Up and coming beer sommeliers, Jill and Erika, both worked at a craft beer restaurant and bar, where they immersed themselves in the scents, flavours, and culture of craft beer. The idea for Paired was sparked when, one day at work, someone asked if it was possible to host a dinner event with beer pairings instead of wine. Shortly after, another person made the same request, and then another. Recognizing there is an opportunity for a new venture, Jill and Erika merged their expertise of craft beer, their love of food, and their hospitality skills to launch their beer pairing event business.
Paired was positioned as a fun and approachable brand, in opposition to the emerging hip and often intimidating beer culture. With hospitality at their core, Jill and Erika sought to build a community where they could educate, engage, and break down preconceptions of what it means to be an expert in craft beer. They chose a custom website, social media (Instagram and Facebook) and direct email as their primary distribution channels to help develop and grow their community. The goal for the website was straightforward: introduce Paired, educate customers on their offering, and drive bookings for event packages.
Each of the site’s pages were designed with these goals in mind. We utilized a minimalist approach to frame a clear interaction path for users, which would ultimately create more bookings for Jill and Erika. Identifying the importance for the website to be fun and approachable, to align with the Paired brand, we chose a clean and simple design featuring lots of white space, a neutral colour palette, and a streamlined website hierarchy to spotlight the imagery and text context.
“Kim used her eye for design and attention to detail to help build our brand, expand our outreach, and make our website pop. She elevated our site and we will absolutely work with her again in the future.”
