Hashtag Blog

#Events : #Hashtag Launch

Tue, 02 Sep 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Today's a big day at the Indie Shopography! We've been scheming behind the scenes to build a more social and sharable brand that encompasses our growing studio.

For years Indie Shopography has been a mostly one-woman show, but I – Emily – am not the only one here anymore. And this isn't just my brand anymore, but our brand.

So we're excited to launch our new studio blog, #HASHTAG. You can find us here weekly sharing all things Indie Shopography.

And, yes! I do mean us! I am so excited to have all of our team pitching in to share here on #HASHTAG. We have a busting editorial calendar underway showcasing projects, behind-the-scenes fun in the studio, business topics, and more.

Suffice it to say, we're stirring things up around here. And we'll be capturing it all here, on #HASHTAG.

If you'd like to follow along, I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Bloglovin', and/or follow us on our new Instagram account.

Cheers!

P.S. I will still be occasionally blogging on my personal blog at emilymthompson.com

#ProjectUpdates : B.Designs Paper : Update 1

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 05:00:00 GMT

It has been a little less than 6 months since we launched our new, exclusive design and strategy offering, IndieBOOM. We have been diving deep into the businesses, brands, and minds of some really awesome-sauce creatives. And we're excited to start sharing our process and creations for some of our very lucky IndieBOOMers.

The first of these projects is B.Designs Paper, a wedding invitation design studio in Illinois. Beth, the owner of B.Designs Paper, contacted me after seeing my recent article on Design*Sponge. She was ready to take her invitation business to the next level, working to get off of Etsy (and away from their fees and limitations), and into a presence that suited her growth, and continuing growth goals.

My favorite part of this project, to date, has definitely been styling up these rad invitations for the wedding suite lookbooks, while working with Abraham and Susan Rowe. We've styled lots of gorgeous shots for the new B.Designs lookbooks, and I know I am excited to pull them all into glorious digital lookbooks for this project.

So far her project has consisted of the following elements, with lots of fun things to come:

Mentoring : by Emily Thompson
Brand design and development : by Emily Thompson
Business card design : by Emily Thompson
Launch page design and development : by Emily Thompson
eCommerce website design : by Emily Thompson
eCommerce website development and Adobe Business Catalyst implementation : by Corey Winter and Emily Thompson
Lookbook photography : by Abraham Rowe Photography
Product photography : by Courtney Croxdale
Content coaching : by Erica Midkiff

One of our favorite things about our fantastic IndieBOOM projects is collaborating with all the folks we pull into our team to make these projects come to life. It takes a village to raise a brand, and to make it as amazing as possible, and our village is filled with some pretty cool cats.

Our next steps for B.Designs Paper includes loading up content to the new website, designing lookbooks, SEO implementation, and planning website launch. We hope to have it all going by early- to mid-October. But, don't worry, we'll let you know when it's all ready. I know we can't wait!

Until then, you can join B.Designs Paper's email list, if you'd like updates on this cool business in your inbox.

#Press : Set Magazine - Aug 2014

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Our lady-in-charge, Emily, was recently invited to write for a local publication, SET Magazine. We've been fans of SET Magazine since our co-working days, when they would occasionally rent out our space for their monthly shindigs.

The August issue is all about dreams, and Emily, being our dreamy dreamer, was asked to write an article about building a dream business. She wrote a piece on tools for building a dream business. Check out Emily's article in this month's issue of SET Magazine.

#ProjectLaunch : Verdure by Crystal Vaughn

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 05:00:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of launching a new website for the adorable and talented Crystal Vaughn, for her new business Verdure.

Crystal came to us by way of Braid Creative, who expertly and gorgeously designed her new brand and gave her a clear business vision.

It then became our job to turn this brand and vision into a functioning online presence that would help Crystal meet all of her business goals.

We always start our projects off with a good, in depth questionnaire. When I asked Crystal what she hoped getting a new website would do for her business, here's what she said:

I want it to be able to show wonderful recipes, but also to attract customers. I want it to share my love for food and health. I want it to build community, but also direct/inspire people to hire me.

Perfect! This told us right away that the core purpose of Crystals new website presence would be to get hired, but would need to be heavily supported by sharing her content and building a community.

So, we created a blog as the core of Verdure's online headquarters, with simple navigation that would make it easy for her readers to hire her.

We began working to plan, layout, and design Crystal's new site for Verdure. Here's what we did for Crystal:

Informational website design and development
Blog design and development
Implementation into Adobe Business Catalyst
Email marketing implementation and template design
Custom web app design and development for creating and sharing recipes
Search engine optimization

Working with Crystal, and creating this website for her was a dream. Here's what she had to say about working with us:

I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Emily and the Indie Shopography team. They brought the ideas I had for my website to life. The website exceeded my expectations. Even a month after launching I am still getting compliments on how amazing it looks.

Emily is so easy to work with and she is such a cool person that it is like hanging out with a friend who builds awesome websites. She took the time to figure out what I needed and then customized the website to me.

I love that she offers continued support after the website is finished. The other web designers I looked at had no such offers and I would be lost without it. If you want a fabulously amazing website, look no further than Indie Shopography.

How spectacular! And then, to make it even better, I have also had the pleasure of working and chatting with Crystal more about her business as a participant in one of our Indie Mastermind groups. It's such a pleasure to work with my clients so far beyond the creation of a website, but really have the opportunity to grow and expand their businesses and reach their goals.

We had such a great time working with Crystal to create and launch the online presence for Verdure, and I'm eager to continue my time with her as a mastermind-er. You can check out her new website at crystalvaughn.com >>

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If you're interested in working with us to create a dreamy online presence for your business, new or old, then check out our exclusive design offering IndieBOOM. We have a passion for creative entrepreneurs, and are here to help you grow.

#StudioPeeks : Reading Materials

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 05:00:00 GMT

We have a healthy[ish] obsession with magazines around the studio. Our favorites: Bon Appétit and Anthology. We also can get pretty nerdy on an issue of Inc., or can curl up quite happily with the latest Garden & Gun.

Whatever it is, we have well-places stacks of our favorite editorials all around the studio. Each just waiting for a moment of quiet.