363: Digital Design Trends w/ Danielle Chavez, Club Design Studio

Ever wondered how to transform your golf or country club's online presence from dated and drab to sleek and sophisticated? Join us as we sit down with Danielle Chavez, founder of Club Design Studio, to uncover the secrets of modernizing graphic design for elite private clubs. Say goodbye to the clip art of yesteryear and embrace contemporary aesthetics with actionable tips for redesigning websites, landing pages, and digital assets. This episode is a must-listen for anyone involved in upscale club branding and digital communication.

Discover the latest design trends that luxury clubs are adopting, emphasizing minimalist and elegant aesthetics. Danielle shares her expertise on the power of white space and concise content, offering strategies for achieving a high-end, polished look. Plus, we highlight indispensable digital tools that can revolutionize club operations and communication. 
Elevate your productivity and streamline processes with insights from this comprehensive guide to enhancing both the appearance and efficiency of your club.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And they're moving away from like publisher and all the kitschiness and the clip art and they're like okay, we want to like, move into, move into.

Speaker 2: 0:07

They're not still using clip art. Okay, I have seen it. Say no more fam. Say no more I have seen it.

Speaker 1: 0:16

I have seen it, so all I'm saying is that You've seen it and the bad part is it's accepted. Yes, absolutely, it is still accepted, hey everyone.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Welcome back to the private club radio show podcast, the industry source for news, trends, updates and conversations all in the world of private golf and country clubs. Whether you are a veteran of the industry or brand new, welcome. This is the show where we go over all topics related to private golf and country clubs from governance, leadership, food and beverage, marketing, branding, design, the works you name it. We're probably going to talk about it here In this episode.

Speaker 2: 0:55

I'm chatting with a friend of mine, danielle Chavez, who is the founder of Club Design Studio and she helps private clubs with their graphic design, email, social media, all that jazz, and that's what this is about today. So if you are currently in the process, or you're starting to, maybe redesign websites, landing pages, all that stuff, definitely listen to this episode. We got some good tips and tricks in here. You definitely do not want to miss tricks in here you definitely do not want to miss. Before we get to this episode, I just want to do a quick shout out, quick thank you to all of you, the listeners. It means the world that you're here. If you're enjoying the content, make sure you like, share, subscribe, any way.

Speaker 2: 1:40

You consume the content, whether it's YouTube, uh, spotify, follow share uh, share the stuff that you're enjoying with other people who you think might also enjoy it. Uh, follow, so you stay up to date on all the stuff that we release. If you have not done so already, sign up for our newsletter and over to private club radiocom slash newsletter, I'll send you my top three episodes as well. Uh, we don't spam you to send out about an episode a week or episode. So now an email a week. I'll tell you about the episodes that we have released and coming out, as well as some other cool, different things. We don't always post online. Could be the first in the know. Thanks to our show partners, show sponsors. Thanks to our show partners, show sponsors, we have Golf Life Navigator. Eharmony meets Zillow Crazy wild platform connecting golf enthusiasts with their dream homes, their dream clubs, their dream communities. If you are interested in having your club on this platform so people can find you and advertising without advertising in a really cool way, head on over to Golf Life Navigators, reach out. Definitely a very cool platform, definitely worth checking out and making sure your club is on there, because the more places that people can find your club, the better. We have our friends Kenneth's member vetting If you or your club is not doing very good fact-based member vetting.

Speaker 2: 3:05

You're opening up the doors to having all sorts of floozies coming into your club, but no, paul and the team, they're absolutely fantastic. And now's the time. There's so many wait lists. There's so many clubs. There's so many people wanting to get into clubs. We should be more selective. You should be doing very good fact-based member vetting. If you would like to learn more about member vetting or Paul, we have our episodes here on member vetting or just head on over to member vettingcom and set up a. Set up a call with Paul. Guaranteed it's going to be good and he's a funny guy. I like him. We also have our friends concert golf partners, boutique owner operators of private golf and country clubs and nationwide.

Speaker 2: 3:45

If you or your club is looking for some recapitalization, or if you don't want to have any more assessments for your members or not even any of that, maybe you're just looking to. Maybe your club is just done being member owned and you're ready to have someone else take the reins, head on over to ConcertGolfPartnerscom. Set up a confidential phone call with Peter Nannula and see if you guys are a good fit. It's definitely worth it, as always with all of our show partners. Make sure you let them know you like the content here and that we sent you over here on Private Club Radio and they're going to hook it up for you.

Speaker 2: 4:13

And as always, one last shameless plug for myself If you or your club is looking for one of the most fun member events event nights dennycorbycom, I have the Denny Corby experience magic events event nights dennycorbycom I have the Denny Corby experience magic mind reading, comedy, crowd work. It is such a good time and I am a little bit biased, but worked with hundreds of clubs all over the country. So reach out, let's have a chat, dennycorbycom, but let's get to the episode. Private Club Radio listeners, please welcome Danielle Chavez. You have the unique position to work with so many clubs and, just in like the design space, all clubs are different. Everyone's style is different as well for clubs and everything. But I just thought like, hey, what's maybe what's you know? So what's what's working? What are the trends? Hey, what's sort of on like downwards? Hey, this is sort of kind of becoming more popular. Then maybe thought we can wrap it up with what's a good tech stack, that you know things and apps or tools every club should be utilizing and using.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 5:19

So, danielle, what is on the upward trends?

Speaker 1: 5:29

what is on the upward trends.

Speaker 1: 5:30

So in terms of trends in design, in the design world in clubs, I will say it is going to be minimalism.

Speaker 1: 5:33

I think that when we take a look at clubs and we look at the high end luxury clubs, you see a lot of the design geared towards like cutting out all the extras, just making it very polished, very elevated and then very to the point, and that is in terms of the design and language itself, like great copy speaks for itself and it always has. But in terms of the design, you, you couple that with a great layout that's just very minimal and very like luxurious feeling and you know you kind of attract a certain, you know a certain type of person who's, you know who might be interested in something like that and certain type of membership. But I see it across the board, even in the more traditional clubs, and that is, I think, when we get inquiries from from clubs. That's the very first thing is how do we elevate our marketing? And they're moving away from like publisher and all the kitschiness and the clip art and they're like, okay, we want to like move into, uh, move into they're not still using clip art.

Speaker 2: 6:34

Okay, I have seen it. Say no more fans say no more.

Speaker 1: 6:37

I have seen it. I have seen it, so all I'm saying is that you've seen it and the bad part is it's accepted.

Speaker 1: 6:46

Yes, absolutely. It is still accepted and I see it in multiple places, not only in magazines but in emails and things like that. So it happens. It happens and I think it depends where your club is. If you're more remote, maybe your talent pool is a little bit different as well, and I think traditionally it has been accepted. But the look and feel of clubs, like I said, is moving more towards very minimal, very sophisticated, and so when clubs reach out to us, that's really what we hear from them is like how do we elevate our marketing, how do we engage our members? How do we take our marketing to the next level where we can move away from you know 1990 publisher and move into you know kind of like the new era and utilize all these new great tools?

Speaker 2: 7:33

that's available to us what is too minimal. So, for you and your opinion, what is that line? No, no pun intended, but like. What's that line for? Like, okay, how do you know if it's too minimal or too much Like?

Speaker 1: 7:58

how do you find that balance that's? I don't know if I've ever been asked that question, because I think when it comes to design, it could be very minimal and still really and still come off. I mean, we're not talking just like a word on a page. That would be too minimal. But certainly if it's just an image with maybe some words over it or something like that, it could still be very minimal by nature but come off very elegant. So I think it's really an interesting.

Speaker 1: 8:23

You have to play with the design a little bit to be able to make it minimal. I will say that, coming from a design standpoint, bless you. Thanks, you're welcome. I will say, sometimes, coming into a design and like trying to make it minimal, we tend to overthink things as designers, so we put too much on the page and then we have to take away.

Speaker 1: 8:50

So that minimal design is actually harder to achieve than just filling the space, and utilizing the white space is harder to achieve than just kind of, you know, filling it with, like you know, a newsletter type of look where there's like blocks and there's texts and things like that. So, and then also taking the content and making it more concise, that can always be a challenge as well. So maybe you can't have anything that's like too minimal, but it needs to be done in such a way where it looks appealing. But I've certainly, like I said, I've certainly seen things where it's just like images and maybe like a letter or a couple of letters or like a word in there, and it still comes off really nice and polished.

Speaker 2: 9:31

So if I'm looking at my site you know XYZ Club, is there like a little audit that I can do that you know if I can go like you know. So if I were to go look at my site, what can I look for? Or what are some things that I can see? Like, oh, if I have X, y and Z, I should maybe think about changing this or upgrading or like reevaluating, like what are just some like little, like tips there?

Speaker 1: 9:55

Sure, yeah, you know, sometimes we we work on sites and we certainly help with mocking up sites Um, that's where, you know, we kind of come in, and what I would say you always want to look for is where does your eye go as readers, a perspective member or even a member at your site? Um, but mostly it's just going to be perspectives who are going to be perusing your site. So what stands out to you right? What are the photos? Obviously, the photography is a huge part of that. You want all of your photos to reflect your club, you know, and your lifestyle accurately and really look appealing. But, in terms of the text and the layout, you know, highlight the main things of your club.

Speaker 1: 10:29

If you've never done like a SWOT analysis, or if you've never really, you know, sat down and made a bullet points of what does your club bring to the table, how are you different? And then do that first, and then make sure, when you look at the landing page of your site, each of those bullet points are clearly outlined. So it should be right up at the top here's what we stand for. And then boom, boom, boom. This is what we're known for. And then some type of information or call to action of this is how you can contact us for more information, or, if it's by invitation, only make that known as well. But yeah, that's kind of what I would suggest for a website is just make sure that you are. Whatever your design is, make sure that all of your bullet points of what your club is known for stands out and is easily legible. You shouldn't have to have a prospective member navigate away from your landing page at all to understand what your club is about or what you offer.

Speaker 2: 11:25

And if anybody's wondering what that means, just go on Google, type in anything, click on the first ad and just look at that page, which is just an actual, it's just a fun exercise, just in general, to you know, just to look at what, like how somebody else does it, even like a completely different industry. But, like you know, you will notice like once you see it, once or know it, once you go to a landing page, there's nothing. A good landing page, you can't do anything else.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Absolutely a landing page. That is the idea of the landing page is everything that you need to know should be right there in one page, and it's okay if you scroll a little bit. But everything that you really need to know should be at the top and maybe something that's kind of lesser of value. You put it at the bottom but you shouldn't have to navigate away from your landing page to know the X, y, z part of your business, of your company, of your club. Basically, that's it.

Speaker 2: 12:20

Because our attention spans are like squirrels, like a goldfish, a goldfish. I know Mine's horrible and I know if there's anything else on that page if I get distracted so easy. So when there's a landing page that has other things that'll take me away, I will get taken away, trust me.

Speaker 1: 12:38

Absolutely. That's what happens with, you know. I mean these days we can just, you know, we just doom scroll, you know, and then we just, you know, tiktok and Instagram, and I mean they're catchy videos, but really I think we have what like seven seconds seven seconds is like the lifespan of a reel to catch your attention. Anything longer than that, you're like I'm done or you're fast forwarding.

Speaker 2: 12:59

Oh, I know, oh, I know, and then, yeah, and then we start like looking at analytics and stuff. You're like, oh, that's not me. Then you start looking at your own stuff.

Speaker 1: 13:06

You're like, sob, all right, oh yeah, you're like okay, everything after that, anything that's important, put it up at the, put it in the first seven seconds and then after that. Then you know, hopefully they'll see it.

Speaker 2: 13:19

The master of analytics and data, Mr Beast, his team is Mr Beast. And if you don't know, mr Beast, oh my goodness.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Oh, I know, Mr Beast, I have a 10 year old son.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Oh, I was talking. I figured you did this was for like listeners out there. If you don't know Mr Beast dude's making, I don't know it's wild, but he's, yeah, analytics galore.

Speaker 1: 13:44

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 13:47

Speaking of analytics and data and tech. I love software, I love tech, I love tech stacks. From a design standpoint, what are some apps I don't want to say devices, if you're some devices, no apps. Or what are some platforms that clubs should be using or being aware of, or have on their radar to be possibly using, that can help them in their design stuff?

Speaker 1: 14:14

to be possibly using that can help them in their design stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:15

Sure, absolutely. I think I'm going to go with the one that's most obvious in terms of the design world in clubs right now and that's going to be Canva, because Canva pretty much revolutionized the way that our teams work together. It revolutionized club design and the accessibility that you have to design as a club professional, and what I mean by that is not only you know, you don't have to hire a graphic designer any longer if you're you know to create something as simple as you know, maybe like your one-off private you know private event menu or something like that. I think that you know, even when it comes to collateral or brochures, canva can be utilized and, honestly, 99% of our clubs, when they come to us and they ask for a design, they're like can you do it in Canva? Of course we can. Of course we can do it in Canva because you and your team can easily change it if you need to make updates to it, change colors, add new photos, and it isn't as cumbersome or complicated as traditional design software like InDesign, photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.

Speaker 1: 15:15

Now, that's not to knock the Adobe products, because I was trained on all of those, and classically trained, and they still have a special place in my heart.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Humble brag.

Speaker 1: 15:27

You can't get away from the expertise and the excellence of InDesign, photoshop or Illustrator in the excellence of InDesign, photoshop or Illustrator. So, but I will say that after a few years of utilizing Canva, I mean, my eyes are open. I love using it, even in terms of, you know, creating digital, like you know, digital assets for social media or LinkedIn. You can easily and quickly do those things and then they have they have like introduced animations now. So you can, you know, create your own animation paths and things like that, and those are things that you would have had to do or it would take you hours in Photoshop and you can do it in seconds in Canva. So I don't know, hopefully Canva now is they can like sponsor me now that I've talked so highly of them. But definitely I will say Canva is first and foremost. If your club is not using it yet, I would recommend that you dive into it, and it's totally worth it too. The expense is pretty small compared to the power that it packs.

Speaker 2: 16:28

It's like $9 a month, $10 a month and you get a couple people. It's silly, it's silly.

Speaker 1: 16:32

Absolutely, but that is also why they've kind of revolutionized the space. So it's, the accessibility is just wonderful, and other and other areas, other technology I have stumbled across. You know, everybody loves chat GPT and I actually really like chat GPT too, but I have decided to use AnyWord. So AnyWord is another AI software and then it does so many things for you in terms of, you know, creating like prompts, creating email subjects. It gives you analytics behind your Instagram captions, linkedin, and then you can also customize the audience as well. So you can really, you know, kind of hone in for each club and this is what we do, we have different spaces for each club and hone in on what the demographic looks like, so the average age, you know, if you're, if you're making an email for a certain segment, you can identify. Okay, am I doing it for female? Am I doing it for male? You know, is it for a golfer? A country club audience, whatever it is, and then you can, you know, you can definitely modify your, your criteria. So for that reason I would, for me, anywhere I would say it's a little bit expensive, but anywhere it has been like a godsend a little bit for us, especially when we have to. You know, when we're creating content and obviously clubs, you know they get pretty bogged down with everything. So they're like, hey, can you please just come up with this language yourself? And we're like, yeah, sure, and you know, we kind of come up with it and then we use AnyWord to help refine it. So it's been wonderful. So I would definitely, you know, do that. Another one that we use is Grammarly, and we don't send anything out without running it through Grammarly, and so after we take it from AnyWord, put it in Grammarly, we double check it, make sure all the punctuation is great, all the grammar is right. And I think that is really helpful for the club world as well, because the amount and the volume of communications that you're going to send out, I mean, I have witnessed in the past. You know you send something out and there's an apostrophe S when it was just supposed to be S, and it was something that could have been caught if you would have just run it through like a spell check or some type of software. But Grammarly is pretty sophisticated, so I would also use that as well.

Speaker 1: 18:46

One other thing that I would suggest using and this is really for, like the team hub is Slack. Now I tried to implement this at one of my clubs and I use it now with my own team and with some of my clubs as well. They participate in Slack because they're like okay, yes, it's the easiest and fastest way to communicate, which is great, but most clubs don't. But the one time I did try to use it at my club it didn't really take off. It will say that it took off with the internal team, with, maybe, the ones that are involved in communications. But if there was a way that your club could get on a platform like Slack, I mean you can incorporate so many things right, you can communicate, you can share files, you can link it to your project management software.

Speaker 1: 19:31

I know clubs have started to kind of use club management software, like Monday or ClickUp for their team and their operations, so you can integrate all of that in there and it's just like an easy way to kind of chit, chat and then find easy answers, instead of trying to figure out okay, where's the GM at this point during the day? Oh, he's on the course. Okay, I'm gonna have to walk out there and find him. No, you can just send him a Slack message. So I will say that that in terms of technology for communications is very helpful.

Speaker 1: 20:03

And then I mentioned it a little bit. But project management software like mondaycom is an excellent tool. We actually we utilize ClickUp Great tool and then for all your tasks you can go in and you know, in any department in terms of operations you can go in and put in your task and have your assignments and then you know make any notes and you know really kind of like keep track of the whole process. That for us in communications it would be like you know version one, version two and then final drafts, things like that. But I mean I see clubs starting to kind of move over to using project management tools like that what were they using prior?

Speaker 1: 20:41

Nothing.

Speaker 2: 20:41

In your experience.

Speaker 1: 20:42

Pen and paper just weekly meetings.

Speaker 2: 20:46

Maybe a spreadsheet.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Maybe a spreadsheet possibly, but it's hard. I will say that, working in the club industry, I think we are all very well-intentioned, but as you know professionals, we are expected to wear so many different hats. So you walk into the club one day and I think that you feel like your schedule is going to be one way, and then you get pulled in. You know 12 different directions and you kind of just have to roll with it. So that is maybe why traditionally like spreadsheets don't really work, and then maybe face-to-face communication does. But something like a Slack or incorporating our project management tool could be great, because then your team members can go in and then do what they need to do on their own time when they have time.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Why did you pick ClickUp compared to like a Monday Asana Trello? Something like that.

Speaker 1: 21:41

You know Trello is a great one too. We picked ClickUp because we needed a more robust system that tracked our hours. We needed our ability to integrate into other platforms, like you know, google Drive, like Slack, and then also one of their biggest features is they have, like, a guest feature. So you know our clubs that we work with you know they are able to have a guest login where they can see all of our dashboards and they don't charge you extra for that. So that was one of the biggest reasons.

Speaker 2: 22:13

That's cool.

Speaker 1: 22:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was actually's cool.

Speaker 2: 22:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was, it was actually really cool.

Speaker 1: 22:18

Yeah, and then also the time tracking as well, because you know we we have our team and and so we need to just make sure that we're tracking all of our time accurately and the reporting is actually really good.

Speaker 2: 22:29

Nice, yeah Well, thank you for being on. Appreciate it Um where's best place people can find you.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Clubdesignstudiocom and then LinkedIn. Really, you can find me on LinkedIn. My personal handle is Danielle Chavez and you can find me. I put a lot of little tidbits on there and then we post some stuff from Club Design Studio too.

Speaker 2: 22:50

Nice Thanks.

Speaker 1: 22:53

All right, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 23:09

Hope you all enjoyed that episode. Thank, you're not signed up for the newsletter. Head on over to privateclubradiocom slash newsletter. We send out about an email a week no spam and also send you my top three episodes. So go sign up. That's this episode, until next time. Catch you on the flippity flip.