Seven years of Bryn Bryn: Dr. Isabel Sweitzer
Seven years of Bryn Bryn continues! The year is 2021 and the project is building a website for the lovely Dr. Isabel Sweitzer, an acupuncturist and naturopathic doctor based in Portland. Dr. Isabel is adored as a practitioner for the wisdom she carries and care she offers in the fertility space and beyond. Check out her website at dr.isabelsweitzer.com.
One gift the pandemic brought was a clarification and crystallization of my website process. Until COVID, I was building websites for clients here and there, but they weren’t my focus. Suddenly in 2020, everyone needed a digital home that captured their brand’s essence and served both current and potential clients. I realized that the creation of a website can also be an ideal process for clarifying and polishing a client’s brand, story and offering(s).
There are myriad ways to build a website. With storytelling at the heart of my business, I focus on conveying the essence of my client’s offering(s) through thoughtful copy, color and design. My process is conversational, kicking off with several meetings in which I listen intently and ask questions like “how do you want a visitor to your website to feel?” and “what do patients say about your work together?” in order to intimately understand the heart of my client’s work in the world. From there, I synthesize what I’ve heard into clear and compelling copy and design aligned with my industry expertise in SEO, accessibility and what lands for the people of the internet, who have famously short attention spans.
I also coach clients around visual branding, identifying photographers, illustrators and designers to help bring their brands to life. I delight in collaborating with those creatives to ensure their captures are well suited for both the website I’m building and my client’s marketing needs moving forward. I consider cohesive, professional and beautiful photos so foundational to a high caliber website that I typically don’t start the build process until I’m equipped with an armful of photos from a recent photoshoot, and I’m always happy to call on my network of creatives to make that process easeful (even fun!) for my clients.
Dr. Isabel worked with photographer Annika Bussmann and arrived to our process with a cornucopia of gorgeous photos that capture her fire and gentleness. From tender photos with her child to shots in her plant-filled office to images capturing the tools and details of her practice, the photos informed the gesture, feeling and color palette of Dr. Isabel’s site. Further elevating the visitor experience, Dr. Isabel herself drew her logo, favicon and a number of beautiful illustrations that I wove into the site, adding texture and interest. Custom illustrations are some of my favorite ingredients for cooking up personalized feeling and experience on a website, something I feel we achieved in spades with Dr. Isabel’s.
I was connected to Dr. Isabel through a friend (thanks Marika!) and am grateful for the many nourishing connections that have grown from our work together. Because Dr. Isabel is respected in the wellness space, crafting dr.isabelsweitzer.com has opened up opportunities to create websites and consult for skilled healers, therapists and wellness centers in Portland and beyond. Not only that, it’s lead me to a team of practitioners who I click with and can rely on for my own care. Dr. Isabel is currently on a break from work spending time with her sweet family, and I recommend getting on her email list to stay posted on her return!
