I have the best clients. I really do. Not only do they run kick-ass businesses, they’re really fantastic folks too. They kept me so busy this winter that time flew quickly by and it wasn’t until one day recently I awoke realizing that I had launched quite a few projects in relatively quick succession.

Although I try to show my gratitude as often as possible, I decided that this is the year to start doing more—something a bit more tangible—to say ‘thank you’ to those who put their businesses and their trust in my hands, who let me celebrate in their successes, who sing my praises whenever they get the chance, and who then sometimes even send me a gift to say thank you! I wanted to give something that could be used, but wouldn’t necessarily be something they would think of getting for themselves, so I got to doing what I do: designing for their businesses.

I started with 10 designs and plan to keep this up whenever a project wraps or I get a fantastic referral. Here are just a few samples of the postcards I designed and had printed and shipped to my clients’ doors:

Although I’m sure my clients have fantastic penmanship—Spoiler Alert!—those testimonials over there (up↑ and to the left←) didn’t come to me that way…

When I was redesigning this site, I knew I needed to figure out a way to incorporate the (really way too) kind words my clients have shared about working with me and my work in a way that creatively and seamlessly flowed into the whole organic workspace theme that is my website. I first came up with the idea of having them look like personalized, hand-scrawled notes, but got a bit stuck finding the right handwriting to work. I tried several different fonts and none of them were quite right.

Anne Robin is a Los Angeles-based calligrapher whose work I stumbled across on Pinterest when searching for new ideas for hand-written fonts. And what’s better than a hand-written font? Actual handwriting, of course! I wrote to her to see if she’d be interested in the project (it’s a bit different than what she normally does!), chose my favorite styles from her style menu, and she worked her magic.

Thanks, Anne—I love them and they are a great addition to my site!

P.S. Check out Anne’s post about this project on her blog here!

Martin Kartin is a Manhattan-based executive placement specialist (he helps heavy-hitters in the fashion and beauty industry fill high-level positions in their companies) with 30+ years of experience. He enjoys a stellar reputation and piles of happy clients, but his out-dated website and brand reputation (“a bit old-school”) were standing in his way of growth and exceeding his niche. His daughter recently joined the company, bringing with her experience in e-commerce and digital careers and there was no denying that it was time for a refresh of the brand to reflect the change.

The previous website was undoubtably dated in both color-scheme and functionality (it was Flash!). It wasn’t easy to update and it only stood out from the competition in a negative way—it certainly didn’t look like the website of an established, successful company with a proven track record. Carla Tanz, a marketing consultant specializing in the beauty industry (and a delight to work with), brought me in to this project to help visually re-shape the brand perception of Martin Kartin and Company as an established firm, but one keeping current and able to adapt to the ever-changing corporate world. A family business specializing in personal attention, but one able to deliver results like the larger firms. A boutique, high-end practice, but one with warmth and personality.

To capture all of these elements, I chose to go with a black-and-white color-scheme, using the “bubbles” to inject a bit of graphic punch and levity. The photographs of Martin and Rebecca used throughout the site (taken by the very talented Christopher Duggin) capture their warmth and personality and subtly highlight the importance of an inter-generational firm. In addition to the new design, I also consulted on the layout, structure, and organization of information of the site, ensuring that each page reflects the businesses flawlessly.

Another way we are redefining the brand message publicly is in one of the most youthful (and effective) ways you can: by carrying it throughout the firm’s social media presence. Along with the new website, I carried the look through to their LinkedIn business page, their Facebook page, their Twitter feed, and their Google + page, making their entire online presence feel current, cohesive, and established.

Visit the new Matin Kartin and Company website today and let me know what think!

Welcome to the brand-spankin’-new lokitimestwo.com!

Before my recent website redesign and relaunch, the contact page of my website featured a birds-eye view photograph of my desk and when you hovered over the phone, you’d see my phone number, the computer, my email address, etc. It wasn’t a fantastic photograph (I’d taken it myself), but I was in love with the concept of the viewer having this glimpse into my workspace. As I contemplated the redesign, I had several ideas, but with each of them, I’d get to the contact page and realize the photo wouldn’t work and how much I’d miss having it as part of my site. Well, you’re here, so you know where this is going: as the words were coming out of my mouth (my husband acts as the very patient sounding board in my creative process), it dawned on me—why not have the photograph of my desk be the site?!

Creating this photograph that would end up being my website was a truly delightful process and even the set-backs (the last Hermès Chaîne d’Ancre platinum teacup and saucer in the United States that I just had to have for the shoot arrived in pieces) ended up working in my favor (isn’t this Mosaique au 24  perfect?). It didn’t hurt that I had a dream team with whom to work… With Evi Abeler of Evi Abeler Photography behind the lens and Vanessa Boer, prop stylist extraordinaire, styling, how could things be any less than divine?

Vanessa is based out of Portland, OR, so we had to get a bit creative with the styling/consulting process. After explaining my vision, I snapped some photos of the odds-and-ands, knicks-and-knacks, desk-and-decorative types of accessories I had around the house and sent them to Vanessa to get her input on what might work. Then I created a couple of Pinterest boards, one to keep track of the props we wanted to use, the other of enviable desktops to provide us with inspiration. Once I had all of the items, I laid them out and photographed them, sent the shots to Vanessa, and she styled my “desk” via Photoshop. So cool.

The day of the shoot, my props, Vanessa (via Portland via Skype via my iPad), and I headed up to Evi’s studio in Harlem and magic was made. The final result is all around you!

Check out the process—1) my Pinterest boards, Vanessa’s 2) first and 3) second mockups, 4) the final layout shot on my iPhone, the 5) shoot day at Evi’s with Vanessa via Portland via Skype via iPhone, and 6) the final shot by Evi Abeler Photography:

I am very lucky to be a part of In Good Company, a fantastic organization of women entrepreneurs. I was recently profiled for the ‘Featured Members’ feature on their website and I spoke about my inspiration, entrepreneurship, love of travel… And a few other things too!

Get to know everything you’ve ever wanted to know (and a few things you never wondered about ever) about me by checking out the full interview here: Cody McBurnett of Loki Loki is a Creative Director for Small Business

Jennifer Edwards and Sydney Skybetter (also of Edwards & Skybetter | Change Agency) approached me recently with the challenge of creating a cohesive visual identity for 3 different businesses all under the same umbrella: JenEd,  the parent company and content distributor, Crossbridge, an online education platform, and Home/Body, a platform-in-development (for which we created the Grounded app).

The aim was to essentially build 3 sites in 1 that would each feel whole on their own, but that had an over-arching look and feel that tied them together. Since each of the three businesses has their own purpose and target market, designing something with wide appeal that still felt on-brand for each of them was key.

Over time, each of the sections will have more content and features added, but for now we have a solid, cohesive, user-friendly foundation to start with.

Visit JenEd.com to check out the final product and for more information on their products, services, platforms, and courses.

My sister-in-law wrote to me recently, asking for advice on how to go about starting up a catering business. Without knowing too much about where she was in the process, I threw together the following list of pieces of advice as they came to me. I realized that there might be a few morsels here that might be transferable, so I decided to post this here on my blog on the off-chance I might help someone else think about where they’re going, what they need, and what’s next—even if they’re not planning on doing something other than catering.

FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED
What supplies do you need? What are your financial goals? What’s your time-line? What will success mean to you?*
Do you need a loan to start? In that case, you will probably need a business plan—think about finding someone to help you with that.
*This is the big one, as far as I’m concerned. Figure this out. Write it down. Otherwise, you might easily get off track—it’ll be easy to measure your success against others and get frustrated. Knowing what success looks like to you will guide you and help you make vital decisions along the way. 

WHAT’S YOUR SPECIALTY?
What is going to set you apart from the competition? What will you be doing that someone else isn’t already doing? Figuring this out is one of the most important things you can do—it should be the starting-point for your brand development.

TALK TO THE COMPETITION
You might not think it’s the case, but many business owners are usually very open to talking with people about their work—if you approach them in a respectful way, 9 time out of 10 they’ll be flattered! I’d recommend finding a business you admire and one with which you would not be in direct competition (maybe they do something a bit different than you want to do or maybe they serve a different geographic area). Ask them why they started their business, what they might do differently if they had to do it all over again, advice they might have for someone starting out in the field, what they did to get the word out, and what they think a good way to get started could be. You’ll learn a lot and they may even offer to make some connections for you.

IDENTIFY COMMUNITY/SOCIAL LEADERS/INFLUENCERS
Who do you clients look to for advice and recommendations? Is it a particular member of the community? A social group? A local blogger or reporter? Tap in to these folks—follow them on Twitter, like their Facebook pages, subscribe to their newsletter, attend their events. All-in-all, pay attention to them—what they’re doing, what they’re saying, what they need. Over time, you can build a relationship and when the time is right, you can reach out in a tailored and personalized way.

GIVE IT AWAY
Choose one (or more) of the influencers you have identified and offer to cater one of their events (for free) in exchange for being able to take 5 minutes to talk about your new business and a list of attendees and their email addresses. Make sure everyone leaves with a menu and an offer for a discount off their first order. (Okay, yes, this and the next couple of items are catering-specific—but this idea can be applied to many products and services).

CREATE TAKE-AWAYS
Like the meus and discount offers I mentioned above, it’s going to be important to always have something to leave people with. See: brand identity/logo/marketing materials below.

IDENTIFY POTENTIAL PARTNERSHIPS
Depending on what your business’s niche may be, there will probably be some natural partnerships that can help funnel you business. Think about the type of events you want to cater—where else are these folks going and what are they buying when planning these events? Just like florists have partnerships with funeral homes and wedding planners, you need to find your ‘partner-business.’

GIVE-AND-TAKE
With anything in business, it’s always important to keep in mind that when you’re asking for something, you need to put yourself in the other party’s shoes and ask ‘what’s in it for them?’ Always offer something in exchange for help or promotion.

FOLLOW UP AND SAY THANK YOU
Whether it’s someone who you go to for advice, someone who hosts an event to help you get the word out, or anyone else that crosses your pathway to success, always follow-up with a thank you email. Also, if you’re asking for someone to be invested in your business and success, check in with them every now and again and let them know how things are going—and how their advice helped you get there.

BRAND IDENTITY/LOGO/MARKETING MATERIALS
This is what I specialize in. And although I’m a bit biased, this is a very important step and definitely worth the investment—first impressions are everything. Identifying what your brand is, designing a logo, and creating a concrete and cohesive visual identity that exemplifies the mood, aesthetic, and emotional feeling you want your services and products to be associated with will help everything feel very real. I will never stop getting gushy every time a client gets giddy seeing their logo on something for the first time.

FIND A NETWORK
I belong to a professional women’s group called In Good Company that allows me to attend seminars and networking events with other entrepreneurs. It’s a huge help because I have this great network of people that I can go to when I need to hire someone, who provide a stream of referrals and business to me, and who also help me feel connected to a group of people all in the same boat as I am who I can go to for support, advice, and friendship. Having a network is a great way to stay grounded, keep the big-picture in mind, and feel like part of a community even when you’re working for yourself.

Anyway, I hope this helps… even if you’re going to do something other than catering!

Already have a successful business? If so, what’s the best advice you got when you were starting out? Is there anything I missed? Please share in the comments below.

Happy holidays from Loki Loki! Over on Facebook, we’re giving away 2 sets of our “Pop | Clink | Fizz” holiday cards… And a third bonus-surprise prize too! Follow this link for details and to enter before midnight EST, Tuesday, December 11, 2012 for your chance to WIN!

UPDATE: The winners have been notified via email; have you checked your inbox?

I was hired earlier this year to design a new website for the Tory Burch Foundation. The Tory Burch brand and aesthetic is so well-defined that the challenge with this project was keeping the foundation’s website design uniquely “its own thing,” but still very much part of the Tory Burch universe. To achieve this, I used toryburch.com as my primary influence, but used a layout more suited to a non-ecommerce website and added watercolor accents, most notably the hand-painted  foundation logo that fills the background of the page. This paint effect adds a warmth and femininity that speaks to the mission of the foundation.

The Tory Burch Foundation was founded by designer Tory Burch to support and nurture women in business. Ms. Burch was quoted in Forbes as saying, “We launched our foundation two years ago to empower women through microfinance and mentorship in the United States. It’s not charity; it’s empowerment. It’s an investment in our collective futures.”

About The Tory Burch Foundation (from their website):

“Inspired by her own experience as a business owner and working mother, designer Tory Burch launched the Tory Burch Foundation (TBF) in 2009 to support the empowerment of women and families. A nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization, TBF invests in the success and sustainability of women-owned businesses through grants and microfinance for women entrepreneurs. Through mentoring opportunities, TBF provides women and girls with the information and tools needed to achieve their aspirations as entrepreneurs and leaders.” Learn more ☛

One of the ways in which the foundation supports women in business is through their mentorship programs, several of which I have been fortunate enough to attend. I’ve been in small group mentoring sessions and talked to and learned from the likes of Dylan Lauren, founder of Dylan’s Candy Bar, Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of a little company called Google, and even Tory Burch herself, and listened as Mickey Drexler, the CEO of JCrew, speak for hours about the secret of his many successes (and even some failures). I’ll write about those lessons and experiences in another post; to stay in the loop, be sure to follow me on Twitter and like my page on Facebook.

Vist the Tory Burch Foundation website ☛

Melea Seward and I have been working together on her Chief Amusement Designer and Board of Us projects on-and-off over the years. Since she’s always so busy and always innovating, we continued to add pieces here and there, but recently it was time to reflect, reorganize, and do a full overhaul.

For the overall look and feel, I created a variation on her Scrabble-tile logo for the header of the site with a 3D red-blue-white-black color scheme which included her likeness with 3D glasses to tie in to the name of the site as her “title.” In the footer, I grouped all of our little “games” (CAD-Libs or Impulse-A-Day, anyone?) together in a carnival of widget fun.

In the main body of the homepage, I added a featured content slider so she can introduce folks to who she is and what she does, highlight some of her projects, and introduce some of her new serials (coming soon!).

The interior pages feature a sidebar with the ever-so-clever “Job Title Jackpot” widget I designed, which allows users to find their own Chief Amusement Designer-esque title. A few recent spins gave me Social Balloon Planner, Associate Machine Decorator, and Impossibility Resources Maker. Below that are randomly-generated testimonials (or “applause”), of which Melea has many.

Another fun feature of the site is the About page, of which there are several… Take a peek!

All-in-all, this new version of ChiefAmusementDesigner.com manages to be informative, descriptive, and yet still convey the sense of fun, exploration, creativity, and impulsivity that is core to who Melea is and what she does.

Need someone to help lead you on a discovery process of who you are and what you could/should be doing? Get in touch with Melea… And tell her the Social Balloon Planner sent you!