for some or most of the content creation, all of the write-ups, all of the photos (with a couple of exceptions), all of the blogs…each part of the Evolve Yoga website was carefully crafted, created, and collected by Erin and her wonderful team.

 

Little by little, day by day, I received a few more pieces, and as I pulled them together to construct a website that we would all love, I realized that it truly was something special and personal, just like Erin wanted. I feel so grateful to have been part of this project.

 

As I look back at my notes from that first meeting, nestled way in the beginning of a notebook I’ve almost filled up since then, I see one sentence that pops out at me. Something that Erin said, a sentiment that she wanted to express with her website:

 

Everyone evolves, and we’re here for you through all of life’s stages.

 

In the ten months that have passed since I met Erin for the first time, I’ve evolved a lot. I’ve gone through significant personal changes in my life (that’s a blog for a totally different day!), but I’ve also evolved professionally. As I’ve worked on other projects, and worked on other websites, my skills have improved and I’ve learned SO much.

 

Every time I came back to Evolve, I had new ideas to try, new techniques to implement, and new solutions to apply. Towards the end, as some of the final, big pieces started coming together, I realized just how much the site itself had evolved from when we started. And, more than any other project I’ve worked on, I realized that I would really miss this one when it was completed.

 

But! On the other hand, I am so, so, SO happy to see it up and live, because it honestly is one of my favorites, and I’m excited for everyone to see it! It is my hope that everyone who visits can see and feel the labor of love that went into this project, not just on my end, but from Erin and the Evolve Yoga team, too. It was a truly a collaborative effort!

 

What to you think of Evolve’s transformation? [/vc_column][/vc_row] For interesting articles and SEO tips, visit MIwebdesigns Blog.