It’s another launch day here at Smarter Searches! Today’s launch is for Apex Custom Furniture, a luxury RV furniture designer based here in Knoxville.
The Project
Apex is a family-owned and operated business that was established in 2018. The Cox family has over 100 years of combined experience in the furniture industry, so when they noticed a need in the market for custom RV furniture, they started Apex and never looked back.
They built a DIY Wix website when they started the business in 2018, but after three years, they decided it was time to upgrade to a professional website that truly reflected the beauty of their work.
Your website is your online storefront. It should not only look professional and beautiful to attract your dream clients, but it should also be strategic and functional, guiding those dream clients to convert.
The Cox family knew their DIY site just wasn’t cutting it, and in order to show up online as a high-end, luxury brand, they needed to invest in a professional website.
The Mood Board and Mockup
If you are familiar with our web design process, you know that we start with a mood board and mockup to nail down the visuals for the site. A mood board is a one-page document with colors, fonts, and imagery that we share with the client to ensure that we are on the same page with the look and feel of the site.
Once the client approves the mood board, we create a PDF mockup of the homepage layout and design. This way, we are able to get feedback before we start building the site – it’s much, much easier to make changes on a PDF than on the web!
Now for the mockup. I knew I wanted the design to be clean, modern, and elegant. To achieve this, I added a lot of whitespace, a unique navigation bar, and overlapping images for a custom look. The client had TONS of professional images of their work, which made it easy to create a stunning, clean look.
The Build
The Cox family made my job easy – they loved the mockup and had no revisions! So, once I got the green light from them, I started building.
When it comes to website strategy, I first think about what makes our client’s business different from the competition and how we can highlight that on the website. There are two things that really stand out about Apex (aside from their stunning work): the fact that they are a family-owned business, and that their furniture is made-to-order here in East Tennessee.
Now more than ever, consumers need to know they can trust you before they make a purchase from your business. A family-owned business breeds trust, so we made sure to highlight that on the website! We added a photo of the Cox family and little more information about who they are and why they decided to start their business.
Their beautiful furniture pieces are handcrafted right here in Knoxville, so we wanted to really spotlight that fact as well. We had the Cox family write about their furniture design process from start to finish so we could walk potential customers through what they can expect when they work with Apex.
Finally, I always preach that your site should work for you. I love to find creative solutions to make our clients’ jobs just a little bit easier. There was a very basic contact form on their old website, but it only asked for a name, email, and message. Then, the client had to reach out and gather more information from them in order to calculate a quote.
I built a custom quote form that collects all the specific information the Cox family will need in order to come up with a quote for the project – no more going back and forth through email!
The Reveal
So, without further ado, it’s time for the big reveal!
To the Cox family – it was a joy to work on this project with you. Congratulations on your new website!
