OUR BLOG

Here you will find our latest works, company news and more. We update it on a regular basis so be sure to come back soon. Please like, share, pin or tweet the post you enjoy.

New WordPress Website for St. Louis Area Car Audio Company

Posted on March 31, 2015 by JUSTEN HONG

Xclusive Autosound originally came to Visual Lure to search engine optimize their existing website, but after a review of the site, we found that the WordPress theme they were using was part of the problem. Even though it was responsive, it was slow, scoring in the low 60’s in sections of Google Webmaster Tool’s PageSpeed Insights. Xclusive was also having problems with plugin conflicts and missing image files. Simply put, the website was not ranking well, they were tired of all the headaches it was causing them, and they just wanted it done right. To remedy all these issues we helped Xclusive Autosound design, develop and launch a new custom, fast-loading, search engine optimized, responsive WordPress website. Below you can see the new home page design and the car audio & electronics landing page. Please visit xclusiveautosound.com to view the new site.

Xclusive Autosound is a Belleville, IL custom car audio shop that specializes in the installation of car electronics, automobile, commercial & residential window tinting and automotive paint protection film. Their car electronic products include remote starters, backup camera & sensors, mobile video & DVD players, Sirius XM radios, bluetooth and all types of custom car audio equipment.

Even though St. Louis is an entire river away from Belleville, a large portion of their clients make “that arduous trip” due to Xclusive’s reputation (it is actually only 17 miles from downtown St. Louis, MO to Belleville, IL). Their reputation was built by the consistent quality of their work, never taking shortcuts with any of their installs and their eye for detail. This is important because how some of these product are installed and integrated into your automobile are sometimes more important than the products themselves.

Are you having problems with your existing website?

If you’re having problems with your existing website, don’t try to fix them with another sub-par site. Contact Visual Lure today at 618.407.9231 or info@visuallure.com and we can discuss how we can help you build a solid online presence.

Lifestyle Kitchens & Baths Website Redesign & Launch

Posted on March 16, 2015 by JUSTEN HONG

Visual Lure recently launched a new website for Lifestyle Kitchens & Baths, a sister company of Wilke Window & Door. Lifestyle Kitchens & Baths is a full service kitchen and bath supplier of cabinets, countertops, vanities, sinks, fixtures, hardware, accessories and more. They have two locations. One in Shiloh, Illinois and the other in St. Charles, Missouri, both conveniently located next to Wilke Window & Door showrooms.

After completing Wilke’s new website, we used the custom designed WordPress theme we developed for them and tailored it for Lifestyle. We changed fonts, the color palette and we uploaded all the new content. By reusing the existing Wilke Window & Door WordPress theme we saved our client a significant amount of time and money, and at the same time it helped create a visual cohesiveness between the two brands.

In addition to the design and development of the new site, Visual Lure also performed all on-site search engine optimization (SEO).

Lifestyle Kitchens & Baths St. Louis WordPress web design

Lifestyle Kitchens & Bath’s new home page design

FREE web design consultation

If you would like to learn more about Visual Lure’s WordPress web design services, please call us today at 618.407-9231 for a FREE web design consultation.

Click here to view more of our latest WordPress and web design projects »

Sneak Peek at Visual Lure’s New WordPress Website Design

Posted on March 8, 2015 by JUSTEN HONG

One of our most difficult clients to please has always been ourselves. We have had the same website since 2004 due to multiple reasons. 1. We have been so busy taking care of our clients that it’s been difficult to find the time to fully take care of our own needs. 2. We as designers, find it hard to design for ourselves because we are so critical of our own work, plus we constantly like to explore new design aesthetics, and 3. Web design trends are constantly evolving and we find ourselves always wanting to utilize the latest and greatest ones.

However, there comes a time when things must be done – and for us – that time was now. What truly motivated us was the announcement from Google that on April 21st of 2015 they will be releasing a new algorithm that will effect search results for websites that are not mobile friendly. As of January 2014 all the websites we design and develop for our clients have been done so utilizing responsive (mobile friendly) website design, but our site has yet to be completely converted.

Responsive web design is the practice of designing and developing websites so that they automatically transform to fit the screens of the devices they are being viewed from, including desktop computers, tablets and smart phones. This technique ensures that users have a great user experience no matter how they are viewing a website. For instance, font sizes may increase on the tablet and mobile versions so that users don’t have to zoom in to easily read text, and layouts may shift so that the content remains logically structured while increasing or decreasing in size.

Our current blog is responsive, but the rest of our website is not. We currently rank on the first page of Google for all our targeted search terms and we don’t want to take the risk of dropping due to this update. With that being said, here is a little sneak peek at some of our unused designs over the years along with our new design that is currently under development. Our new site will be built in WordPress utilizing a fully custom theme. The new theme will feature custom admin sections making it easy for us to update our portfolios. It will also have tons of cool CSS effects and animations. Look for the launch of our new website coming soon!

New Website Screenshots:

new home page design

new about us page

new graphic design/print portfolio page

new website design portfolio details page

Unselected Design Options:

the first runner up home page design

a cool home page design that didn’t make the cut

Is your current website not responsive or mobile friendly?

If your current website is not mobile friendly, and you are looking for a new web design company, give Visual Lure a call today. With a free website design consultation we can explore your options and provide you with a free estimate.

Custom WordPress Development for St. Louis Wedding Planner

Posted on February 27, 2015 by JUSTEN HONG

Visual Lure had the pleasure of working with Kristin Weis (again), and Cheree Berry Paper, to develop Kristin Ashley Events’ new custom WordPress website. Kristin Ashley Events is a premier St. Louis, MO full service wedding and event planning company that provides proposal planning, full wedding coordination, month of coordination along with à la carte options. Without doubt, they are one of the best wedding planning companies in the greater St. Louis area.

The fine designers at Cheree Berry Paper provided the new design and Visual Lure took those comps and turned them into a fully functioning responsive WordPress website. The new website features swaying roll-over frames on the home page and custom admin sections for the portfolio and press pages making it easy for Kristin to maintain. Visual Lure also designed the new contact and blog pages staying true to the aesthetic we were provided. This will be the third website we’ve developed for KAE.

Visit www.kristinashleyevents.com to check out the new website.

new home page design with swaying frames

services pages

portfolio landing page

photo gallery

video gallery

blog page

Learn more about our web design or WordPress design services, or contact us today for a free website consultation.

Sneak Peek at New Website for St. Louis Metro Construction Company

Posted on February 5, 2015 by JUSTEN HONG

Visual Lure, in collaboration with Cohesion, is currently working on Holland Construction Services’ new website. Cohesion is a St. Louis, MO based strategic consulting firm and a full-service marketing agency, and Holland Construction Services is a top St. Louis metro east commercial contractor. Holland specializes in providing full-service construction services to commercial, educational, government, industrial, multi-family, recreational and religious organizations and businesses.

The new website is being built in WordPress utilizing a fully custom theme with a plethora of custom features. These include a leadership page where member’s photos are black and white, when selected, they turn to color and move to the foreground. A custom admin section is also being created so that the Holland team can easily add, edit and remove featured projects. The new site will be responsive so that users have a pleasant viewing experience no matter what type of device they are using to view the website.

Cohesion was responsible for the messaging, copywriting and the design of most of the main pages. We then took what they delivered, modified the design so that it could be converted to a responsive layout and we designed the rest of the site staying true to the provided aesthetic.

View the sample pages below, along with our initial proposed home page design (at the very bottom), and check back soon for the official launch.

Home page design

Leadership page

Featured projects landing page

Project’s sub category landing page

Sample feature projects page

Responsive page layout samples

Our initial proposed home page design

Click here to view more of our latest website design.

Niche Photography Website Launch, Branding Package Update & Brochure Design

Posted on January 21, 2015 by JUSTEN HONG

Visual Lure recently launched a new website for Niche Photography. Niche Photography is a St. Louis area wedding photographer specializing in portrait, baby and high school senior photography. They are located in Mascoutah, IL and service the entire St. Louis and St. Louis metro east area. In addition to their new website, we updated their identity package and designed a new pricing brochure for them.

The new website was built using a fully custom designed, search engine friendly, responsive WordPress theme with a multitude of cool effects. The new site features a “sticky” menu that always stays at the top of the page. The logo mark elegantly fades away allowing the menu bar to use less vertical space. Other features include an easily maintainable home page slideshow, a unique rollover-effect for recent post on the home page, and masonry style responsive galleries. Click here to visit Niche’s new website.

We also updated Niche’s visual branding package by switching his logo to all grey (the logo mark was originally a Tiffany’s colored teal blue). Niche felt this switch made the brand more neutral or more appealing to the masses.

We wrapped up all these upgrades with an engagement and wedding pricing brochure. They will hand these out to potential bride and grooms at local bridal shows.

Niche Photography Branding & Website

Update: We recently received printed samples of the new brochure and had a chance to photograph them. They turned out fantastic!

niche-brochure-design1

niche-brochure-design2

View more of our photography logos and branding packages »

Complete Branding Package for a Pittsburgh Photography Studio

Posted on December 18, 2014 by JUSTEN HONG

We recently wrapped up a complete visual branding package for Wright Image Photography, a Pittsburgh area family and wedding photography studio. We actually started with their logo and website last year and just completed the letterhead system, packaging and wedding brochure. The new pieces will utilize specialty printing with the logo being gold foil stamped on the letterhead, paper bags and wedding brochure.

Sticking with the white and gold color theme, we selected a crystal flash drive with a gold cap from photoflashdrive.com and we found brass metal business cards at mymetalbusinesscard.com (that look gold). These will we be used for the labels on their large prints and canvases – which will be wrapped in white craft paper and a white ribbon. As mentioned before, the bag will have a gold foil stamped logo, and patterned or solid metallic gold tissue paper will top it off.

Due to the custom search engine optimized WordPress website we created for them last year, they have more than doubled their weddings for next (all without any additional marketing). This bump in income has allowed them to reinvest in the company and they are now working on creating a solid marketing plan for next year. We are also currently converting their existing website to be responsive to improve traffic, lower the bounce rate and provide a better overall user experience.

It is always a pleasure to work with clients that understand and value the power of good design and cohesive visual branding. If you are one of those people, give us a call today, we would love to help take your business to the next level.

Update: Printed samples of the new brochure and identity design package just came in. They printed beautifully!