ALNA

ALNA is opening a 2,200 sq. ft. contrast therapy studio in Coquitlam this summer: a 30-person sauna, four cold plunge tubs, and guided classes in breathwork and mobility, built around the idea that recovery is a practice, not an event. Forge & Spark led brand strategy and content — the copy, the positioning, the story. I planned, wireframed and built the site it lives on, then connected directly with Mariana Tek’s team to get real booking and account management working, not a contact form standing in for it.

Working from a content agency’s finished copy is a different job than most sites get. The words, the structure and the tone were already decided before a single wireframe existed, which meant the build could focus entirely on what a page does with real content rather than guessing at what might eventually fill it.

Challenge

ALNA needed to look like what it actually is: a serious, science-backed wellness space, not another generic spa page. Forge & Spark’s content carried that positioning; the site had to carry it through in layout, hierarchy, and every decision about what gets weight on the page and what doesn’t.

The harder problem was that the studio didn’t exist yet. It was still being built, so there were no finished photos and no real assets to design around — the site had to imagine what the space was going to be, not document what it already was, and stay loose enough to move as decisions about the build kept changing underneath it.

It also had to work as a business from day one. Booking a session, buying a package, managing an account needed to run through Mariana Tek, the studio software ALNA had already committed to, so I connected directly with their team to make sure what the site needed lined up with what their system could do.

A website is part of the business, not a one-time delivery. Mine get looked after long after launch — that’s the job, not an extra.

Solution

Plan and wireframe against finished copy. With Forge & Spark’s content already settled, the wireframing question was never “what do we say here,” it was “what does this specific sentence need to look like.” Real character counts, real photography once it existed, real hierarchy, decided once and correctly, and agile enough to move as the studio itself kept changing underneath it.

Connect the booking system. I worked directly with Mariana Tek’s team to get scheduling, packages and account management wired into the site properly, so Purchase, Book and Account are real, working pages from day one, not placeholders waiting on a future integration.

Build and launch. The site went live carrying Forge & Spark’s brand and copy, with booking already running through Mariana Tek, ready for a real studio taking real bookings.

Then, everything around it moved on. A whole generation of tooling arrived, AI among it, and a site built before any of that existed can’t make use of it, because its design was locked inside settings only one piece of software could read. Nothing was wrong with it. It was built for a moment that had passed. So I moved it onto a current framework and built ALNA a full set of Design Guidelines: colour named group by group, type at real weights on a scale, spacing, logo, and the rules that hold it together, published as a live page on the site rather than a PDF. The design didn’t change. What changed is that it can now be read, by another person or by any tool pointed at it.

Result

ALNA opens this summer with a site that looks and works exactly as planned: Forge & Spark’s brand carried through cleanly, and a real booking system running underneath it through Mariana Tek. The foundation got rebuilt without any disruption to the live site and without it becoming a new project ALNA had to plan for or ask about.

That’s part of how I look after every site I build, past launch. A site is not finished the day it goes live, and keeping it current is my job to notice, not something a client should have to ask for.

More Work

More projects

View all projects

DigiBC

DigiBC represents British Columbia’s creative technology sector and brings several distinct programs together under one name, including Signals, its creative tech expo, and DigiBC Careers, its work placement program connecting students and employers.

Bridging Activism and Clinical Psychology

A digital resource hub that turns clinical psychology research into practical tools for climate activists and campaign leaders.

Forge & Spark

Forge & Spark is a content marketing agency helping purpose-driven brands grow through authentic, high-quality storytelling, and the relationship here runs deeper than one project: Design Guidelines and a full site build made to last, an ongoing fractional seat as VP, Creative Strategy, and now AI getting worked into how the site runs.