New website design

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I updated my personal website today.

www.hotpepper.ca

This revision has been at least two years in the making. I have been trying to develop a brand for myself. A brand based on how people view me and how I want to be viewed. It’s taken a lot of feedback from others and a lot of introspection.

The new design focus on the four pillars of my brand: communicator, artist, caregiver, and volunteer. These four areas are essential to who I am; they define me.

I have broken each one down into its most important parts, leaving out other parts that are significant but play a minor role in my life.

The design is pretty minimalistic. I chose the current design as a stepping stone to the new brand because it encapsulates the first two pillars: communicator and artist. I wanted the most important design elements to be content and photography. As I roll out the design across all my online assets, I am sure a few modifications may be made here and there.

What I have done so far is preliminary, and over the next few weeks, I plan to incorporate much of the content from the old site into the new design. I hope to do it in a way that builds on this brand, that brings everything together sensibly.

Feel free to send me any feedback by commenting on this post or emailing me.

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By Kim Siever

I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business. Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.

9 comments

  3. Hi – specific – is I do not know why are you calling it a redesign – it looks like one of those minimalist templates that are out there when you choose a specific CMS like Word Press or movable type.

    I liked your old design much better because it had such a branding feeling to it!

    -paul

  4. also you are a gifted photographer – use that wisely on your site design – a good example would be “dooce.com” , flickr blog etc.

  5. Thanks for the feedback, Paul. I have a couple thoughts.

    1. I am not using a CMS.
    2. My previous design put too much emphasis on the hot pepper part of the design. I needed it to be more about me.
    3. My previous design was too crowded and distracting.
    4. Thanks for your kind words about my photography. As you see, I have incorporated photographs into my design to a much larger degree than they were before.

    This isn’t my last design. Think of this as more of an intermediate design. My next design — whenever that is — will take the ideas and inspiration behind this redesign to a higher level.

    Before that though, I need to find out what works and what doesn’t, and that is going to take some time. It will also depend on a job prospect in the near future.

  9. That’s just it though; the only branding my previous design had was regarding the hot pepper. The brand had very little to do with me, and anything it did have to do with me wasn’t clear.

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