Yesterday my “baby” (that’s older than my actual “baby” and my marriage) turned five. I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging in this space for five years now! And woah…have things changed.

The first time I clicked publish I was a completely different person. My body and my brain were riddled with anxiety. I was winding down from years of stress and dipping my toes into creative pursuits.

When I first started this blog, I didn’t have a nice camera or an iPhone. I wasn’t on Twitter, there was no Instagram or Pinterest, and most of my posts didn’t have images. Even travel posts! Seriously! I had no real knowledge about photography or graphic design, I just knew that I appreciated it. The creative tool I had experience with was writing, so at the time I wasn’t too concerned with the rest.

Looking back I see the first time I started a creative project that involved sharing it online, and photos that would be taken again a few years later with the addition of my amazing son. I shared Nathaniel’s first ultrasound without sharing his first ultrasound.

The look has changed a little bit too.

 

And now, here we are.

Five years later.

I live in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, but when I started this blog I hadn’t even heard of some of these programs. This year I decided to combine my love of writing, my marketing background, and my skills in graphic design and photography in a way that allows me to focus my business on something I love to create…press kits and lookbooks.

Stories.

Informative, visual, meaningful, and beautiful stories that allow my clients to concisely show who they are, what they do, and why you should hire them or buy their products.

If you’re a blogger looking for a well-designed media kit, a life or business coach who wants a PDF and package of beautiful individual images that you can share on your blog and social media channels, or a business that wants to introduce your brand new product line to potential distributors and press in a thoughtful and visually appealing way, take a look at my own lookbook and email me to get started.

It’s weird how things evolve. When I decided that I was going to take everything that I do and get hyper focused on a specific type of design product., it all made sense. By the way, this happened one day while I was just sitting at my dining table eating lunch and looking at the birds outside my window. All of a sudden the thought just popped into my head and washed over my body. I literally felt my heart rate rise! Of course! Lookbooks! Writing, design, photography, mixed media collage…STORYTELLING!  AHH!!!! I had my first client for my brand new service within three days, and I can’t wait to show it to you when it’s complete.

Just shy of my fifth blog birthday, I finally found the thread that ties my story together: Helping you tie YOUR story together, packaging it, and decorating it with bright, colorful ribbon.

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Tags: blogging, branding, creative journey, creativity, design, graphic design, lookbook, marketing, personal essay, photography, storytelling, work, writing