I'm a graphic designer and high creative, with over 30 years of experience in graphic design and marketing. I've worked in everything from magazine design, direct mail, print shop design, brand development and franchise system development and sales. Over the past year, I realized that I wanted to be free to be more creative, and build a library of digital downloads to help other people market their small businesses. After a great deal of deliberation and back and forth between my MANY personalities, I decided to reach out to Etsy sellers to make marketing and branding their shops easier, faster and less painful.

You already know that branding your store and showcasing your products is an important step in being a successful (and profitable) Etsy shop. You want your customers to feel at home in your shop and ready to buy your fabulous products. You want a visual feast that reflects you, draws your potential customers in and keeps your shop’s appeal fresh and eye-catching. You also want it to be professional, consistent and geared towards the folks who are ready to open their wallets and CHA-CHING for you.

But between the crafting and the customers, there's not any time or energy left to pour into your shop branding -- it’s hard to find time to even think about stuff like creating a branding package. You know it’s important… but it’s a long way down the list of things that have to get done, and you don’t have a lot of time to spare for it.

Maybe you just don’t feel confident with graphic design or designing shop graphics for your Etsy store and afraid you’ll do it “wrong”. Maybe you don’t want to spend hours learning a whole bunch of new software. Maybe you just don’t like doing this kind of stuff. Maybe you’re just so gosh-darn busy filling orders that you don’t have time to even think. (Congrats!)

There's no reason to bang your head trying to figure out specialized design software or rack your brain to figure out how to do it “right”. You don't need to spend a million dollars to have a great, consistent brand. And it can still be easy, affordable and professional – not to mention unique, interesting and yeah, okay, GORGEOUS.

This stuff IS my superpower. I want to tell you right now that you are no longer alone in this. You have a friend, ally and partner in me and I am here to support you with amazing design work and to provide the practical, actionable advice that you need to feel comfortable with branding and marketing your business. I help people just like you understand and create their brand, and then help them develop the policies and systems to use it consistently, creatively and professionally -- whether they are a developing franchise system, a "big" business, an entrepreneur, just getting started or somewhere in-between. It's fun to be part of the beginning of their next stage of growth, just like being part of yours!

What do I use to create my digital masterpieces? Well currently, I'm working on an iMac with a massive screen with mostly Illustrator and Photoshop. I sometimes work on my laptop out of a customers office or a coffee shop. I've been known to use it ringside at boxing matches as well. My favorite design guilty pleasure is Canva.

My other favorite thing to do is write urban fantasy (witches and vampires and werewolves, oh my!). I write under the name Lola Lyons, which is a combination of my mother's maiden name and my childhood family nickname (because what Lola wants, Lola gets).

Currently, I live in the beautiful East Tennessee mountains with my cat Bailey. Some of my favorite things outside of graphic design are naps, beaches, horses, driving very fast down windy roads and tormenting my grown son with stupid IT questions. I'm learning to box, and I've absolutely fallen in love with the sport. It's raw and real and a little bit lonely -- the true fight is you against yourself -- and it's perfect for an INTJ like me. I'm also working hard to bring more technology and awesome design to boxing events!

Thanks for visiting my shop, and I hope you found what you were looking for here!

PS If you are looking for products that color your life, check out my offerings in my original shop, She Dreams In Ink (https://shedreamsinink.etsy.com), where you can get cool, unique and colorful labels, stickers, invitations, printable and more! This shop also played host to my branding work for my first couple years on Etsy, so you can see a lot of reviews from happy branding clients there as well.