Charlie’s Travels is a travel agency creating off the beaten track journeys across Africa. With a fast growing website full of country pages, example trips, and unique experiences in multiple languages, my challenge was to supervise a completely rebrand that went further than just the website, shaping both its technical foundation and its overal (digital) identity.
What started as a straightforward rebuild of the website soon grew into something much bigger: a full rebrand of Charlie’s Travels. I supervised the entire process, coordinating between internal teams, external freelancers and an external branding agency to ensure the project went beyond design and reshaped the company’s entire digital identity.
Together with the branding agency, we developed a new visual identity that matched the adventurous and authentic nature of Charlie’s Travels. To anchor this identity in real customer needs, I led multiple sessions on customer journey mapping and persona building, working closely with the management team and our external partners.
Once the first design iterations were created by the branding agency, I took the lead in building detailed wireframes for the new website. These wireframes allowed us to map out every page type and identify the building blocks needed. The branding agency then developed these elements in code, ensuring consistency with the new identity.
After the design and coded elements were finalized, the project was handed over to me. I built the templates for all page types and oversaw the creation of the full website: around 600 pages in Dutch, 150 in German, and 50 in English. My role was not only to execute but also to supervise others, providing them with the structure, assets, and guidance they needed to work efficiently on such a large project.
The project was scheduled to launch in mid-November, right before the busy high season. I pushed hard to make that deadline, but in hindsight, a formal go/no-go moment would have been the better choice. The launch went ahead while small issues still needed fixing, and as expected, SEO performance dipped during December, a known risk when transitioning to a new site. I’ve taken this as a learning point and now consciously manage expectations and risk assessments with unknowing but enthusiastic colleagues.