Resources
Hello and welcome! This is a collection of DIY design resources that I’ve created to help small businesses, non-profits, and solo entrepreneurs with their WordPress website, e-commerce, and branding needs. I’ve learned a lot over my 11 years working as a graphic and web designer and I’m happy to share some of that knowledge and experience to help DIY-ers.
Check back often for new tutorials and resources, and be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook where I talk about all things websites, logo design, and solo entrepreneurship.
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How to speed up a website that’s loading slowly
Slow websites are a problem for lots of different reasons- and can have a huge impact on your ability to attract and retain visitors to your site. The first big issue is that slow sites are often even slower on mobile devices- which nowadays accounts for more than half of all website traffic. Have you …
Top 5 Winery Logo Tips for an Unforgettable Brand Identity
One of the biggest challenges for a new winery brand is figuring out how to stand apart from the competition. With hundreds of wineries competing in the northern California area alone, how are you supposed to stand out? One seemingly small branding element can make or break your wine’s ability to get the attention it …
Top 5 Winery Logo Tips for an Unforgettable Brand Identity Read More »
Hex Color Values: What are they and when do you need them?
We’ve talked about different types of color modes before (i.e. CMYK vs RGB), and today I want to talk about a third type- hexadecimal values. You may have seen these around before- it’s the color value that starts with a # followed by a combination of 6 letters and numbers. For example, the color white …
Hex Color Values: What are they and when do you need them? Read More »
5 signs that you’re ready for a rebranding
Have you been considering getting your logo or branding redone? You’re in good company- even multi-million dollar brands go through periodic re-branding processes as technology and trends change. Here are 5 common reasons why it might be time to re-brand: You chose your existing logo when you first started your business, and you didn’t have …
How to fix a blurry logo on your website
This is a simple change that can have a HUGE impact on your visuals. Even if the rest of your website is completely awesome, a blurry logo is going to make a bad first impression and harkens back to the days before high definition screens. If you’ve ever struggled with knowing the exact resolution to …
What’s included in a Brand Package?
A lot of people (myself included!) like to emphasize that branding is more than “just” a logo. The logo is the most obvious part, so that’s what most business owners recognize they need- and many think its just a question of getting a quick logo design done and they’re on their way. Branding is so …
How to find a freelance web or graphic designer
There comes a time in many organization’s life that you need to find a website designer (or brand designer, or even a print designer), you don’t want to hire in-house, and your budget isn’t a good fit for your local marketing agency. What do you do? The answer is simple- hire a freelance (or contract) …
How to choose a domain name
Need to pick a domain name, but feeling totally overwhelmed by all the options? Here’s some things to consider, and what to do if the domain you want is taken: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ✔️.com is the most popular and most intuitive option- by which I mean most people type it in by default. However, don’t pay an …
The essential information you should have in your footer
The footer of your website may seem like an after-thought, but it actually has some really important information in it that you don’t want to miss. Here’s some common mistakes I see people make on their websites: ❎ Missing footer- sometimes I see websites that are completely missing their footer. It’s standard practice that users …
The essential information you should have in your footer Read More »
How to optimize your website images for a faster loading website
Did you know that 32% of your website visitors will bounce if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load? (It goes up to 90% after 5 seconds). If your website is loading slow, one of the biggest culprits is photos that are too large/not optimized correctly for web. Read on for tips to …
How to optimize your website images for a faster loading website Read More »
Wondering what the icon in the address bar called?
A favicon is your website’s icon that shows up in the browser- it sits to the right of your page title in Chrome, Firefox, etc. Originally a blend of the words favorite and icon, most people commonly refer to it simply as your “site icon” or “browser icon”. If your site doesn’t designate an icon, …
Wondering what the icon in the address bar called? Read More »
Quick & Easy DIY Branding Tip: Get a Beautiful Email Signature for Free
Want one of those fancy email signatures that look like a digital business card? This is one of the quickest and easiest upgrades you can make to your branding, and did I mention free? The secret is using an online email signature generator- if you do a quick google search, you’ll see a LOT of …
Quick & Easy DIY Branding Tip: Get a Beautiful Email Signature for Free Read More »
Design Idea: Add a festive header to your website
Here’s a simple design idea for small business websites: add some festive cheer to your website! This idea comes from one of my longest-runnning clients- they’ve asked me to put up a Christmas background in their website header for several years now (great idea, Activate Your Life!). This year, I decided to add it to …
Design Idea: Add a festive header to your website Read More »
Pages into Petals
[vc_row][vc_column margin_setting=”1″ mobile_margin=”xs-margin-ten-bottom” width=”1/2″ offset=”vc_col-md-3″][vc_column_text] Type of Project Logo design Client Pages into Petals | Macon, Georgia [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ offset=”vc_col-md-offset-1 vc_col-md-8″][vc_single_image image=”19227″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Knost Home Solutions
[vc_row][vc_column margin_setting=”1″ mobile_margin=”xs-margin-ten-bottom” width=”1/2″ offset=”vc_col-md-3″][vc_column_text] Type of Project Logo, branding, business card and flyer design Client Knost Home Solutions | Macon, Georgia [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Case Study: Caleb of Knost Home Solutions needed a logo for his new power washing business and turned to Google- a quick search brought him to my website and he booked my …
How to choose typography for your brand
I want to talk about brand typography today- i.e. the fonts you’ll use in your social media graphics, on your website, and in your printed flyers etc. There’s a misconception out there that you have to use the font from your logo, but actually, you will probably want a wider set of fonts to choose …
What’s the difference between RGB & CMYK, and when should I use them?
A client question I’ve heard is, what’s the difference between RGB & CMYK, and when should I use them? Both of these represent different ways of mixing basic colors to get every color in the spectrum (throw out what you know about the “primary colors” being blue, yellow, red ). Read on for why/when to …
What’s the difference between RGB & CMYK, and when should I use them? Read More »
What is the difference between pixel-based graphics & vectors, and when should you use them?
Ever wondered what a “vector” is? Or notice that your logo looks fuzzy when you try to enlarge it? Read on for a short definition of pixel-based graphics versus vectors and when you should use them. Pixel-based graphics (also called raster graphics) are based on a tiny grid of points of color (or pixels). Can’t …
Setting up a Wordpress-based Online Store using WooCommerce + Stripe
As an avid Wordpress fan myself, I couldn’t complete any discussion about e-commerce options without recommending Woocommerce! Woocommerce is used by over 80 million online stores, and because of its popularity many of the commercial and free Wordpress themes come with built-in Woocommerce compatibility. It’s what I used to power the shop here on my …
Setting up a Wordpress-based Online Store using WooCommerce + Stripe Read More »
Using Shopify for E-Commerce: Quick Facts
Shopify is trusted by over 500,000 businesses to sell their products online, it has great back-end options and reporting, and takes minutes to set-up. Here’s my short list of the pros and cons of Shopify. Simple & Clear Pricing It costs $29/month for their basic plan (for most of us, that’s all we’ll need), but …
Where to Start: A Quick Guide to Choosing an E-Commerce Solution
So you’ve decided you need to start selling online, and QUICK! Here’s where to start….
How to Set up an Online Shop
This video tutorial covers all the basics of setting up an online shop, including: How to prepare your products for selling and taking great product photos The various e-commerce options available and reasons why you’d choose one over another Setting up a basic shop, customizing the look, and adding it to your website using Shopify …
Knickers & Pearls
Client: Knickers & Pearls Boutique Website: knickersnpearls.com/ Type of Project: Logo, business cards and postcard design
All Saints’ Church
Client: All Saints’ Church (Loose, UK) Website: www.allsaintsloose.org.uk Type of Project: Wordpress website design, sermon graphics, event flyers, brochures, banners and posters.
Trinity School for Ministry
<span style=”font-size: 1rem;”><strong>Client:</strong> Trinity School for Ministry</span> <strong>Website:</strong> <a href=”http://www.tsm.edu”>www.tsm.edu</a> <strong>Type of Project:</strong> Website design and transfer of content management platform from Drupal to Wordpress. /wc_column]
Solano-Napa Habitat for Humanity
Client: Solano Napa Habitat for Humanity Website: www.solanonapahabitat.org Type of Project: Wordpress website redesign.
Adventure Cat website & branding
Client: Adventure Cat Sailing Charters Website: www.adventurecat.com Type of Project: Complete rebranding including logo, business cards and letterhead, branded merchandising (water bottles, knit hats, beer holders), social media graphics and website design.