Nothing was wasted: How I became one of the only black website designers in Pittsburgh

Boutique owner. YouTuber. College recruiter. Marketing strategist. Web designer.

If you read that list on a resume, you might think I couldn't make up my mind. It's just about as random as the girl dinner I had last night. But after running The Rebrand Lab for a little under 7 years, I finally realized: nothing was wasted. Every single one of my previous jobs was training me for exactly what I do now, whether I realized it or not.

It Started With My Fashion Design Degree

Before I was a Pittsburgh website designer, I was a fashion design student.

While it felt like every other kid in my high school popped out the womb knowing they wanted to be a nurse or a teacher, my journey towards picking a degree felt more abstract. I always knew I would end up doing something artistic, but I struggled to figure out at 17 years old how my creativity could translate into a "real" job.

I took a tour of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh after a recruiter came to my high school and I fell in love with the big glass student display cases on the fashion design floor of the building. They looked like full-on Macy display windows filled with clothing from the fashion students. And I told myself, "yep, one day that will be me."

The fashion design floor seemed muuuch more exciting than the graphic design floor my Dad insisted we'd tour just a few minutes earlier. To me, as a 17-year-old kid, graphic design meant logos and packaging labels. Little did I know just how much I'd fall in love with marketing, and just how adjacent I'd be to graphic design, just a few years later.

In fashion design school, I learned how to build something from a blank canvas, how to think about proportion, color, and how a piece makes someone feel the second they see it. Which is funny, because that's not so different from what a homepage has to do in the first ten seconds someone lands on it.

I taught myself Photoshop and basic coding in middle school, just messing around. In college, I took a few Adobe and business classes, but my self-taught instinct ended up mattering more than my actual degree.

Then Came the Little Boys' Clothing Boutique

Giggling Gentleman. A name and concept that was actually born from my senior design collection in college. As a new mom and college grad, this was my attempt to put my degree to work. I hated the minimal selection of little boys clothes I saw in clothing stores. What if I didn't want my son covered in Tonka trucks or dinosaurs?

I spent months sourcing the clothes (I realized a year into my degree that I hated sewing), figuring out my pricing and marketing strategies, designing the cutest custom website, and building up the buzz on socials.

Running a boutique taught me something no course could: how customers actually decide. What makes someone stop scrolling, visit your website, and buy. What makes them leave your site immediately and not look back. These are same triggers I keep in mind now when I'm building out a homepage for my clients. If it doesn't earn attention in the first few seconds, nothing else matters.

Then Came My Fashion & Lifestyle YouTube Channel

For about two years, I ran a YouTube channel that focused on clothing hauls, styling tips, makeup tutorials, vlogs, you name it. Eventually, I started landing sponsored videos from hair and clothing companies.

That's where I learned how to hold someone's attention across a dozen different formats and still sound like myself in every single one. It's also where I first learned how to represent someone else's brand (the companies sponsoring me) without losing my own voice in the process.

More than anything, it's where I learned to actually lean into my personality instead of hiding it. I figured out that the videos that did best weren't the polished ones, they were the ones where I let my real point of view come through. That's the same thing I preach to my clients today: a website without personality is just a template with your logo on it.

Then High-ticket Marketing and Recruiting

High-ticket college recruiting (aka a sink-or-swim lesson in marketing, brand positioning, and relationship building). This is where I learned sales psychology. How to make someone understand why they should choose you over the business (or college) down the street selling the exact same thing. That skill shows up in every website I design and every piece of copy I write for my clients today.

I'll be honest, I struggled a bit in this role because I believed in selling ethically. My morals would never let me try to force a square peg into a round hole. I believe that the world is full of the exact people you're meant to serve. You just have to be creative about finding and attracting them.

Then, Finally, The Rebrand Lab

I officially opened TRL (originally as Domanique Jazmin Designs, lol) in November 2019. Almost 7 years, and 50+ client websites later, I'm still here and honestly feel like I'm just getting started. I can confidently say my best work is ahead of me because I've become obsessed with web design and I'm constantly pushing myself to grow my marketing knowledge, keep up with the latest tech changes, and continue designing outside of the box.

The Rebrand Lab isn't here because I got lucky and stumbled into web design. It's here because every stop I've made before this has helped me build the exact skill set running The Lab actually requires.

Something I Didn't Expect When I Started

I didn't plan on becoming one of the only black website designers in Pittsburgh. It just kind of turned out that way. And eventually, I noticed something.

Almost every single client tells me that part of why they hired me is that I'm a woman. They want someone who will actually get their ideal client, not just build a generic website. And a good number of those clients also tell me it's because they wanted to work with another Black woman in business. They're building something of their own, and they want the person behind their website to understand that in a way that goes beyond a portfolio.

I get why that matters to people. But it's never the whole reason a project works. The reason clients stay, refer me, and come back for their next site is the same reason I got into this in the first place: the work has to actually perform. Websites pretty enough to make them proud. Working hard enough to keep them booked. That part isn't negotiable, no matter who's hiring me or why.

As one of the only black woman-owned web design studios in Pittsburgh, I built The Rebrand Lab around that belief. Your website should be your hardest-working employee, not just another pretty face on the internet (there are enough of those already and many haven't booked a new client in weeks).

If you're a beauty or wellness pro in Pittsburgh looking for a website designer who actually gets it, that's exactly what The Lab is for.

Want to see what a Workhorse Website could do for your business? Learn more here.