It’s time for another interview with a web designer! Today we have Christin Thomas from Studio CT here to chat with us. 🙂
Ashley Hi Christin! Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 🙂
Christin Hi Ashley. First let me just say thank you for having me as one of your Design Interviewers. It’s so hard to talk about yourself, isn’t? Let’s see, I’m from Louisiana but live in California. I’m a mother, wife, blogger, and graphic designer. I love to work on the computer and code sites/blogs. I started graphic designing in 2008 and made it into a business in 2011. I love all colors and making something that someone would love.
Ashley What kind of design services do you provide?
Christin I offer custom and premade Blogger, Weebly, and Branding designs. I also create printable cards, party decor, and wall prints for any special event you may have.
Ashley Do you design full time or on the side?
Christin I do design full time. My plan for my business is to make it a go to place for small businesses to get all their needs. I also would love to offer easy go to products for the busy momma or women to help her plan any birthday party or event she would like to plan. Sometimes it’s hard to plan things when there just isn’t enough time in the day and I would love to help others plan their event.
Ashley How long have you been designing for?
Christin I’ve been designing since August 2008, when myspace was big.
Ashley Oh, those MySpace days… How I remember!
Ashley How did you get started? Are you self taught or did you go to school for design?
Christin I started creating word art and frame art for others. I needed something to keep my attention while the boyfriend (now husband) was at boot camp. I thought myself how to use my program and to create different things. By doing this, I found I loved creating things for others.
Southern Belle book blog design (weebly)
Ashley What’s your favourite kind of project or style? For example, do you love designing author sites? Or whimsical blogs? Or complex, graphic-heavy sites?
Christin I find that I’m designing more of a clean simple look. Something with mostly white space with some color here and there.
Ashley Do you code your designs, use a template, or outsource the development work?
Christin I do code all my custom designs myself. Sometimes I do use a template to create preamde themes/template to create a blogger or weebly site.
Ashley How long does a full blog design usually take you?
Christin A full design takes me about two weeks to complete.
Ashley How do you begin a new design project? What’s the first step you take? Do you create a mood board with your client? Start with a colour palette? Start with a font? Walk us through your first design steps.
Christin As soon as I receive an order, I go straight to work on the order. First I send an email with a link for an order form. Once I receive the order form, I start on the customers Mood Board. When the customer approves the mood board, I get started on their first preview.
A mood board for the Petite Career Girl blog design
Ashley Have you ever had any problems connecting with a client’s vision for their site? How did you handle it?
Christin I don’t believe I’ve never came to this problem. Having an order form for your customer to fill out helps out a lot. You can get a pretty good idea of what they are looking for. You can also use Pinterest to help you get the right vision for their site. Also creating a mood board will help show a customer what you plan to do. If they don’t like something, I make sure to let them know that it is okay to not like something, I don’t mind changing it.
Ashley What platform(s) do you design for? Blogger? WordPress? Other?
Christin The platforms I mainly work with is Blogger and Weebly. Blogger and Weebly are easy for me to work with but I do have plans to start learning about WordPress and their coding.
Ashley Do you use any tools or resources for the business side of your design work? Such as invoicing systems or project management platforms?
Christin I do use a few resources for my business. PayPal and Etsy is my main tools I use. I use PayPal to create and send out invoices. I use Etsy for all of my premade orders and instant download orders. I also use Google Drive to keep track of all incoming payments and all of my sending.
Brhea Koneman Photography website design (blogger)
Ashley Do you have a blog? If so, how do you think it has helped or affected your design business? Do you think a lot of your clients find/hire you because of your blog?
Christin I do have a blog. This is kind of embarrassing, but I just started up my blog again. I did have a blog where I would blog about my family, the books I read, the scrapbook pages I create, and so on. I think it was to much for me at the time and with being a military family, I had to really rethink my blogging.
At this new blog I plan to blog about the crafts I create, scrapbooking, my business, and what inspires me. I also plan to bring in tutorials to help others learn blogger and weebly better. There are so many things that people can do on these two platforms that no one knows about and I would love to let others know about them.
Ashley Do you do any design work outside the book blogging community?
Christin I do, I love to create anything and everything I can on my computer. I love to create card designs for parties, weddings, showers, and so on. It’s just something I can’t stop doing. I love to create and design things no matter what it may be.
Ashley Will you be offering any new services in 2015? Or will you be doing anything to expand/change your business?
Christin I do plan to offer new things in 2015. I really can’t say much on what these things will be but I can tell you that it will help the new blogger or small business owners who are starting out.
A Fleurish blog design (blogger)
Ashley Are there any services you don’t currently offer that you would LIKE to offer in the future?
Christin I’m pretty happy with the products I offer now but I do plan to learn about WordPress. I don’t know when this will be but I’m hoping soon.
Ashley Is there any advice you’d give to aspiring designers?
Christin If you are an aspiring designer just keep at it. There were times where I just wanted to give up and came close to giving up. DON’T GIVE UP, KEEP AT IT. Always do what you love no matter what someone says. Keep an open mind and keep growing. Learn everything you can and don’t stop learning. If you want something to happen, make it happen.
And if you want to make this a business, be patient. It does take time to grow your business and to sale products. It will not happen over night. Take your time and they will come to you.
I’m really enjoying this interview series a lot. You lovely ladies are mighty talented! 😀
I love her clean and fresh designs. Lovely to meet you!
Thank you Jennifer.
I love Christin’s designs! I am using one of her templates for my blog. She’s great to work with too! 🙂
Your theme looks great! 🙂
Thank you Anna, I loved working with you also. 🙂
This was a really great interview from a great designer. Also this website looks really nice.