I've been helping friends and family members design blogs, logos, and graphics ever since I started my blog three years ago. It's a great creative hobby for me, although I don't necessarily sell my services to anyone. I like being able to help others create an amazing online space that represents them perfectly.
So, this is going to be a new little mini series on my blog. I want to share a few of the design works that I have done recently and in the past. The process for each of these designs is different, but typically I:
+ meet with the client in person or via video conferencing
+ create a theme board or Pinterest board that we can share our inspirations and concept ideas
+ send multiple designs for the client to choose from and tweak as needed
+ come up with a final logo, color scheme, etc.
The client will then walk away with a complete style guide with logo(s), concepts, fonts, colors, and reminder images of their inspiration.
Recently, I worked with a close friend to help her create her blog design. We started from scratch and used word categorization to come up with her concept, blog topics, and title. Then we worked together for days to allow our creative juices to start flowing and really dive in to exactly what she wanted her blog to look like.
The first step in the process was for her to send me some pictures that inspired her and made her think of her own personality, style, and future blog. She found images on Pinterest, google search, etc. that spoke to her in some way, and then we used them to help create a feeling that represented how she wanted her blog to be.
When creating designs I focus a lot on creating a sensuality. I think that a lot of what keeps a blogger blogging for a long time is a love for their design and their personal online space. Their blog needs to represent who they are as a person and the feelings that they themselves have. As soon as your blog no longer represents you, it becomes irrelevant in your life--so, making a space that is timelessly you is essential.
Working with this client was very entertaining because she wanted to incorporate a lot of "hidden" symbolism. For example, her blog title is "One Outspoken Introvert" which in itself--Outspoken and Introvert--is kind of an uncommon pairing, so we wanted to build on that clash. We choose to represent the word outspoken as a darker color and introvert as a lighter color. This allowed us to create the feeling that the introvert was shy and is literally hiding under the letters of the word outspoken.
Jillian wanted her blog to be clean and simple. We only used a few colors and very minimal, girly aspects, so there really wasn't a lot of outside designs to create other than the logo. However, I assisted her in creating a bio image for her sidebar.
Bio images are super important because they are the first impression that your readers get from you. We needed to create a timeless aesthetic that really helped her represent the facade that she was going to be using on her blog.
We went through a lot of trial and error during working with her bio image (as you can see in the picture above). We experimented with fonts, colors, placement, etc. But once she found a concept that she liked, we built off of that by adding different colors, bringing in her watercolor graphic, and expanding by adding a little blurb about her and her blog.
When we were finally done with the creation of her blog, she was very pleased! I sent her off with her style guide, information about downloading the necessary fonts, all of her bio images, category labels, and the opportunity to really start building a blog that she loved!
You can check out Jillian's blog here: http://oneoutspokenintrovert.blogspot.com/.
And if you're interested in having me help you create an amazing online space that you will love to blog at, then please feel free to contact me!! I'd love to help.
What do you think of Jillian's design? Leave a comment in the section below and tell her how much you love her blog, I'm sure she'd get a kick out of that.
