Lavender & Lace Blog Design Part 2

If this post seems a a little déjà vu, don't worry, you're not losing it! About a year and a half ago, I did some design work for Laura of Lavender & Lace when she was just entering the blogging scene. She has since built her blog up to be a source of inspiration for creative living, with a focus on the North Shore, Newburyport, and Boston areas.

When I was first designing for Laura, she was blogging on the Typepad platform, and I created a logo, header, navigation bar, and 'about me' section for her. As she developed her blog, Laura switched over to the Blogger platform and eventually decided to revamp her look with some new features. The new features included an updated intro / 'about me' section, new social media buttons, category buttons, a scrolling Instagram feed, social share buttons in the post footer, and an updated navigation bar.

It was so wonderful being able to work with Laura again and to help her evolve the vision she has for her blog as it continues to grow. If you're looking to revamp your blog design, I'm currently accepting new clients! Check out my list of design services here.

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Live Love Lemon Blog Design

A few months ago, Emily of Live Love Lemon, reached out to me about revamping her foodie blog. She was feeling that the current look of her blog seemed a bit amateur and wanted to step it up with some new design features. We decided to get together over coffee to discuss the direction of the new look, and to meet each other in person. I don't always get to meet my clients face to face, but I've found that it definitely adds a little something special to the process because I can get a better sense of their personality and consider that when designing for them.

Live Love Lemon is a place where Emily shares her adventures in the kitchen along with new recipes for her readers to try out. Her love of lemony treats and yellow accessories lead her to the citrusy name of her blog and she wanted it to be a main component in the new look. She wanted to keep things simple and was looking for a new header, social media buttons, an 'about me' section, and a lemony background. Now, a few more coffee dates later, I'm happy to share Emily's new look with you. Head on over to Live Love Lemon to show her some blog love and maybe try out a recipe or two!

P.S. here's a little fun fact… Like me, Emily is also a member of Young Women in Digital, and actually found out about my design services through a YWD newsletter. This is the perfect example of what a valuable resource this group is, and if you're a young woman working in the digital / marketing field in the Boston area you should absolutely become a member!

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Spoons and Stilettos Blog Design

Last month I shared a moodboard for a client project that I was working on, and I'm so excited that today I can share the final product with you! The project was a blog redesign for Agnes, the blogger behind the food and fashion blog, Spoons and Stilettos. I met Agnes a couple of months ago at a blogger dinner at Boston Chops, where we were seated at the same table. In typical blogger style, we spent the evening chatting about food, fashion, and blogging. While on the subject of blogging, Agnes told me that she had been wanting a little blog makeover, and I was happy to be able to offer her my design services.

Over the next few weeks Agnes and I discussed the direction of the design and her personal aesthetic, and I provided her with design options. She was looking for something clean, fresh, and classic. She wanted to stay away from anything that was too busy, and had a preference for a soft spring floral color palette.

Agnes and I were both so happy with how the final design came out. Be sure to head on over to Spoons and Stilettos to see the design in all of it's glory, and give Agnes some blog love!

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Client Moodboard

Hi friends! As you may or may not know, I've just returned from a little vacation in sunny California! I can't wait to share my photos and experiences with you next week! In the meantime, I didn't want to keep the blog in the dark, so today I thought it would be fun to give you a little sneak peak of a project that I'm currently working - a complete blog redesign for a lovely local blogger. The client is looking for a simple, classic look that is clean, fresh, and not too busy. Using her preference for soft pastels, I created this moodboard to kickstart the design process. I'm really loving where the design is going and look forward to sharing it when it's done!

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Wicked Cheap in Boston Blog Design

A couple of months ago, Molly of Wicked Cheap in Boston, reached out to me about going into the New Year with a new look on her blog. She had a vision for the future of her blog, and I was happy to provide her with the design to get her there. And now, I can share it with you!

Molly wanted an easy to navigate, clean look, using grays and jewel tones. The final look was then to be carried over to her facebook page for a cohesive brand identity. It was such a fun design to work on, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Molly's blog develops in the new year!

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Lavender & Lace Blog Design

Hellooo May! I am so glad that this month is here, and I'm 100% ready to soak up the gorgeous weather that it brings! Aren't you? You may have noticed that in the last few weeks, my blog posts have been a little bit spread out, and this weather has something to do with that. I have to admit, my posting may continue at this rate and I just want to explain the reasons why. The first reason simply being that I have a serious case of spring fever and want to enjoy this beautiful weather away from my computer. The second reason is that life is moving so fast these days and I am trying to make time for everything while keeping a health balance. Finally, a big reason that my blog posts are slowing down is that my freelance business is picking up; which is a great thing! I plan on adding a design portfolio here in the near future so you can see what I've been up to, and eventually I will offer a list of design services as well. In the meantime I want to share with you one of my most recent projects.

Last month, Laura of Lavender and Lace, reached out to me to design some elements for her brand new blog. She wanted a clean, "less is more" design with a lavender color scheme and bouquet of lavender tied with lace in the header. I knew that the style of the lavender bouquet would set the tone for the rest of the design, so I worked on that first. I began by hand drawing the bouquet using watercolor pencils and sketch markers. I then scanned that drawing to my desktop and recreated it in photoshop. Once the lavender bouquet was complete, the rest of the design came naturally.

With the new design in place, I'm looking forward to seeing how Laura's blog develops. She's already off to a wonderful start, sharing posts about life, food, travel and more. I noticed she even had a DIY in the mix... one of my favorite categories! So make sure you bop on over to Lavender and Lace today and show Laura some love by welcoming her to the blogging community!

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Prim and Propah Blog Redesign

Happy Friday everyone! Today I'm pretty pumped to be sharing my latest completed freelance project with all of you. A few weeks ago, Amanda of Prim and Propah, reached out to me to discuss her latest ventures into offering advertising on her blog. I soon realized that she didn't have any ad buttons of her own, and offered my design services. From there, Amanda realized her blog needed some sprucing up in other places as well. So, we dove head first into a Prim and Propah makeover!

I do all of the design work on my own blog, but this was the first time I would be designing and installing elements for someone else's blog. Needless to say, I was very excited about the opportunity. Amanda told me she was looking for something fun and playful while professional at the same time. I took those requests and after a couple of minor revisions, came up with this final design. We were both really happy with the final look, and I think it really shows of Amanda's fun personality.

The Prim and Propah redesign process included a brand new header and menu, new social media buttons and labels, and updated look for the welcome introduction, an additional color in the color palette (peach), new fonts, new ads, and installation. I had a lot of fun designing for a blog that wasn't my own, and hope to do it a lot more in the future. If you're in need of some snazzy new elements for your blog, absolutely feel free to get in touch with me at creativesoulspectrum [at] gmail [dot] com. And, don't forget, you can sponsor Creative Soul Spectrum and get some new readers for your blog too. I'd be happy to have you here!

P.S. I hope you all have a very happy first weekend of Spring!!!

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My New Look

I'm sure that by now you've noticed that my blog has a brand new look, and I thought that it was about time that I explained why! As 2012 was winding down I was thinking about all the positive changes I wanted to make for the new year. One of the things that my mind kept wandering back to was the look of my blog. Before I made my changes, every time I had to update something, I was faced with that shade of olive green that was all over my blog. And every time I wondered, what ever made me choose that color anyway. Olive green is far from one of my favorite colors, and there was no significance! As I started thinking about the new year approaching, I decided that I wanted to give my blog a makeover. Everything I post about on this blog is something that's important to me; something I've created. I realized that I wanted my layout to reflect my personality as much as my content does. So I got to work.

I've had a lot of favorite colors over the course of my lifetime. In fact, for at least 3 years of my childhood I claimed that my favorite color was purple. While it is a fabulous color, it wasn't my favorite. For some reason, my grandmother was convinced that it was and insisted on buying me purple everything! Pretty soon I was convinced that purple was indeed my favorite color and I still can't remember what my real favorite was. But, these days there's no question. My favorite color is that sunshiney, happy, glowing yellow! It was my first choice when coming up with my new color pallete. From there the rest of my colors fell into place to give me a look that is far more "Amy" than olive green is. 

I wanted my new font to be more fun and playful than the old one. I also wanted to make sure it had a "DIY" feel, as that's the most important part of my blog. I think the "Frenchy" font I chose achieved the look I was going for. As for my embellishments and buttons, I wanted to go with something that felt more natural. I had used the flag/banner look in previous posts and liked the idea of using them as main features. When it came time to make a new logo I went with the "less is more" approach and now here we are... same ole' blog with a brand spankin' new look! I hope you all like it!

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