Portfolio

Rays of Purple 2013

Custom Blogger Makeover

This Blogger Makeover makes me smile! I was so stinking excited when I looked at the design homework that Tyler from Rays of Purple submitted. Even though most of my designs recently have been graphic based, I am just in love with this simple and modern style.

The custom menu and search box is my favorite part! The neighbors probably heard me squeal when I saw it all come together. I just love taking Blogger blogs and turning them into something unexpected and fresh.

I owe Tyler big props for coming up a clear direction for her blossoming blog. She knew exactly what she wanted when she contacted me. This is the second makeover that I’ve completed for Tyler and it’s been so fun to watch her blog grow in purpose and clarity since we last worked together.

Here’s what Tyler had to say about the experience,

“When I decided to redesign my blog, there was only one place to go, Priceless Design Studio! This is my second blog design with Katie and she is seriously amazing. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, and Katie nailed it! She is such a pleasure to work with, and she makes the whole process so fun. Anybody who uses Pinterest to help with design inspiration gets an A+ in my book. Thank you so much Katie, I am in love with my new design!”

Angie’s Dreamy Reads

Custom Blogger Design Makeover

I love the color in this custom Blogger design for Angie’s Dreamy Reads. These shades of pink, blue and gold are some of my favorites to play with. Put together, they give the blog a happy and bright feeling.

One of the reasons I like to design for book bloggers like Angie is that they take the time to format all their posts to perfection! Details like custom buttons and headings for the posts really make a difference in tying the design together. Angie requested a custom template to use for the book synopsis and I love the way it compliments the header.

The Custom Search by Rating widget allows visitors to quickly look through her reviews. To make it work, Angie tagged each of her reviews with a star rating and then I linked those tags to the sidebar widget.

Be sure to stop on over to check out all the fun details in person!

Raine Miller Romance

Beautiful Author Website for WordPress

I’m so excited to share New York Times best selling author Raine Miller’s new WordPress website & blog design! She is the first author that I’ve worked with and it was a wonderful experience! A lot of the inspiration for this author’s website design came from her best selling novels. Before I ever opened Photoshop, I took a weekend and read two of her latest books, Naked and All In. As Raine and I talked about the colors and feel she wanted her author website design to have, we decided that the site needed to be “dark” to fit with the tone of her writing but also needed to incorporate her love of historical art and text. In particular, Raine had a favorite John Keats poem and hand written letter that she wanted incorporated. One of the advantages to using a self-hosted WordPress blog is the ability to create a custom home page. Raine’s home page features an image slider, her books, and also her latest blog posts. The home page is definitely one of my favorite parts of this site!

Since Raine writes both Contemporary and Historical romance we talked about having a different feel for those areas of her site. For the Contemporary Romance area, we stuck with the black and deep purple which really fits her Blackstone Affair novels and went with a high contrast photo of London as the background.

For her Historical Romance section we used a painting called The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honore’ Fragonard as the large scale background. We also changed the dominant color on these pages to a burnt umber to more closely match her novels feel.

I want to give a big thank-you to Raine Miller for picking me to work with her on this project. It gave me a reason to explore new genres in design AND books. Take a second and go check out her new WordPress Web Site & Blog!

Are you interested in learning more about custom author website design from Priceless Design Studio? Click Here!

A Love Affair With Books

Custom Blog Design for A Love Affair with Books

Custom Blog Design

I am just overjoyed with how this custom blog design for Blogger turned out! We stretched Blogger to it’s limits by adding a full width menu bar, custom blockquotes for book reviews, lots of social networking buttons, and a custom book rating system. You really must visit this blog to appreciate it.

In her design homework Jennifer requested a “vintage, romantic feel” with “some gray or black to give it an edge.” After searching high and low, I found the beautiful watercolor flowers from Angie Makes which we used throughout the site.

This blog was built for a team of three contributors and we created separate social links and signatures for each of them. Because it’s primarily a book review blog, they also needed a way to rate and categorize their books. Jennifer and the girls came up with a really cute rating system to help categorize their books.

Most of the book bloggers I’ve worked with have also requested custom blockquotes to use for either their book reviews or to offset the book synopsis’s. These blockquotes can be styled numerous ways and I absolutely love how the top border of this one mimics the blog’s full width header.

I want to thank Jennifer especially for her easy communication and wonderful design ideas. I wish all the ladies at A Love Affair with Books the best as they embark into the world of book blogging!

I can’t say enough good things about working with Katie and the amazing job she did on our blog. I am so glad I found Priceless Design Studio! As a new blogger I was really starting from scratch, she was so helpful from the very beginning and patient with all of my questions and concerns. She made sure the blog reflected our taste and was something we absolutely loved, I’m already getting many complements on how pretty it turned out. We are completely in love with the finished product and couldn’t be happier! Thank you so much Katie!

Boston Author Event

Custom Blogger Design

I had a lot of fun creating this custom blogger design for The Boston Author Event. Knowing that Megan (from The Book Asylum) would also need promotional materials for the event, we discussed creating images that would double as both site graphics and printables. Not only did this make it more affordable for her, it had the added bonus creating a unified brand for the event.

In addition to the blogger design, I also created matching graphics for t-shirts, mugs, book-bags, and printables. Event-goers can go to The Boston Author Event’s Cafe Press store to order swag for the event before they even get there!

Natasha is a Book Junkie

Custom WordPress Blog

When Natasha told me she was ready to take the plunge and upgrade to a Custom WordPress Blog for her book blog design, I was so excited for her! There are just so many more possibilities when working with a self-hosted WordPress blog, in terms of both design and content.

The title of Natasha’s blog says it all: Natasha is a Book Junkie. She writes in depth reviews and interviews authors among other things on her blog. Self-hosted WordPress is perfect for a book blogger because of the category and tag system which allows her to organize her posts, widgets, and menus easier than wordpress.com or Blogger would.

The design we created is totally unique to Natasha and I had a lot of fun working on something different from my usual. Natasha’s request of a dark colored background and integration of a photo into the header challenged me to try something new.

I love Natasha’s philosophy on book reviews, that they are completely subjective and what matters most is the enjoyment of the reading experience. For that reason, she decided to go with starfish instead of the traditional star rating system.

Working with Katie was the most enjoyable experience I could have imagined. I loved her portfolio, loved her structured designs and attention to detail, but I also knew I needed to take her out of her comfort zone in order to get the website I envisioned. Most designers would have bolted, told me to lose their number at the incessant and detailed requests I made, but not Katie. She listened, asked questions and then one day sent me a prototype idea. I was floored. She managed to create everything I wished for and then blew me away with her incredible creativity! I watched my little site take shape, day by day, and when it was all completed, so much earlier than expected, I had the perfect blog. I still look at it today, months after it was finished, and I can’t believe how much she got me.

Katie is a gem and I have recommended her to so many people I have lost count. She is currently working with one of them and blowing them away as well. She is still answering my emails every time I do something she told me not to do and I need her to fix it, and she never loses that smile of hers. Thank you, Katie, working with you was and still is an absolute pleasure. Thank you for giving me MY blog, something I’m so proud to show off to everyone.

When I read this review from Natasha, I seriously teared up. I really can’t thank her enough for all of her encouragement and kinds words. We made an awesome team!