It’s spring and time for new beginnings and a nod to nostalgia

And they say, Spring is a time for new beginnings so it was a great time to re-launch Solomag.com with some new features. As much as I love spring and new beginnings I have to admit that launching the new site really brought back memories for me. If any of you have every started your own website then you know what trust and faith it takes to find a designer who can truly read your mind, see your vision and bring it to life. And even then it’s a leap of faith!

Websites go through so many changes as we learn more about SEO (search engine optimization) and an entire plethora of acronyms that we come to rely on for the metrics and success of our sites. It’s a lot of work, a lot of stress and a lot of time. 

I ran into my old high school friend Susan Rogers, owner and graphic designer of Axcess Design Services (see Small Biz resources). Sue and I talked about the site I envisioned but never had the guts to bring to life. She immediately took my vision and I think she gave me 2 options for the look of the site. I was dumbfounded. The designs were exactly what  the art director between my ears had imagined. I was sure I couldn’t communicate it to anyone in a way that would translate into my dream on a webpage but Sue did just that. 

The new site is different, it’s got some animation and sound that I love and even the navigation has changed. But the important thing for me is that I love history and roots - and the root of this website comes from a lot of great collaboration and many, many emails, pdf’s, jpegs and late nights with Sue who managed to take the creation from my head and translate it into a website that was exactly the way I dreamt it. Visionaries are great people and I love knowing them.

So I want to send a special thank you to Susan Rogers. As soon as she showed me her first design,  I fell in love and finally had the courage to take the next step to launch the magazine. I had avoided this moment for so long, afraid of failure. To me, Solomag is the richest example of how a whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. That’s a big thing for me because I hate math!

Susan Rogers - you’re a legend in my mind and the great founding designer of this site. A million thanks for all of your incredible creativity and tireless work!