Designing Without Limits: From Brand Systems to High-Performance Wix Studio Websites

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Before we dive into the fun details, give our readers a snapshot of your business: who you are, the work you do, and how your services help the clients you work with.

Response 1 - Use a conversational tone, as though we are sitting and having a conversation.

First of all, thanks for having me. I founded my design agency HCG corporate designs quite a while ago, in 2010. As the name already suggests, we create designs for corporates and the initials HCG are derived from my name Helene Clara Gamper. It's funny – my parents were already entrepreneurs and had a small advertising agency. Later, in the 1980s, they purchased a magazine that they published (which is still being published to this date), so I always had some sort of entrepreneurial background that boosted my mindset for becoming an entrepreneur myself.

Coming back to your question – we create designs for businesses that want their USP to become visible. Our clients want to be seen and recognized as professionals. We help them with holistic corporate design and branding systems that we create from scratch. That involves of course how to position a brand in a certain market niche, finding out the personality of the brand and translating all of that into a holistic brand design system that's flexible and future-proof. Such a brand design system consists of a unique logo, a color scheme, defining how to use which fonts, shapes, visual patterns, any design principles and other design rules that can be applied to any touchpoint between our client and their target group. We also document that brand design system in a corporate design manual. That allows our clients to really have a strong visual toolkit – if you want to call it like that – so their branding is future-proof and can be applied to any touchpoint – analog or digital.

Custom branding then serves as the basis for any websites we create for our clients. So after the custom branding comes its implementation on any touchpoints the clients need, which is mostly (of course) the website, but also other assets like social media templates, brochures or other print or digital materials.

One specialty we offer, and this is something I'm really proud of, is infographic design. I think that stems from my love for maths back then when I was a child. Haha, yes, I know, many people hate maths, but I always liked working with numbers somehow. And when I combine that with my design expertise, that makes for great infographic designs. We are one of very few infographic design providers in the German speaking area – Germany, Austria, Switzerland – and I simply love creating infographics from scratch. It's just a great way to turn complex data and boring numerical material into something people love to engage with. Our clients love that too. And as branding is at the core of our DNA, we make sure all infographics we design align with the look and feel of the desired brand.

What originally attracted you to Wix? Was there a defining moment, client, or project that made you say, “Yep, this is my platform”? And how have your services expanded since then?

Response 2 - Use a conversational tone, as though we are sitting and having a conversation.

In 2010, when I started my business, I used to outsource any website work to specific web agencies or programmers, as I'm not a programmer myself and I had no clue of how to create a website. The problem was, though, that the designs I created were never 100% reflected in the web design those web agencies or programmers came back to me with. Programmers and designers think completely different, that's a fact. I always thought "damn, if I just knew how to create a website, it would really look much better and closer to the design I had in mind". So I was really frustrated.

Then I did some research on the internet and found out about Wix. That was a big aha moment for me. Skeptical as I was, though, I also looked out for other "do it yourself"-website platforms (competitors of Wix) and reached out to about 5 different companies. I remember asking their customer service teams so many questions and internally testing different website platforms to see which one would be best for me. But not only best for me – but future-proof with also a great customer service team. After 2 or 3 weeks of testing and going back and forth, I came to the conclusion that Wix is the perfect platform for me. That was, I think, in 2012 or 2013. Since then, I've been creating websites myself with Wix and later Editor X, which then turned into Wix Studio.

Looking back, that was probably the wisest business decision I've ever made, because it enabled us to bring the designs we create for clients also onto their websites. The quality of websites for our clients went up drastically as we finally had full control of the web design. Back then, I would have never thought that we would ever be able to create such great websites as we do now. Wix was definitely groundbreaking for my business.

Help us understand what makes your process or approach special. And since many people underestimate Wix, what do you wish more clients understood about what the platform can actually do?

Response 3 - Use a conversational tone, as though we are sitting and having a conversation.

Well, our approach is different in a way that we don't just build a website based on a template. I see so many websites out there that look too similar because many designers or advertising agencies use the same website template time and time again, just to show their clients "something".

At HCG corporate designs, we dig deeper and try to 100% understand our clients' businesses to find out what needs they have and what their website has to offer, how their website has to guide visitors and what problem their website should actually solve for them. This is why we never work with ready-built templates. We create every website from scratch with the custom needs of our clients in mind. We have a strategic approach here and combine that with our branding expertise. As with our custom branding services, we also have a holistic approach when it comes to web design. This is why the websites we create look unique and create wow moments.

And you're right, many people underestimate Wix. I think many are not aware of the power of the dashboard behind the websites built on Wix. Wix is not just a website builder, it comes with a complete online marketing toolkit built in. But I think it's also important to say that Wix and Wix Studio are 2 different platforms made by Wix. At HCG corporate designs, we create websites with Wix Studio since its launch, so we have full design freedom and can guarantee 100% responsiveness. Yes, the "traditional" Wix editor is a bit more limited here, but Wix Studio opens up completely new ways of designing websites, with 100% design freedom.

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Every project teaches something new. What services do you focus on, and what past builds helped shape the way you now approach design, development, or client work?

Response 4 - Use a conversational tone, as though we are sitting and having a conversation.

I think, 2 specific client projects definitely taught me a lot in terms of animations, navigation flow and user interaction on a website. That's S11 System, a business coaching in Munich and Immobilien Praxis Köll, a real estate consulting business in Austria. Both clients hired us for custom branding, website creation and some other print materials like business cards and letterhead. I really pushed my knowledge about Wix Studio to the limit here, in terms of animations and micro-interactions. But I like pushing my own limits and see what's possible. If I have an idea that is not doable at first sight, I try to find a workaround to still make it possible as I did with the animated logo rectangle above the fold on the website of Immobilien Praxis Köll.

Whenever I learn about new possibilities in Wix Studio, I instantly think "how can I integrate that in the next branding project?". So it's quite interesting how the ever evolving possibilities in Wix Studio spark my ideas in terms of custom branding. That's really nice, I love it!

Are you comfortable designing for any type of client, or do you have a niche that really feels like home? What earns you credibility in that industry?

Response 5 - Use a conversational tone, as though we are sitting and having a conversation.

You’ve shared some amazing insights today. As we finish up, what are your top three “pro tips,” and what’s the best place for people to follow or contact you?

Response 6 - Use a conversational tone, as though we are sitting and having a conversation.

My tip number 1: Ask yourself what the primary goal of your website is. Is it filling out a contact form, calling a phone number, purchase something on the website or whatever it may be. Having a clear primary goal of a website in mind helps a lot.
Tip number 2: Always start a website project with creating a sitemap. That gives you great structure and speeds up your website creation process.
Tip number 3: Use multi-step forms on websites instead of long, boring contact forms. That makes filling out a form much more fun and engaging. You will see the number of leads go up.

For those who want to learn all the tips and tricks of what I'm doing and how I'm doing it since 2010, I can highly recommend my 5 hour masterclass called "The Ultimate Masterclass for Branding & Web Design by HCG corporate designs".

People can contact me either directly via my website www.hcg-corporate-designs.com or also via LinkedIn. Simply search for Helene Clara Gamper and they'll find my LinkedIn profile with some insights and background information about me and my business.

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