The designer behind the studio
I help small businesses in the beauty, wellness, and creative industries build brands and websites that actually work.
Hi, I'm Melissa.
I'm a brand and web designer based in Michigan, and I started Melissa Creative Studio to give small businesses the kind of design work that's usually reserved for companies with big budgets and in-house creative teams.
I hold a Master's degree in UX design and a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. I've spent the last decade working across print, web, and mobile, from start ups to corporations, which means I think about design as a full system, not just a single deliverable. Your logo, your website, your business card, your Instagram, they all need to tell the same story.
When I'm not designing, you'll probably find me going for a hot girl walk, watching Bravo, testing out new recipes, or designing a new interior project for my husband to do around the house.
My Approach
Four principles that shape every project.
Strategy before aesthetics.
Design without direction is just decoration. Before I open Squarespace, before I pick a color palette, before I sketch a single layout I need to understand your business, your audience, and what you're actually trying to accomplish. A website for a hair stylist trying to fill her books has different priorities than a website for an interior designer building a luxury referral pipeline. The strategy comes first, and the design decisions follow from it.
That's also why I ask a lot of questions upfront. The discovery process isn't busywork, it's the foundation that makes the final result feel like it was built for your business rather than adapted from a template.
You should be able to run your own site.
I don't believe in designing something so complex that you need to hire me every time you want to change a photo (but you can if you want!). Every project I deliver comes with a recorded video tutorial walking you through exactly how to make updates yourself. I build on platforms like Squarespace and Shopify specifically because they're powerful enough for professional results but manageable enough for a business owner to maintain.
Too often I hear from clients who are paying someone a monthly fee to 'maintain' their website and they're not even sure what they're getting for it. That's one of the reasons I build on Squarespace and Shopify. These platforms handle hosting, security, and updates for you, there's no need to pay a developer just to keep the lights on. And with the video tutorial I include, you'll know how to make content updates yourself.
Designed to convert, not just to look pretty.
A beautiful website that nobody can figure out how to navigate is a failure. I bring formal UX training (a Master's degree in user experience design) into every project, which means every layout choice, button placement, and page structure is intentional. Where does a visitor's eye go first? How many clicks does it take to book? Is the most important information above the fold?
These aren't afterthoughts. They're the decisions that determine whether your website actually generates leads or just collects compliments from friends.
Reducing cognitive load.
The average person decides whether to stay on a website in about three seconds. That's not a lot of time and it means every section, every headline, and every image on your site needs to be doing a job. If it's not guiding someone toward booking, buying, or learning more, it's taking up space and adding noise.
This is where UX training changes the game. I think a lot about cognitive load, the mental effort it takes someone to figure out what they're looking at and what to do next. Too many fonts, competing buttons, walls of text, unclear navigation, these all add friction that makes people leave. My job is to remove that friction.
Your customer shouldn't have to work to understand your site. If they do, they'll just go to the next one.
Frequently asked questions
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I can deliver Canva-compatible templates if that's helpful for your day-to-day social media and marketing. Other than social media templates, if you want an editable Canva file this will be something that needs to be mentioned before the project beings. Canva does have limitations with very large documents, complex layouts, or print-ready files, so some deliverables work better in professional formats.
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Yes of course! You will be the primary owner of your Squarespace website and after the website is completed I will provide a short tutorial on how to make your own updates.
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Yes, I require a 25% deposit to hold your spot on my calendar.
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Yes, all logos I design are vector.
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Yes, all of my websites are designed with Search Engine Optimization in mind.