I’m not one of those people with post-it note mantras on my bathroom mirror to see and repeat each day (and I love you if you are!), but if I were, mine would say THIS IS A SEASON. I recognized it and found it as a new parent—the baby stage in particular with the seemingly endless nights contrasted by the days that pass in a blink—but I’ve since taken it beyond that realm and found it true for everything else. As humans, we are not in solid states; instead we are ever evolving, growing, learning. Learning for me is a state of being; I’m always drawn to new skills and techniques for creating, and am equally interested in learning facts in some other medium or discipline. 

I met Amy Gustine at Winter Wheat: The Mid-American Review Festival of Writing last fall when I gave a workshop on setting up a website for yourself as a writer. Amy has her first short story collection coming out in February, and she knew she wanted to establish a professional web presence as a platform to promote her writing and allow visitors to learn more about her and her work. Amy was the first client for whom I created an inspiration board (now one of my favorite parts of the process!), which I shared on my blog in April. I'm so happy to share her new website today! Amy wanted a look that was professional while still feeling approachable, so we opted for a clean typographic logo with hand painted watercolor elements. You can see the various elements of her branding below, and visit her website here to see how it all came together.

I'm really excited about this inspiration board for Callista Buchen, an amazing writer of essays, poems, stories, and all things magic and wonderful. I'll be designing Callista's website in the coming weeks and this board certainly has me excited to jump in. Callista wants her site to feel refreshing, baptismal, eclectic, quite, exalting, and meditative.