I was reading a post on a forum last week that asked about employing a formatter and it’s inspired these words as I felt it might be useful to untangle the language and roles. I also tested out Vellum to explore what apps offer and compared this to my bespoke skills. This post walks you though the Hello Lovely book page design process, explains what software I use, why and the stages, plus who to involve, what they do and why you may need them. The post covers print and ebook design across fiction and non-fiction.
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Alongside Squarespace (read more about that here) I also work with WordPress. My philosophy is that there’s always a choice at the back-end of the website as well as the front for the users. Which one is better? Well, that’s largely down to what you prefer to use and what your website and business aims are. Both have good and bad points - you’ll find plenty of (heated!) opinions on the internet. I’m happy to show you behind the scenes, and this blog post takes you through how I create a WP site.
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This Tips and Tricks post discusses my image research services and advice on bespoke photography, licensing and copyright, model release, free image resources, paid image resources, search terms and good practice.
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You’ve heard the phrase ‘judge a book by its cover’, I’m sure and it’s very true when it comes to publishing, in particular, self-publishing when authors have more control of spend and choices. What to put on the cover and how to brief it, who to commission and who does what can be exhausting and overwhelming. I’m going to assume you’re an interested author. This blog post aims to give an overview of the styles of book covers, who does what and best practice. Grab a seat and a cuppa as it’s going to be a long but useful post!
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I love creating websites and training clients. One of the platforms I use in Squarespace and lately I’ve had a lot of work on this platform. The process of idea to website varies a little to my workflow for WordPress and customised website development. This post is an overview of Hello Lovely’s Squarespace steps which you may find useful if you’re thinking of offering this service to your clients or you’d like to work with me on your Squarespace website.
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The starting point is a clear direction. Your brand values affect messaging considerations and design preferences for your logo, making it so much easier to work with designers, copywriters, strategists and internal teams. Here’s some questions to consider.
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It can be really easy to get into knots with websites. If you’re not sure what the goal is, then it’s tempting to add in plug-ins and features you may not need. I am planning my goals for this website and making a list of actions I need to take. As a website designer, it’s far too easy for me to start tinkering! I’ve deliberately sat on my hands on all my own sites this year until I had space in my diary to focus. December and January now feel like good times for me to review this website and I’ve scheduled the task into my diary. I thought it would be useful to make notes as I go along and document in future posts so that we can learn together. What do you think?
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Is the answer found in understanding why Canva exists? I read a post on Facebook written by a designer who was told by a friend that designers are redundant because ‘everyone can use Canva’. This blog post explores best practice, suggests when it could be good to use Canva and when to call on the professionals.
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