New Website Design

Some of you may already know this, but I used the money earned on a big quilt sale in November 2011 to hire a graphic designer to create a logo and brand for me.  In April of 2012 my logo and brand were completed and I was given a Logo, business card design, quilt label design, and a banner/avatar/reserved listing for my Etsy site. At the time, I didn't have time to work on re-doing the colors and layout of my website to match my new brand so my beautiful new graphics have been just sitting in a folder waiting for me to update.  For reference, here is what my blog page looked like before:

And you can see what my blog looks like now!  I didn't pay for a website design so I had to figure out myself which colors to use for the background (ex: dark purple background with white text versus light purple or blue background with black text), banners, and the navigation bar on the left.  But the logo and imagery (bird, leaves, stems, etc) were all designed by Amber Mabe Designs and she did a fabulous job!!  Here's how the process works:

1. After you decide which items you wish to purchase, Amber sends you a questionnaire to try to get a feel for your business (who your target clients are, what type of products you make, etc)
   
2. After you provide Amber with all the information she starts out by making some hand sketches and you provide feedback on what you do and don't like about the sketches
3. Amber then cleans up the sketches and imports them into an editing software (something like photoshop I would guess) and sends you the cleaned up sketches to provide more feedback
4. Once you've decided on the final image you go over coloring options and decide what the final logo will look like.

I strongly recommend that everyone who has (or wants to have) an Etsy shop should utilize her services.  Every time I see my logo, reserved listing, and now my website, I am so happy with the quality of my new brand.  For anyone interested, please check out Amber's Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/amber84
Or her personal website:
http://www.amabedesign.com/

Thanks so much Amber!!