web design

tending to enjoy the more creative aspects of jobs, another aspect of business that piqued my interest was web design. to me, organization has always been my strong suit and a website felt like the perfect amalgamation of an aesthetically pleasing, yet organized resource for a business! the first website i created was this one, and it took me a lot of trial-and-error to find out what i wanted it to be. from learning from-scratch how to use Google Sites, to coming up with a creative vision for what i wanted to express, to continuing to manage it on a regular basis, designing this website has become a mini-project for me that once again helped me develop an interest in marketing. 

from there, the next website i created was for my business, flora squared! during my mentorship program, this was one of my main goals before the program ended. having a one-shop-stop for customers to view my products and story was important to me because it adds a level of simplicity on the consumers' end. this website required slightly different tasks because it was meant for others to view, rather than for me to share. it required more physical preparation with creating the products, making sure their pictures represented them accurately, and organizing them in an aesthetic way. it also meant putting in greater thought into what wording would appeal most to consumers. overall, my flora squared website was one step further into marketing, but this time on a more consumer-facing basis.

the next website i worked on was for a school club that i was president of, National English Honors Society. this website was much different for me because it was one that i practically had to re-brand, but using a completely different system: Wix. the first challenge i faced with this project was having to change the previous website manager's creative vision, meaning coming up with a completely new aesthetic for the website, easier-to-use resources, and constantly updating it. on the technical side of things, my biggest learning curve was re-learning the options and tools available in Wix. with days of effort, i was finally able to turn our rather-outdated, confusing website into a better resource for club members! to me, this project was an incredibly interesting one because it required me to utilize my previously-acquired planning skills, but develop totally new technical skills---and learning to combine these two only further developed my curiosity in website building and, on a larger scale, presentation as a whole.

i have worked on other websites as well, including one for my mom's music school, Carnatic Music School, and one for my grandma's lyrical compositions, Padma Sriraman. once again, i used Google Sites to create these because i felt that the UI of the website-building-platform was personally easier for me to use than Wix. since both of these websites were built on behalf of others, i got a lot of practice in learning to apply my ideas without overtaking the main person's vision for the website. it was insightful to see how different creative visions can be combined to create a different, yet just as efficient website!

to this day, i continue to update and manage several of the websites i've helped create, and i absolutely love it! this venture into marketing taught me so much about the value of consumer perception, and how simplicity matters when you are expressing information. most people are attracted to aesthetically-pleasing, yet informative websites that satisfy their curiosity with minimal clicks. moreover, i learned to use different website-building platforms and became better versed in switching between the two. in the future, i wish to pursue  building websites with different platforms to broaden the range of tools i know how to use! i genuinely believe websites are a fabulous resource for people and businesses, and i look forwarding to continuing to work on them in my future jobs.

my joy for content creation continued into college where i was searching for an internship in marketing to develop this interest more professionally. read about it here: