Did you miss me? Things got a little quiet on the blog last week as I tried to check everything off on a daunting to-do list that I’ve been putting off for a long time. You know the old addage about the cobbler’s children? Well, it certainly applies to me and my online space. It seems that it always falls by the wayside, but the new year had me motivated to make some changes!
Since I relaunched my blog and website all under the Katelyn Brooke brand in August of 2012, my brand has evolved and I made tweaks as I went. I’ve updated my website a few times and made changes here and there, but the logos pretty much remained the same. I figured it was time to make some more serious changes and do an official “rebrand.”
As you can see, it’s not a drastic departure from my original brand- I definitely wasn’t starting from scratch, and you can clearly see the evolution of the new brand from the previous one. Unfortunately, I’ve never posted a brand board for myself, but I’m more than making up for that today! Here’s a look at where things stand for Katelyn Brooke, the brand.
The Mark
The mark that I’m using as the logo for my blog was actually inspired by the return address label I made for our personal Christmas cards. I drew this little wreath, and I loved them so much that I tried to draw something on brand for my blog. It took a few times to get it right, but I like the abstract dot look that I landed on.
I liked what having the little “Katelyn Brooke | Est.” text did for balancing the logo, but I struggled with picking a year. At first I picked 2009, the year I started blogging. Then I wondered if it should be 2012, the year I combined Katelyn Brooke Designs, Stripes and Polka Dots, and Sketch & Wash. Finally, I settled on 2011, the year I started Katelyn Brooke Designs and began the Katelyn Brooke brand. But I’m reserving the right to change my mind again.
Responsive Design
Ever since I’ve been on WordPress, my sites have been responsive (if you’re wondering what that means, check out this post.) Genesis makes it relatively easy to modify your site for responsive design, and I felt like since I was a web designer I had to exhibit this feature on my own sites.
Clients with blogs and sites (not unlike mine) would often ask my opinion about how to handle the mobile view of their site, and I a lot of times I would advise them not to go that route. Not because it was less work for me, but because I genuinely felt like their original layout would be more functional than something adapted to be responsive.
It all changed for me when I got an iPad over Christmas. I was scanning through my own perfectly responsive blog, and I decided that I didn’t like it. So I decided to start following my own advice and forget the trend. I might go back at some point, but for now, I think this is working for my set up.
Features
This has been the “softest” launch I’ve ever done, meaning that it went live and then I kept adding a lot of features / updates really slowly. I still have a lot I want to add, and I’ll leave it up to you to explore the website on your own (although I’m thinking about talking about it in more detail on Biz Nuggets!)
As far as the blog goes, the Resources page got an overhaul and you’ll notice that the blogs that used to inhabit that space are now in the rotating blog roll widget at the bottom of the sidebar. I also added a Policies page instead of listing them in my sidebar. Stay tuned for more features being added in the coming weeks!
So here’s my question for you… do you see any thing that needs to be fixed? I’m one of those people who appreciates typos being pointed out, so let me know if you see any!
I love it! As always, you do great design work! Love that you kept the shades of blue. :)
Thank you, Catherine! What can I say, I’m just a blue girl! :)
I love it!! The updated alternate logo looks awesome! And I absolutely love the mint — it’s my favorite color!
Thanks Allyssa! Me too, I love all shades of it!
I LOVE the new look! Great job, Katelyn!
Thanks Brooklyn! :)
I think it looks SO lovely! Good work, you :) As always!! xo
Love all the new additions Kate!! :)
Looks wonderful, Katelyn! Loving the logo with the animal spots.
Love it! Keeps the original feel, but looks more polished! =]
Looks amazing, congratulations Kate!
Everything looks wonderful from my end! Love the fantastic update to the text. Everything still looks as beautiful as before but just a bit better. :)
Kate, I absolutely love this! Looks gorgeous!! Congrats! :)
Wow! I love it. You did a very well done job! :)
Everything looks really great! The new logo looks awesome.
Kate, I LOVE IT. It looks so good, very clean, very YOU.
:)
Had to come back and add one more thing… the new about page! PERFECTION!
Ahhh thanks Anna!! :)
Hi Katelyn, I’ve been following your blog for a few years, and I just wanted to reach out. I love your new design– it has a touch of Katelyn in it. :) Great job!
P.S. I know what you mean about ‘soft launching’– this always happens to my own projects because, as you know, design is ever-changing and there really isn’t such thing as having a ‘perfect’ design.
I’m so glad you reached out, Grace! Thank you for your kind words. It’s so hard to design for yourself, I guess we’re all our own worst clients! :)
Lovely :) lots of details you put into it! Question – do you ever find it hard to settle on your OWN brand identity? When I redesign for myself, I make 10x more mockups than I would otherwise :) wooops
YES! It’s really hard. Although I think the niche or look that I was going for helps- I knew I wanted a more hand-drawn look and I wanted it to be by me, so that’s a little limiting right there, in a way! I certainly drew all the elements many times over many months, but when I was really ready I sat down and DID IT, it luckily didn’t take too long. :)
Great job Kate!
We still need to get together, will email you. :)
Thanks Shayla! Yes, definitely!
Beautiful Kate! I thought it was perfect before but now it is even perfecter!
Thanks Aunt Amanda! xoxo
Love the new look and feel! Great job Katelyn! Can you please do mine next?! :)
Um, yes! Just let me know when you’re ready! :)
I am so in love with your new look! It’s simple, elegant, and has a touch of nautical features that makes me happy because beach season is my new favorite. :) I hope to get to do this with my new blog one day. Of course, right now I need to focus on curating and creating exceptional content and I’m focusing on using it to hopefully break into copywriting, but eventually I want to do a professional and rebrand overhaul on it. Good work! :)
Thank you, Wren! I’m a sucker for all things nautical :) I definitely think that all the time it’s taken me to grow my content and blog helped me focus on what I wanted my blog to look like, so it sounds like you’re on the right track!
Loving it! Great work Kate ; ) xx -P
Great work!
It looks much better and easier to navigate for sure :)
Keep it up!