Creating a brand design for a blog

A successful design requires research and listening skills

One of my favorite projects in 2012 was a brand design for a new blogger friend Lisa Waszkiewicz of Frannybolsa.com. We met at BlissDom Conference 12, a great blogging conference in Nashville.

Lisa contacted me to help her give her site a personality and style that reflected all the aspects of her blog. She said she had chosen me ESPECIALLY because I doodled on all my notes during the conference! I liked her immediately!

Whenever I begin working with a new client I review their existing material with a curious eye. Does the material (website, brochure, etc.) communicate their marketing message clearly to their customer.

Lisa’s website was great, she is an awesome writer – but I didn’t understand the name – FRANNY BOLSA. How did that name come to be the title of the blog? WHO was Franny, was it Lisa or someone else? Was Bolsa a last name or something else entirely. Before I designed this logo and website, I needed to understand the name and the reason she chose it.

I put together a long list of questions and emailed them to Lisa before our meeting – below is Lisa’s comments about our first meeting and the final logo.

“Working with a graphic designer is 10% design and 90% communication. Unless your graphic designer also happens to be a psychic.

Becky asks question. She has a whole worksheet full of ‘em. She listens. Intently. With each question she pulls your design vision from your head until you can both see it sitting there beside you. We sat together and talked up a creative dust storm. I had a sense of what I wanted. The feel of things.  Working with Becky, brought my senses and feelings into shape.   And what beautiful shapes they were. The graphics for my site tell the story of the things I love. Things that call to mind front porches,  warm sunshine and the smell of love that fills a kitchen. The details make me stop and want to sit a spell. A pattern on a cowboy boot, The twist in a strand of pearls. The joyful bloom of a sunflower.  Visually stunning.  Each image a flag for Becky’s design talent, but more importantly, her gift for communication.”

Lisa Waszkiewicz, FrannyBolsa.com

The research and questions I prepared before the meeting led to a great discussion with Lisa. I learned “Franny” was her grandmother’s nickname and “Bolsa” is Italian for bag. (Click on each name to get the whole story.)

Hearing Lisa tell me her inspiration for the blog and why she had chosen the name helped me understand what I needed to create for her.

As you read her blog you’ll see the elements I designed express both her pride in her grandmother and her love of her family. She is “Just a girl telling stories” and they’re wonderful stories!

Check out the continued brand design for Franny Bolsa on Facebook and Twitter

How do you accomplish successful designs?

iPhones, Instagram and IFTTT.com working together

Continuation of last week’s post - What is Instagram?

More about Instagram -

If you’re interested in photography and have a smart phone, I highly recommend Alli Worthington’s book iPhone Photography. It’s an ebook which will give you all type of helpful hints to take better photos and use them for your business.

Sharing images beyond the Instagram feed

Instagram allows you to share images to other social channels. It is as easy as a click of a button as you share the photo.

I usually share my images to my Flickr feed which I have connected to my website AND I share my images to my twitter account.

I’ve pushed it one step further.

Alli’s book introduced me to IFTTT.com (LIFT without the L) is a utility which automates actions with your social channels.

What is IFTTT.com

IFTTT is a service that lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement: IF THIS THEN THAT

IF I upload a photo to Instagram and tag it with the #hashtag of #photography, THEN it will post it to my WordPress.com blog as a new post.

So my recipe looks like this.

How to create an action with IFTTT.com recipes

1. Choose a recipe  – (you can make your own later)

2. Activate the channels – (give ifttt permission to access your social channels)

3. Choose the ingredient(s) for your recipe

4.  click Use Recipe.

By using a recipe of a trigger and an action you can automate activity on your social media without thinking about it. I’m planning on testing some of the other recipes with my other social channels.

Is it worth it?

I’ve found my photos are noticed more often than my posts. Does that mean I’m a better photographer than writer – maybe, more likely it’s because people are more visual and enjoy seeing the world through other people’s “eyes”.

By using the automation offered by IFTTT.com,  I’ve increased the hits on my blog by 25% and quadrupled my followers, and have had over 500 likes in 6 weeks.

The ease of use has allowed me to almost double my posts – IFTTT.com takes the work out of it.

The use of the tags and photo descriptions in the titles has given me great SEO.

I’ve also increased my Klout score by 10 points in the same time period.

Plus I’ve enjoyed sharing what I photograph with others.

If you’d like a little more information on IFTTT.com and how it can help your productivity, check out this Video Tutorial – Thank you Grovo!

On September 19th I had the opportunity to present “Embracing and Utilizing New Technology” to 160 entrepreneurs at the Women TIES Retreat in Skaneateles, New York. I’m taking this opportunity to re-purpose the information as blog posts for the next few weeks – giving more details and offering the opportunity for questions. Feel free to comment or ask questions.

Next time: Using Pinterest for business

What I learned at BlissDom 2011…

Next week is my second opportunity to attend the  Blissdom Conference  in Nashville, TN.  

“Blissdom is for women who find and express their bliss by publishing online“

I’ve attended many conferences over the years; they are great opportunities to learn a great deal of information quickly about any given subject. Especially new technology. Conferences attract the best and the brightest – both speakers and those attendees serious enough to pay the price to attend.

This is the reason I attended last year. I needed to immerse myself in this “blogging” thingy because my clients had started asking me to help them build and design blogs. I had SO many questions and I knew NO ONE!

BLISSDOM was different from any conference I’d ever attended. Every room was packed with women typing furiously on their computers as they listened to speakers. The Twittersphere was so active you could almost see smoke from the mobile devices. People “knew” each other by twitter names and everyone’s given name was secondary. “Oh YOU’RE BeckysGraphicD” – “What is your real name?“

The nicest thing was the atmosphere was creative, encouraging and full of laughter.

I left three days later with pages and pages of notes and many new friends.

It was a great experience!

For those coming next week, prepare to be inspired!

The conference wasn’t different in how much I learned! I thought I’d recap my main list of take-aways from last year in preparation for next week. It’s fun to remember all I learned and help me prepare a mental list of questions for this year’s conference.

LESSONS LEARNED at BLISSDOM

1. Content is KING!

2. Only blog when you have something AWESOME to say

3. Readership comes BEFORE monetization! See #1

4. Write for your audience, not the SEO

5. Keyword research brainstorming can triple blog traffic - Ang England had a great presentation on this that really helped me understand that concept! Really appreciated her clearing up my confusion on that!

6. Use less fields in forms if you want a good response.

7. Have a congruent brand across all your social media channels!!!

8. Blogging your “personal brand” is like talking with your best girl friend – authentically

9. Monitor and Measure your brand – Google Analytic, Tweetstats

10. Use descriptive titles and alt tags for great SEO

I can’t wait to find out what I’ll learn this year. I have my yellow pad ready to go – I’m too short to use a computer or iPad on my lap, I spend all my time trying to keep it from sliding off my lap!

If you’ll be there make sure you take the time to find me and say “HI”!

Blissdom Conference 2010

Well after attending the Social Fresh conference last week, I found out about another here in Nashville – Blissdom

“Blissdom is the premiere conference for women who find and express their bliss by publishing online.  Blissdom ‘10, our third conference, is a welcoming oasis in the ever-changing blogging world. Speakers and panels featuring the best blogging, public relations and social media pros will be gathering to mentor new and old friends alike.”

I was VERY DISAPPOINTED to find out it was sold out, two weeks before the event – but that tells you how excited everyone about this topic! I’ve signed up on the waiting list, since I’m only 20 minutes away, it’s easy for me to get there at the last minute. I’m also signing up for a free give away of tickets too – whatever it takes.

After moving here eight months ago, I realize how difficult it is to re-establish myself to the point I had in Central New York. Twenty years of networking had built a very large connection of women, now I feel a little lost in this much larger city. As a self-employed person, it’s easy to stay cooped up in my office, and not reach out. I was hoping to start connecting with the woman at Blissdom as well as learn about a topic I use everyday.  So if anyone has an extra ticket – let me know…I’d love to attend!