Skip to content
Rich Selin Studio logo

The L.A. esthetic(ian):
professional, clinical, minimalist

Branding and website
Sonya Dilbeck Esthetics
Los Angeles County

A screenshot of the Sonya Dilbeck Esthetics website home page viewed on a desktop. The hero image features Sonya, wearing a blue clinic uniform, seated behind her treatment table. There is a countertop, sink and mirror behind her. On the countertop is a blue Circadia plaque. The headline is a text overlay on the hero image and reads 'Results-driven skincare for aging and sensitive skin'.
Sonya Dilbeck Esthetics website home page (desktop screen capture).

Sonya Dilbeck knew that as a solo practitioner, she wanted to put the spotlight on her greatest asset: herself. A two-time cancer survivor who experienced firsthand the impact illness and treatment can have on the skin and the spirit, her journey to becoming a licensed esthetician is deeply personal. Her brand conveys her professional, clinical approach to skincare by telling her story in a minimalist, editorial style.

We had our share of WTF? (what the font?) moments in the beginning. After all, it's easy to get lost in the font forest. Once I explained that most typefaces (or font families in web lingo) sort themselves into just seven or eight categories, Sonya embraced the process. We settled on two classic font families: Adobe Garamond Premier and Akzidenz-Grotesk Next. They pair seamlessly because of their shared humanist roots and express Sonya's brand perfectly. For the website, we used Google Fonts equivalents (EB Garamond and Roboto) that closely match the original choices and are royalty-free.

The website is ridiculously fast, in Sonya's words. How fast? Blink and it's there. It consistently earns performance scores of 98 on mobile and 100 on desktop in a Google Lighthouse page audit. The secret? The site is built with core web standards , optimized images, and self-hosted fonts. It is completely free of the code bloat common to drag-and-drop page builders like Wix or Squarespace.

In fact, this site replaced a slow Squarespace site that cost hundreds of dollars a year in recurring fees. Now, Sonya has total ownership and portability of her site with zero recurring costs (other than web and email hosting).

A screenshot of the Sonya Dilbeck Esthetics website home page, inspected using Chrome Developer Tools. To the left, the website is simulated on an iPhone 14 Pro Max, showing the mobile layout. To the right are the results of a Google Lighthouse page audit. The audit reveals a perfect score of 100 in each of the categories of Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO.
Google Lighthouse audit results, (screen capture).

Connect with Rich:

Email: rich [at] richselin [dot] com

Phone: +1 (306) 491-1798

What are the Core Web Standards?

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are open standards maintained by international standards organizations and built into every web browser. Because these standards are open and not patent-encumbered or controlled by a single company, they ensure the web remains accessible, interoperable, and backward-compatible.

Because websites built natively with web standards work with the browser as designed and are not tied to proprietary page builders or platforms, they deliver maximum speed, total portability, and zero vendor lock-in.