Services Just for You
Form Meets Function
Creative services for developers. Art direction, visual design, interaction and user experience design, wireframing, and web writing & editing. They say that beauty is on the inside, but your user may not agree. I can bring my design know-how to your development project and ensure that your product looks as good as it works.
Your Perfect Website
Business owner meets website… And they lived happily ever after. Great for independent professionals too. Need to establish a standout, personal web presence for your business? You’re in the right place.
Artsites
Feature-rich, Wordpress-based websites exclusively for artists. Find out more.
Consulting
Call me your internet MacGyver. I’ll help you assess, select and customize the best technologies and services to meet your budget and bring your vision to life.
I also (happily) offer identity & branding and print design services. Samples available in the ’folio; contact for more information.
“Allie, your web design skills and technical support have saved me so many times that I’ve quit counting! Before you came into my life, my experience with web designers was dismal. Since you’ve been steering the web ship, I have complete confidence that you will complete the job with superior technical skills, catch problems before they become mistakes, offer imaginative and pragmatic solutions, create intuitive functionality on web pages, help direct long-term, strategic planning, and collaborate with ease on projects. Plus, you have an artist’s eye when it comes to design, coupled with the savvy of a technician who knows what works best online.”
Consider It Done
Just a shortlist of things I (love to) do for every client:
- Pay attention to details. Good design is in the details.
- Promote usability, readability and a quality user experience. Design should serve your content — not the other way around.
- Ensure that every site is built on web standards. What that means to you is a lean, mean, visitor-friendly machine designed with update-ability and SEO in mind.
- Make your web presence sustainable and timeless, while strategically utilizing the latest technologies.
- Build a deeply personal working relationship. I work directly, one-on-one, with all of my clients, and this ensures that your website reflects your unique personality and goals.
- Use the best tools for the job at hand — whether that’s a widget-enabled custom Wordpress template or a hosted third-party service or anything in between.
- Edit copy, as needed or appropriate. I’ll help to make certain that your copy is clear, concise and SEO-friendly.
- Cross-browser test. At minimum, sites are tested against Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox for Windows and Mac, and Safari.
From the Folio
Bella Vida Vineyard In Progress
The Allie Aesthetic
Simple. Effectual. Beautiful.
Just because something is as useful and reliable as your favorite circa-1992 sweater doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be every bit as lovely as your most stunning evening gown.
We should be able to delight in the everyday — the tools we use, the people we affect, the stories we tell — and this drives my desire to make the web both usable and beautiful.
I’m a firm believer in design as storytelling. I’m passionate about the emotional response to design. I’m deeply committed to design that does its job — design that is responsive and communicative, enchanting and appropriate, accessible and unassuming.
And I’d love to collaborate with you.
Let’s Get Started!
Does it sound like we could make beautiful websites together? Complete this little form and your correspondence will be hand-delivered to my inbox.
“Working with Allison is a delight, making the marriage between structure and content a collaboration whose results exceed the sum of the parts. She has taken the time to completely understand not just the presentation of the content, but the personality behind it and the emotive response of the viewer.”
In case you were wondering, Allie is…
- 25 and married.
- A computer science graduate who worked in design for IT shops, newspapers, higher education institutions, insurance companies, and social networking companies before starting Allie Creative.
- A girl with a plan. Or, perhaps more accurately, a girl who’s always planning.
- Originally from California’s Bay Area and now living in enchanting, green, bridge-filled Portland, Oregon.
- Often guilty of perusing Etsy for new bird things, vintage things, letterpress things and paper things.
- Proud design aficionado since 1985.
- An INFJ.
- Constantly working to make others’ lives simpler and her own as complicated as possible.
- A lover of books, poetry and plays. Don’t miss: The Time Traveler’s Wife (Niffenegger), The Shadow of the Wind (Zafon), Patchett, Austen, Bronte, Cummings and Wilde.
- Also a lover of films and music. Too many recommendations to list here.
- According to some, a big-city girl with a small-town heart.
- Always behind by 1,000+ entries in Google Reader. I secretly find time for guilty pleasures like PostSecret, TFLN, “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, and (Oh So) Beautiful Paper.
- A maker of lists. (Have you seen Lucky 7? A woman after my own heart.)
- Aspiring to be a domestic goddess, letterpress shop owner, voiceover actress, novelist, and Anthropologie window display designer. And all in this lifetime.
- Unsurprisingly and often awake at 3 a.m.
- Unbelievably blessed.
- Only black & white in photographs:
P.S. (Pretty Sweet)
- My first official three-day weekend
…and I have to say it was a little rough. I’m sure those of you who worked today are pretty short on sympathy. Oh, poor Allie *had* to take a …
- Twenty-five
Last year, I made a list of 24 things to do before I turned 25. This was actually my second time making such a list, but the first time around, …
- 2010 reading plan
Among my many goals for 2010 are two reading goals. There should be three (one for online reading — news journals, blogs, etc.), but for now there are two: …
- Instituting the four-day work week
I’m always experimenting with new structures and systems to make me more effective in what I do. It’s a big part of my DTO, obsessive organization thing. Sometime last year, …
- (Re-)Birthday
Well, today happens to be my birthday. So it seemed like the just-right day for a little blog re-birthday. (Fun!) Once upon a time, the internet was a much …
Seen & Flickred
Last Listens
Canoodled Kaboodles
And There’s More