Smack Happy Facelift

In much the same way that an interior decorator might redecorate her house often, I have decided to redesign this web site. I’m not too fickle though because the original design lasted a whole two years. As I continue to create web sites (over 13 years now!), my design skills mature and grow, and this web site needs to reflect that. I’d like to share my process with you.

Thumbnail Sketches

I begin with thumbnail sketches. In my head I look at these tiny pencil drawings and see color and texture. As I lay things out I think about what I want to focus on and what the viewer should focus on when they see the site.

Color Sketches

Then I create a more fleshed-out color sketch. I play around with a color palette and continue thinking about the focus and the content. Part of the goal in this redesign was to focus on what I offer as well as the visual elements. I was really happy with the colors of this sketch.

Photoshop Mockups

After that I move on to Photoshop. The first attempt was quite a bit too dark and unfriendly. I reassessed the situation and lightened it up significantly, settling on the design you see now.

WordPress Theme

Then it was just a matter of creating a new WordPress theme and turning it on. Voilà! I should also note that I was excited to upgrade the code.  🙂