Each year, I pick a word as my anchor for the year. For 2021, it is “empathy”. As a person who deeply wants to see the success of others, I am constantly challenging myself to see past the social circles I grew up in and learn more about people who have had different life experiences, desires, religious perspectives and cultural upbringings than me.

Contact forms can be quirky, but when done correctly you make it VERY easy for new customers to reach out and get in touch. If you have just an email & phone number on your webpage, you are expecting the potential customer to draft an email and put content inside that is relevant for you to start a conversation.

Once you have a custom logo created, that logo should be provided in a variety of file formats for best use cases. As a reminder, a logo is not just a font or a photo, it is a custom graphic that can be scaled as small as a postage stamp to large as a billboard without any visible issues.

I’ll admit, I'm guilty of assuming a friend or family member is just gonna call me up and ask for brand or graphic design services because, duh, that's what I do! That is hardly the case. We do have to keep an active narrative of staying front of mind, and ensuring we are communicating clearly what we offer and what we are working on. If we don't mention it, people don't know about it.

When the rhythm of work and client inquiries start accelerating, the brand development tasks on our to-do list get pushed down to the bottom of our priority list. Sad thing is, some very quick tweaks can be costly mistakes from getting additional qualified inquiries coming in to keep up momentum!

Gone are the days where your brand is all about the pretty. It doesn't work anymore. No one wants a plastic, generic version of anything they subscribe to - they want true human authenticity, great customer service and experts to lead them.

We have to remember that our potential clients see us from lots of different angles. Each angle and touch point we weave together tells a much larger story of our brand, its values and our service quality through the sales process and over time.

With a career in graphic design, one of my major pet peeves is poor quality images. It’s such a simple detail on a website or marketing material that many small business owners get wrong. I want to empower you with the language and the understanding of what to look for and what to avoid to set yourself up for success.

One of my most popular services is my website audits. I get to know each business thoroughly with a custom assessment so I can then give strategic advice on what they need to change about their website to send a great first impression, and to make sure that they are checking all of the boxes on what potential clients are looking for.

Since 2000, Pantone has selected a color of the year to forecast trends in fashion, events, brands and interiors. I had the opportunity to meet with one of the decision-makers years ago and I was so intrigued by the process of this color trend determination.

One of the most common mistakes I see my clients and small business owners make is lack of consistency between touch points of their visual brand.

Much like graphic design, photos can have a personality as well. Certain colors and certain styles fit into categories that evoke various price points or attitudes (laid back vs. formal).

It takes 5 to 7 times for someone to see your brand to build brand trust. And there are always opportunities to build trust and help them feel your service or product is the best solution for them!

It takes 2.6 seconds to make a first impression online, and 88% of people won’t revisit a website if it wasn't a great first experience (SWEOR).

A question I get frequently is, “Is having a website still even relevant?” The answer is absolutely!

Seems a little hoax-y and even woo woo to think design could get you business but hey, the data is real on how good design can create ROI (Return on Investment). Adobe has reported 59% of people will choose to do business with a company over another based on good design. They even have paid more for a product or service, says the study.

I talk to many professionals about their struggles with sharing personal content online. Many often feel paralyzed and don’t know what to post at all. I want to help you take baby steps or at least spark ideas about how you can be your most authentic self online!

I’m sure you have heard of a personality type, Enneagram, Myers & Briggs, etc. Well, there is such a thing as having a brand personality too!