A Look At My Work

Thanks for checking out my portfolio! I hope you like what you see!

If you’re in the market for my services, it’s important for you to understand the combination of technical skill, business knowledge, Content/SEO expertise, and design ability that goes into every well-done project. People often only look at the design and make decisions that way. That ought to certainly show the importance of good design!

But there is much more to a great project than good visual design. I can build a website, eBook, or print material that has any look you like, but the ability to make that work properly, engage readers optimally, and draw-out more value for you is a different set of skills altogether. It’s very important that you receive both sides of the great service equation.

This page includes, blogs, e-Books, business websites, graphic design, whatever… The idea is to show some of what I can do. If you don’t see a style that resembles what you want, that’s no problem, just contact me and we can talk about your particular needs.

(website images are linked directly to the site… just click to go see)

EverythingEtsy.com

The client is my wife! She wanted a “doodley and colorful” look that expressed the creative spark of her blog.

I created all of the buttons, icons, and graphics from scratch. When I finish a design, all of the rights to the images on your website go to you. I don’t have a whole long list of things you can’t do and I don’t lock you in to using me later if you don’t want to.

Custom CSS Menu Buttons

I really like it when things on the screen interact with the viewer. In this case, the menu buttons change color when you mouse over them:

Maximizing Valuable Space

There are two things that all bloggers like to build: subscribers and income. I consider these things in the layout of each design. As you can see on EverythingEtsy, there is a large subscribe icon in the left sidebar, but I also put a custom button to the right of the header because the top-right is a standard location for subscribe options.

Being Different Is Important

Advertising space above the fold is important, no doubt. But so is being different and unique. We decided to break from the most common way of displaying ads and chose to stack them vertically in the right sidebar. It’s easy for Kim to rotate new ads to the top, and it isn’t a simply copy of what everyone else is doing.

(incidentally, I don’t have different charges for blogs that are trying to make money vs. those that aren’t… you can make money, why wouldn’t you?)

Custom Buttons and Graphics

Having a great looking button that others want to put on their blogs really helps build your blog, and it’s fun. I designed a whole assortment of buttons for EverythingEtsy and put them on a page where friends can choose which one they like best.

Just click the image to go see the page for yourself. It’s nifty.

Imagine Me…Set Free!

Imagine Me is a brand new women’s conference being held nationwide this year. The speaker is none other than my mom, Pat Layton (her website is below). Being a new venture, Imagine Me is constantly in the process of being developed. My work started with the website, which will also include a blog and specific pages for various parts of the ministry.

The theme for the conference is the sunflower, so the design centers around that idea and color scheme. I created the header and graphics for the buttons and banners. This blog uses a YouTube video in the top of the first sidebar to grab visitors attention and build interest.

Book Cover

The Imagine Me project overall includes much more than the website. Above is a sample book cover idea, and below are examples of the cover for the conference program. (the blank white marquee on the front will have text related to each particular event)

Our original web-graphics shown on the website a few images above weren’t large enough images to create nice print documents and could never have been used for larger items such as signage. So I created a vector graphic sunflower that can be scaled to any size without any loss in clarity. I also created the vector character (the girl) from scratch. If you would like a vector image that resembles your likeness, I can create one. And the rights will belong to you for any use.

ForeverWherever.com

This is my wife and I’s personal blog. It’s really a place where we like to write about our travels, hence the travel theme. I created custom “luggage tag” buttons to link to our other blogs and websites, and a custom Twitter button using an old suitcase. I’m a fan of the “old-paper” look.

Layton Contracting

The about page tells the story, but my professional life has been spent mostly (so far) as a remodeling contractor. This is the website I built (am building, it’s new) for my company. I think it’s a great example of how a blog can be used as a business website, and it also will give you more insight into my values and business ideas, if you happen to be interested.

eBooks – IDHTBPTBB

I really enjoy creating eBooks. The medium is a great way for Bloggers to both help create income and to help get the message out about what they do and who they are. The first one I did was for The Nester, in her first eBook called It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful :

I really enjoyed doing this eBook for The Nester. It’s free and you can download it here. I handled the layout, the creation of the PDF file, which I uploaded to her web host. I also handled setting up her AWeber email newsletter which was used as the delivery vehicle for the eBook. If you would like help with that, let me know.

Here is what The Nester had to say about my help with her eBook:

“ I wholeheartedly recommend Tim to design your next ebook. I am so pleased with the work that he did with the raw mess that I frantically emailed him. Within days he started pumping out a beautiful, easy to read design that highlighted the true purpose of my message within the book. Tim combined photos, graphics and different fonts and surpassed my expectations of what the finished product would look like. Above all else, he is a man of integrity who values relationship and timely communication. Knowing Tim was capable of doing all the hard layout and design, and set up of the ebook freed me to do what I love–write. Thanks Tim, as of today, the ebook you designed for me has been downloaded over 4000 times! “ – The Nester

It’s important to note that I used the existing look of Nesting Place as a basis for the eBook. The original look of the blog was designed by Darcy at Graphically Designing.

eBook – A Very Kimba Christmas

I helped Kimba from A Soft Place To Land, with her holiday eBook this year. It was great fun and came out beautifully.