Women make up almost 50% of the US workforce, but only 9% of the construction economy. Constructing Opportunity is a new company devoted to increasing gender diversity within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. The founders came to me looking for a site that would help them convey their mission via an approachable, informed site with a clear call to action for prospective clients. I was thrilled to partner with these inspiring women!
My friend Jennifer Wisniewski recently asked me to help bring her new line of T-Shirts to life. Graphically, she was inspired by the pop art of Ed Ruscha, so we tried to bring that wry sensibility to the designs. Jenny and I have worked together for years through her Chicago restaurant Bread & Wine and I love it when she calls me with a fun, new project.
Do check Jenny’s blog Tall Orders out as well. It’s a funny and wise look at her life as a model, restauranteur, and single mom in Chicago.
The Gynecologic Specialists of Northwestern has been a longtime client of mine. They were recently acquired by the University of Chicago Medicine and needed an intermediary site that would orient existing patients to the change and help ease the transition to the new UCM system. The result is a streamlined version of the old site, with links into the relevant areas of the UCM site.
What began as one site evolved into a bigger overall project. UCM asked me to develop this site as a sort of template so it could also work for the other practices they are acquiring. As a result, this is the first in several new transitional UCM sites.
The site I designed for the Old Irving Park Association launched. I know and love the subject well. (We lived there nine years before moving to Seattle.)
The redesign isn’t just an aesthetic improvement over the existing site (featuring rich photography of the neighborhood and local landmarks). The new site serves to sell this special corner of Chicago to new and potential residents and connect the community in new ways. You’ll find the history of the area alongside photography of notable architecture and public art. You can join the local organization, access local resources and see how you can get involved in community activities.
Over the past year and a half, ASH + AMES has become my biggest client, and provided some of my most exciting work. To accompany the release of their Fall 2016 collection, we created a lookbook, social media campaign, email newsletters, catalog, and updated site as well as some site enhancements. It’s thrilling to be able to contribute so much to their an overall brand vision.
https://issuu.com/ashandames/docs/fall2016
I recently redesigned the site for my boys’ Chicago alma mater, Beaubien Elementary. School sites need to serve a variety of competing functions: easily sharing timely news and information, conveying a sense of the school culture and staff, segmenting content separately for teachers, parents and students, and providing a way for teachers to communicate directly with students.
We achieved this by rearranging the site structure, creating a primary and secondary content field with bold call-to-action buttons, integrating social media, and making sure the site played well on mobile. “Curb appeal” was also crucial. I enlisted my photographer pal Scott Anderson to shoot new photos, refreshed the logo (the bulldog looked a bit feral in previous iterations) and lightened up the entire color palette.
The school is still in the process of building the individual teacher pages, but that will be ready for the start of the new school year.
The site I designed for Primal Woods, a Southwest Michigan-based homestead devoted to providing milling services, maple syrup, and handmade soap launched today. The evolution of this space is very interesting–after accepting an early retirement from a corporate job outside of Chicago, John Newell and his wife Geri sought a simpler life closer to nature. Their fascinating blog charts the acquisition of their new rural home and tells how this venture has brought them closer to the earth, their community, and each other.
I have been working with the Chicago Writers Conference to help build their conference registration, which launched this week. This was a fairly complicated process involving a lot of specific logic (you must register for x before you can register for y) and options that accommodated sessions with limited times, spots, and changing prices over time.
I spoke at this conference two years ago (about designing author sites) so it was fun to work with them in this capacity (a little) less scary than speaking in front of a room of people.
At the end of April, I started managing the social media for my longtime (beloved) client ASH + AMES. I now manage their Tumblr (and blog), Instagram and Facebook pages. I’ve loved this new challenge–especially being able to engage directly with our customers and build our lists.
I try to appeal to all aspects of this business in my posts from the unique beauty of the individual pieces to the celebrity connections (Christy Turlington recently hit me back on Instagram, which was thrilling!) to the sheer empowerment of a business built by powerful, smart women. Our followers and engagement have grown by about 10% since I started–I look forward to growing it even more.
