Sheena takes beautiful photos and as I browsed her Flickr stream, this one caught my eye! I am a huge fan of browns and this image put a smile on my face. Hope you love it too!

Blue and yellow are my favorite colors. And of course, blend them together and you get green. It’s no wonder that this image on Flickr caught my eye. I’m loving the colors that I found almost hidden in this beautiful photo.

The Site

I met Anne W. while I was the Blogger Coordinator at TravelingMom.com, but our re-introduction was by chance. I accidentally sent out invites to a service that I did not actually endorse to everyone in my contact book. She replied to make sure the email was legit and after I explained the mistake, we began talking about my services. She was currently planning a re-branding of sorts in which she expanded her current business.

The Request

She brought with her a clear vision:

“I want my website to showcase me as a “Ben Stein” among professional women. That is, someone who has diverse talents – communicator, business strategist, writer, speaker – and does them all extraordinarily well, but, most importantly, is a pleasure to work with, personally and professionally.”  – Anne

Anne wanted a cleaner site that focused on putting her brand (herself) at its center. She wanted a site that better conveyed her message and provided a more organized and convenient way to update the information on it, as necessary. Additionally, she wanted someone who would answer her questions and guide her through this transition as she does her clients: with attention, communication, and respect.

The Work

I chose the Genesis Framework as the backbone of this site because of its great SEO qualities, its ease of use, and its smooth functionality. I would create a custom theme that would provide Anne with a design that maximized the benefits of WordPress. Additionally, we collaborated several times to streamline her content and prioritize every aspect of the site. For client collaboration, BeautifullyArtful relies on Basecamp by 37 Signals to be our hub.

Mockup 1 sent to Anne via Bascamp

I created, for Anne, three mockups using some of the content she provided. I wanted her to be able to see what a “live” version of the site would look like with her words driving it home. All of my Mockups are provided in Hi-Res so that clients can get a realistic view of each design (protection is added in our contracts to deter clients from taking them to another developer). All suggestions and questions are sent and responded to via Basecamp.

After three revisions requests, I was ready to begin slicing and coding the design on my local computer. I run WordPress on MAMP locally so that I can tweak the design in a live environment.

Some of the elements added to the Custom Genesis child theme includes additional preset image sizes, a widgetized header area for the main site quote, a Home Page Layout, and widget-ready sidebars and footers.

The next time Anne saw her site, it was live on the BeautifullyArtful test site. She was able to get a real-time view. Of course there was more tweaking, inputting content, and training.

The Final Version

Add-ons included a Blog, a Contact Form, setting up a Google Analytics and Google Webmaster account for Anne to allow her  an easier way of  tracking her website traffic, Feedburner for her RSS Feed, integrating Constant Contact for her mailing list, and adding Facebook and Twitter to the site. Once everything was finalized, we did a another walk-through to ensure that all was where it should be and worked correctly, then I turned over all control to Anne. She will be launching shortly.

“Creating a new website is a big deal. When it’s your own, you need a design partner to whom you can articulate your vision and then feel confident that they can translate that vision into your online brand. Kristina nailed the look and feel of my website, and helped organize the information so that visitors could easily navigate the links, understand my services and begin a dialogue. She is professional, collaborative and delivers a quality product. I recommend Kristina if you’re desire is a professional website reflective of your unique brand.” – Anne Witkavitch, Anne W Associates

Here’s a sneak peek of the final result:

I was contracted to create a one-page bio page for Mikki Taylor Enterprises, LLC. I recreated (and adjusted) her current logo to fit the new dimensions of the site and built the minimalistic feel of the site on WordPress using the Thesis Framework. Additionally, this project required some domain name administration including, but not limited to, procuring mikkitaylorenterprises.com.

Thanks to my client Dorothy Williams Toran of DWT Studios for recommending Beautifully Artful and for facilitating this project.

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The Site

Yakini, of StyleMePrissy.com is a frequent client of mine and a pleasure with whom to do business. She has a very distinct style and wanted her site to match her glamorous taste. StyleMePrissy.com launched in May 2011 is a fashion and personal style blog that focuses on urban glamour, celebrity style, and pop culture. When she launched StyleMePrissy.om, Yakini elected to maintain her familiar brand  image [see prissymommy.com] through the use of the Vector Drawing portrait [see old image below]. However, as a forward thinker, she began to envision a site that was more connected to her love of fashion and glamour.

The Request

When Yakini contacted me she asked me to redesign her Masthead (header) so that is was “simple and sleek” and not as big. She also asked that I tweak her current design [click here to see screenshot of previous design] so that it was wider and included floating social media buttons.

The Work

This site runs the InterPhase Theme from ElegantThemes.com and Yakini was happy with the theme and the general colors. So, for my part, what needed to done was pretty cut and dry.

The Masthead/Header

The headshot that she included had a very sensual feel to it and I felt that only a floral pattern would accentuate its energy. The black background was a necessity but there had to be depth to it as black can sometimes feel too flat. This was done by adding a brownish color to the pattern and adjusting the pressure of the layers (5 in all) to create a textured feel. The lighter pink of the site title needed to stand out more while remaining classy. I also made the header thinner/shorter which helped to soften its look.

Here are the Masthead before and after images:

Old Header vs. New Header

The Layout:

To make the site wider I had to recreate the content area background, the sidebar title backgrounds, and the footer image.  In recreating the content area background, I increased the darker tan right side to accommodate her 300px-wide advertisements so that they no longer hanged off the page. I also darkened the shadow between the two colors to form a more distinctive barrier to aide the eye in breaking up the information. The Sidebar Title background was also edited to remove the original left-border shadow and to replace that with a transparent background to make it fit seamlessly against the right edge of the content area.

Old Content Background vs New Content Background

Extras:

I also removed some design elements that were outdated and/or no longer necessary in the updated design. Additionally, I added the floating social media buttons to the left of the site through the use of CSS and hardcoding.

To see this design live, visit Style Me Prissy.

Here’s the Fix

(1) Delete the iCloud account. That’s right; get rid of it by going to Settings >> iCloud. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and press “DELETE ACCOUNT.” Don’t worry because the beauty of this new upgrade is that it makes syncing your phone so easily. you may choose to keep all data.

(2) Restart your phone. Hold the power button down until you are given the opportunity to turn it off by sliding the power button on the screen. After it shuts down, restart your phone.

(3) Re-add your iCloud account. Navigate back to Settings >> iCloud and log in . At this point everything should sort itself out and you should be all set. If not, try it again. It worked for me on the first time on my phone but on my iPod Touch, I had to do it twice.

Dorothy Williams Toran was referred to me by Maisha Teacher. I was asked to create a Video Portfolio site for Toran’s new Multi-Media Production company. Despite a few technological setbacks, this Thesis and Word Press powered site effectively highlights Dorothy’s talents as a producer. This was a heavily customized Thesis installation and included several add ons such as business cards, letterhead, invoice template, MailChimp set up and template, and more.

Maisha Teacher, owner of Bibi Salon, who has fast become one of my regular clients, had a vision and knew that I could bring it to life! Poised to take over the New Harlem Hair Care scene, Maisha wanted a site that was classy and unique. Together with Sarah from One Starry Night,  we created a site that not only complimented her new salon but one that set the bar just a little bit higher! This project also included a Full Branding Package (logo, business cards, brochure, pricelist, letterhead, event post card mailing, rewards card, Facebook and Twitter setup and customization, and more.