Services
Small Design Lab offers three main areas of service: website design, document design, and brand support. Within these areas, there are many variations of services. Each service area is described in more detail below.
Website Design
These days, website design can mean many different things. Sometimes it’s fully customizing and creating it from scratch and other times it’s using a template off the shelf and only customizing the colors and fonts. What I do is somewhere in between. I use the Divi theme to create custom websites that fully represent the companies and people they are created for.
The process can look a couple of different ways. It depends on where you are starting from. Do you already have a website that needs to be refreshed? Are you starting from scratch, and we’re designing your brand, website and printed collateral? Are you a consultant that needs a simple website to let people know who you are and how to find you, or are you a yoga studio who needs integration with scheduling software? I work with clients to answer these questions (and more) to get their business websites up and driving customers to them.
These are some of the websites I’ve created for individuals, small businesses and political candidates.
Document Design
Most businesses nowadays have pdf downloads, whitepapers and the like that they need to create quickly and with consistency, and this is oftentimes not something they get when they initially design their brand, website, business cards and letterhead. I have 10+ years of experience using Adobe InDesign to create documents (and templates) for fliers, brochures, whitepapers and 800+ page zoning codes.
I spent the good part of a decade helping create documents for an architectural and urban design firm. This firm was known for creating zoning codes, specific plans, and other traditionally dense and impenetrable documents in a user-friendly and graphically interesting way. My job involved creating initial designs of templates and making them usable for a team comprised of multiple firms with multiple people working on them. This meant I had to build as much automation and style into them as I could to limit the amount of user error possible. After creating the template, I would train the team on how to use them and fix any glitches that arose throughout the document creation process. Once the team started creating the documents, I would adjust layouts as the content dictated and create customized spreads and infographics where needed. Finally, I would be the last eyes on the project before submitting to clients. I would design edit and copyedit these documents to make sure the client was getting the best product possible.
This experience has shown me the ins and outs of creating documents both big and small. I use the knowledge I gained to create templates for clients that I can use while providing brand support, that I can train them on to use themselves, or some combination of the two.
Brand Support
Once someone decides to start a business, they know they need a logo, website, business card and letterhead, but they usually don’t know what else they will need. I work with clients on their initial brand design, but I also work with clients who have an existing brand that needs new or adjusted brand materials. This could be anything from adjusting your logo to fit on a mug, designing seed packets as marketing material, formatting brochures detailing your offerings, and creating many other one-off items that may come up.
Another service I offer is branding and design for political candidates. My husband (and business partner) has worked in politics for over 10 years. He has worked on national campaigns, in house on ballot initiatives, and run his own company with his own local candidates. In this last part, I have worked with him closely on creating logo/sign designs followed by walkcard, mailer and website designs for multiple candidates. A few are shown here. More can be found on changingdynamics.net.
