Believe it or not, colors are tied with a psychological and emotional response for us humans. When you put on a bold red lip for the day, you’re telling the world to watch out for your confidence. When you choose the bank with the blue logo, it makes you feel like your money will be well taken care of. When you look at the bright yellow flowers sprouting in your neighbors yard, you feel a sense of warmth and happiness because spring has arrived. Those are all examples of how color can say something without actually saying anything. So you can see how important it is to know exactly what the colors your choose for your business are saying about your brand.

Hello friends and enemies! The final month of 2021 is upon us, and we’re all bracing for the onslaught of holiday marketing + end-of-year recaps (I’m planning to do one myself). Every year it feels more and more like I’m being drug along by the current of time rather than actively swimming through it. The days and hours can float by painstakingly slow, while something that’s 3 weeks away arrives in the blink of an eye. I’m also planning out a site + brand refresh, and even though I do it every day for my clients, it’s all feeling a little overwhelming at the moment.

You don’t have to tell me twice, writing the content for your website is freaking hard. Where do you even start? What the heck do you put on the homepage? What even is a homepage? Helping clients with their website content and how they present it is something that I do every day, and when I see people struggling with their homepage all I want to do is pat them on the head and make it easier for them. So I’m sharing my basic method for crafting an intentional homepage. This is what I start with this as a template for each client that I work with and you can do the same.

Hello hello fine people of internetland! We’re hitting the homestretch of the year and for those of us in marketing (and I’m sure loads of other people in general) are really starting to feel the pressure. It’s like suddenly my obligations went from zero to a billion and I’m just being dragged behind trying to hang on. I’ll make it, but it’s about this time I need to really buckle down and be more selective with what I give my time to.

A logo design is the single most important design element that you can have because you will use it the most and it's the first thing people see of your business. Which is why it is SO IMPORTANT that you have a designer create your logo to make sure you’re giving the right first impression to anyone who sees it. But once you have your professionally designed logo and have all the files you need to start using it, what the heck do you do with it?

Well, you’re in luck! Here are 35 ideas for what you can do with your newly designed logo:

Hey freaky friends! It’s finally autumn and Halloween month! Who’s excited? I’ve been lackluster about Halloween the last few years, but I’m feeling the itch again to do something fun or dress up as something weird. Plus, now I’ve got a tiny human that will get to experience this glorious holiday and it’ll be the first time he may kind of understand what’s going on. I’m excited to see what he thinks and if he has an opinion of what he’d like to be.

The free wallpaper for October is inspired by my latest tattoo, believe it or not! I’ve been collecting tattoos for years, but recently got my first design with skulls in it and I’m pretty obsessed to say the least. So here’s a morbid little ditty for you to plaster across your digital screens for the month. Snag yours using the links below and please share and enjoy!

“Marian told me that she thought you were a robot.”

These are the words that my business buddy confessed to me after her friend hired me to design a landing page for her copywriting business. After emailing back and forth a few times with Marian, we hopped on the phone to dig into the details of her project. She said that I seemed like a completed different person when she heard my actual voice than I did over email. That’s when she told my friend that she had thought that I might be a robot. And not the cool kind. The kind that might be an automated bot and you don’t want to give your credit card number or any personal info to. It wasn’t until we got on the phone that I became a real person to her with a funny and quirky personality -- which is why we ended up getting along so well and her project was a huge success!

This is how I came to the realization that I’ve been stuck in a professional rut...I’m literally being TOO professional. I’ve somehow trained myself to come off as so professional that I have all the personality of a block of cheese. And for someone who preaches about letting your personality shine through in your business -- I’m not practicing it myself.

Hello hello! It’s September already. What the heck happened? Time is moving at lightning speed for me lately, but that’s pretty normal for this time of year. September marks 8 years that I’ve been doing this every single month and I’m always mind-boggled when I think about that every year around this time.

Blogging is a great way to engage with your target audience, position yourself as an expert in your field and (bonus!) improve your SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization. One of the best ways to improve your SEO is to continue to add new and relevant information to your site, and the easiest way to do that is by blogging. But once you’ve written your blog post, there are a few simple things you can to do within Squarespace to improve your SEO even more.

And in the blink of an eye, it was August! Do you think that people were happier before they kept track of the days/weeks/months because they didn’t notice the passing of time as acutely? That was the first thought I had today as I turned the calendar over to another month. We’ll never really know, but what a weird thing to think about.

“Your prices gave me a bit of sticker shock, to be honest.“

“I can’t justify spending thousands and not walking away with physical items.“

“Well I can find someone else to do the exact same thing cheaper.“

These are all things I’ve heard from people during consult calls for my branding services. I think tact sometimes goes out the window when it comes to talking about money, but I get it. My services are expensive. Not as expensive as some, but more expense than others. And I’m not planning to lower them anytime soon because I know exactly what goes into those services. Creating a strategic, intentional brand from scratch is one of the hardest parts of building your marketing toolkit. It’s so much harder than throwing together 264 different looking graphics just because the templates are available on Canva. So let me break down some of the maybe unseen value that you’re getting when you book a brand package with an experienced designer (like me!).

Summer is here and I’m ready to kick it into high gear! Who’s with me?? Here in Denver we’re getting ready to bring the heat back and, after an intentionally slow month, I’m starting new projects and picking the pace back up. Things always tend to pick up for me towards the end of summer and back to school season. I cannot wait to dig back in refreshed and focused. But I digress…

Playing with texture and a funky color palette, the free July wallpaper is a retro gem if I do say so myself. Treat yourself to this desert delight by downloading the size you need below and please share + enjoy!

Comin’ in HOT (and maybe a day late, but who’s counting?)!! June is here and thus summer unofficially begins. I’m ready for patio margaritas, evening outdoor concerts, and rooftop yoga classes. Snag this cool, artsy free wallpaper design for June and keep your screens as cute as you are. Download yours using the links below and please share and enjoy!

April was about 30 seconds long, I swear. So much has been going on the past few weeks that it went by in the blink of an eye. And with everyone getting vaccinated I’m sure we’ll all be getting even busier and busier now that we can socialize again (YAY!!). So the free wallpaper for May is all about protecting your energy as we begin opening ourselves up again.

Full of doodles inspired by Tarot and a purpley background, this just may be my favorite of 2021 so far. Download yours using the links below and please share and enjoy!

I swear I didn’t do this as an April Fools joke, you guys! I sat down the other night to create the wallpaper and my brain just didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t silly. So I ended up doodling llamas and here we are. I call this masterpiece Poorly Drawn Llamas and, honestly, I love it so this is what you’re getting.

Onwards to March, my friends! Logically I know that February is the shortest month, but March still somehow always creeps up on me. This is about the time of year when winter weather starts getting really old for me and I’m basking in any ray of sunshine that I can find (picture me lounging on the floor with my belly exposed like a cat). At least the days are starting to get longer and I get to update my digital screens with a new wallpaper.

Hello fellow humans! We’ve made it one month into 2021 and at the very least can say that we’re still here, right? Traditionally February is the month of romance + love, but if I’m being totally honest, I’ve never liked Valentine’s Day. So pretty hearts and flowers were never in the cards. Instead I went the polar opposite direction and took out all my frustrations to make this stabby rainbow beaut’ to express my love for y’all. What does this say about me? Who the heck knows?! But I’m going with a ‘murder what’s not serving you’ theme for the month and I invite you to join.

Here we are in 2021!! Even though I obviously know that there isn’t much difference between yesterday and today, it still somehow feels like a clean slate full of possibilities. Without the baggage of 2020. The time between the holidays and the New Year are always full of weird feelings for me, and this year was exceptionally wonky in my world. So I’m looking forward to getting back to routine and waltzing into the year with hope + cautious optimism that it’ll be better and that I can be better.

To kick us off right I’ve got a funky new free wallpaper for January. Click the links below to download the size you want and please share and enjoy!

It’s that time of year. No, not the most wonderful time of the year. The time of year when my schedule starts slowing down and I start reflecting because we’re going into the new year.

Hello and hold onto your butts! We’re in the homestretch of 2020 and holiday anticipation is in full force. I always love coming up with new themed ideas for the free wallpaper patterns and the December one can be especially challenging when I don’t wanna go for a full Christmas idea. But with this green + blush + cherry color palette, I have to say I’m feeling pretty jolly.