PHOTOGRAPHY & MEDIA
CASE STUDY
SQUARESPACE WEBSITE DESIGN
How DaoJones Media Transformed Their Squarespace Photography Website Into a Professional Media Brand
A complete Squarespace website redesign using Squarespell's Photography, Blogging & Magazine template covering design transformation, SEO improvements, performance gains, and business impact.
Squarespell Design Team
Squarespace Specialists Templates, Plugins & Custom Development
Squarespell is a specialist Squarespace studio building custom templates, plugins, and websites exclusively within the Squarespace ecosystem for photographers, creatives, and growing businesses in the US and UK.
From Invisible to Editorial: The DaoJones Media Squarespace Story
Most photographers and media professionals understand the craft of visual storytelling deeply. But when it comes to translating that craft into a Squarespace photography website that actually works ranking on Google, converting visitors into clients, and presenting work with editorial authority the gap between ambition and execution can be enormous.
DaoJones Media knew this gap firsthand. The brand had a clear visual identity and compelling photography work. What it lacked was a Squarespace website design that matched the quality of the content behind it. The existing setup looked like every other portfolio on the internet generic, slow, and structurally invisible to search engines.
This is the story of how Squarespell's Squarespace design service solved that problem using a purpose built photography and magazine template to deliver a professional redesign that performs as well as it looks.
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Project Details
- Client: DaoJones Media
- Niche: Photography & Media
- Platform: Squarespace 7.1
- Template: Photography & Magazine
- Services: Design, SEO, Performance
- Timeline: 2–4 weeks
Squarespell Services
Client Background: DaoJones Media
DaoJones Media is a photography and media company operating across creative industries. The brand produces visual content spanning editorial photography, blogging, and media storytelling a niche that demands a digital presence as precise and intentional as the work itself.
Like many creative professionals, DaoJones Media had initially built their Squarespace site using one of the platform's default templates. For the early days, this was sufficient. But as the brand's reputation and content library grew, the website became a liability rather than an asset. It no longer reflected the professionalism of the work it showcased.
The decision to invest in a professional Squarespace redesign was driven by three clear goals:
Establish a visual identity online that matched the brand's editorial quality
Create a Squarespace photography website with proper SEO foundations to attract organic search traffic
Build a platform for long-term content publishing a magazine-style blog architecture that would scale
Ready to rebuild your Squarespace site with expert help?
Book Free Consultation →In This Case Study
Project Details
- Client: DaoJones Media
- Niche: Photography & Media
- Platform: Squarespace 7.1
- Template: Photography & Magazine
- Services: Design, SEO, Performance
- Timeline: 2–4 weeks
Squarespell Services
The Problem: A Great Brand With a Generic Squarespace Site
Before the redesign, DaoJones Media's Squarespace site had several structural and visual problems that were silently undermining the brand every day:
1. Generic Template Aesthetics
The site used one of Squarespace's standard templates a clean but entirely non-distinctive layout indistinguishable from thousands of other photography portfolios. When a prospective client landed on the page, there was nothing that communicated premium positioning or editorial authority. The first impression was neutral, which in competitive creative markets means forgettable.
2. No Editorial Grid System for Photography Presentation
Photography deserves to be presented with visual intention not dropped into static thumbnail grids. The original layout had no asymmetric grid, no full-bleed sections, no hover interactions, and no featured story architecture. The work was technically visible but not experienced the way photography should be.
3. Weak Squarespace SEO Foundation
The site had significant technical SEO gaps that were limiting its organic search visibility. There was no consistent heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3), meta descriptions were either missing or auto-generated, image alt text was absent on most photos, and URL slugs were auto-generated strings rather than keyword-rich descriptions. For a brand relying on content discovery, these were critical blind spots.
4. No Magazine Style Content Architecture
DaoJones Media publishes articles, stories, and editorial content alongside photography yet the site presented this content in a basic chronological blog list with no visual differentiation between story types, no category architecture, and no featured content sections. A brand with media aspirations needs a custom Squarespace blog design that mirrors how media publications present content.
5. Poor Mobile Performance
Image-heavy Squarespace websites are especially susceptible to mobile performance issues when not properly optimized. The original site loaded multiple full-size images without lazy loading, resulting in slow mobile page loads a direct Google ranking penalty under Core Web Vitals
The core insight: DaoJones Media didn't have a branding problem they had a platform execution problem. The brand was strong; the Squarespace implementation wasn't built to carry it. The right template and a professional Squarespace design service would solve all five issues simultaneously.
Ready to rebuild your Squarespace site with expert help?
Book Free Consultation →In This Case Study
Project Details
- Client: DaoJones Media
- Niche: Photography & Media
- Platform: Squarespace 7.1
- Template: Photography & Magazine
- Services: Design, SEO, Performance
- Timeline: 2–4 weeks
Squarespell Services
The Design & Development Process: What Squarespell Did
Squarespell's approach to every Squarespace website redesign follows a structured process: template selection, brand integration, SEO architecture, and performance optimization. For DaoJones Media, the foundation was clear from the first consultation.
Template Selection: Photography, Blogging & Magazine
Squarespell's Photography, Blogging & Magazine Squarespace template was the only logical choice for this project. Unlike generic Squarespace templates, this is a purpose-engineered editorial system built specifically for photographers, bloggers, and visual storytellers with three non-negotiable design priorities:
Editorial Grid System
Dynamic asymmetric layouts that present photography as art, not thumbnail rows
Mobile First Responsive Design
Every layout section optimized for thumb navigation and mobile viewports
Magazine Content Architecture
Category navigation, featured story sections, full bleed image blocks
Performance Architecture
Lazy loading, optimized image delivery, and minimal JavaScript overhead
SEO-Optimized Structure
Pre-built H1–H3 hierarchy, clean URLs, schema-ready blog post templates
Brand Integration & Customization
The template provided the architectural foundation. Squarespell's custom Squarespace development team then applied DaoJones Media's brand layer: typography pairing selection, color system implementation, custom CSS for hover states and transitions, and logo and identity integration across all page types. The result was a site that used the template's structure but felt entirely unique to the brand.
Brand Customization Ready
CSS variable system for one-token brand color and typography implementation
Need a Squarespace Photography Website Like This?
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Project Details
- Client: DaoJones Media
- Niche: Photography & Media
- Platform: Squarespace 7.1
- Template: Photography & Magazine
- Services: Design, SEO, Performance
- Timeline: 2–4 weeks
Squarespell Services
Before vs After: The Squarespace Design Transformation
The visual transformation in a well-executed Squarespace before and after redesign is the most immediate evidence of what professional design expertise delivers. Here is what changed across every layer of DaoJones Media's website:
Homepage: From Static List to Editorial Hub
The original homepage was a single-column scroll with a text headline, a blog post list below, and navigation. Clean, but architecturally identical to tens of thousands of other Squarespace sites. The new homepage is a multi-zone editorial architecture: a full-bleed hero section with featured story, an asymmetric featured grid for three spotlight pieces, category navigation, and a secondary story feed mirroring the homepage layout of professional media publications.
Typography: Editorial Pairing Replaces System Fonts
Squarespace's default font stack is functional but carries zero brand identity. The redesign introduced a deliberate editorial typography system: a high-contrast serif display typeface for headlines and section titles, paired with a clean, slightly condensed grotesque for body text and captions. This single change replacing generic fonts with a intentional typographic voice elevated every page on the site.
Photography Presentation: Full-Bleed vs Thumbnails
The original template displayed photography in static thumbnail grids a presentation that visually minimizes the work. The redesigned site uses full-bleed image sections with CSS overlay animations, asymmetric grid layouts with varied image sizes, and a dedicated portfolio section with immersive gallery views. Photography is now experienced, not just viewed.
Mobile Experience: Rebuilt From the Ground Up
Mobile optimization for photography websites is particularly challenging large images must display beautifully without degrading load speed. The redesign implemented Squarespace's responsive fluid layout with custom breakpoint rules: images serve differently-sized assets at mobile viewports, the navigation collapses into a clean mobile menu, and all interactive elements meet minimum touch target sizes for thumb navigation.
Ready to rebuild your Squarespace site with expert help?
Book Free Consultation →In This Case Study
Project Details
- Client: DaoJones Media
- Niche: Photography & Media
- Platform: Squarespace 7.1
- Template: Photography & Magazine
- Services: Design, SEO, Performance
- Timeline: 2–4 weeks