Welcome back! At least, hello again. I’ve been noticeably absent from this space and today is the reason why. After two years, I’m launching the redesign of Studio 404! This has been in the pipeline for a whole year from wireframes to final push live. I’m so excited to talk about the site and some of the things that have been updated for the better. I have been unbelievably busy this year, busier than I originally planned. It’s wonderful but this redesign has been pushed back by six months due to all of the client work we’ve been doing.  There was some goals I had in mind for this space which I couldn’t have done with the first iteration.

After blogging for six years, rebranding, and shifting focus for another two years, you can see why this place was in need of a revamp. One of the biggest things I want to focus on is genuine content, uplifting other creatives (as I always have), and making Studio 404 Paper the focal point. There are so many blogs in the design blog space and I needed to take a step back and evaluate what I’m offering. I am loving the trends of e-courses and infoprenuers as there is so much to learn but this space will continue to offer the design-centric focus it always had. Now that I’m in a rhythm of being a work-at-home mom (guys, seriously how weird.), I can contribute so much more here. I still want to talk about having a business that I share with my husband (full-time!) and how we make that work. I also want to talk about illustrators I’ve been in love with. I enjoy having a place that allows me to do both.

Shop Studio 404 Paper

One of the biggest changes to the site is the addition of the Studio 404 Paper Shop.After spending a year on Etsy, I was ready to move to an e-commerce solution on my site. As much as I love Etsy and their features, I felt I needed more freedom to grow my paper line and other products. After chatting with my husband and doing lots of research, we decided to take on WooCommerce with is a fantastic e-commerce solution for WordPress. The thought of managing an actual e-commerce site was overwhelming but after reading documentation, it’s been easier than I thought. Eventually, I will shut down the Etsy shop and sale exclusively here and in retail spaces. I’m so excited to have a space here for my shop.

New Homepage

With the addition of the shop, I knew I had to put the blog on its separate page. I’d done this once before years ago and had no qualms about it. Five years ago, I lost sleep over it! I added a featured shop item highlight, as well as the latest blog post, and an amazing new footer. I’ve always had such trouble designing footers but this footer fits perfectly and allows for extra navigation. I did opt to move the blog from the top menu and we’ll see how I feel about that decision in a few weeks.

Updated Pages

Every page has been updated. There are some new pages in relation to the shop space. As time goes on, I’ll have more time to fix the content as I want to. No worries! I know there is a lot of work to be done in this space today and in the future. David did an amazing job and developing everything in my vision. We’ll be collaborating more on projects together and as I get back into part-ime front-end development, I’ll be learning a lot from him.

I’m also very excited to announce that the beginning of Studio 404 Paper’s 2015 Holiday Collection is available today. While it’s currently a few cards, I’m really excited about the direction of this year’s collection. I’ll be adding much more next week but this collection will be available on the site to shop exclusively. To kick things off, you can save 15% off the holiday collection with the coupon code ALLTHEPLAID. Happy shopping and long live Studio 404!

The post New Look & Studio 404 Holiday appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

As I’m winding down for the last two days of the 12 Days of Christmas, I thought it’d be great timing to share some of the best posts of the year. I know a lot of you find this blog through social media and other blogs so you may not have the opportunity to look through the past twelve months of content. No worries! This post is for you. 🙂

Let’s Talk Business: Prioritization

Guest Post: How to Make A Moodboard

The Twenty-Something Entrepreneur

On Giving Blogging Advice (Part 1)

Guest Post: 3 SEO Mistakes You’re Making

Summer Type Picks

Entrepreneurship & Friendships

Blogging 101: Engage More

Ask A Freelancer: Booking Clients

Let’s Talk Business: Scheduling & Prioritization

Do you have any favorite blog posts of your own? Share them below!

The post 12DOC: Best of Studio 404 2014 appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

The post 2014 Survey Results Infographic appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

Hey friends! It’s time for the inaugural Studio 404 survey! I really would love to get to know more about each and everyone of you. I also want to know what you think about the blog and the shop and where it’s going. So if you’d like to, you can fill out the survey here.

I also caved and launched the official Studio 404 Facebook page. I’m not saying things are getting too official but we can make it Facebook official? So be sure to like the page for fun updates and silly pictures related to the blog and shop!

What’s new with you guys?

The post 2014 Blog Survey appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

Thanks for sticking with me through a fantastic blogging break. It was great to have time to reflect on what I’ve been doing and what I plan to do in the future. What’s so fun about reflecting on things if you can’t share them here? This post is my individual thoughts on what I’ve done right and wrong this year. My thoughts on design blogging on a whole as a niche. My thoughts on blog branding and what I plan to change as this year’s calendar runs of days. Don’t fault me for my honesty here and don’t expect much outside of a interesting wall of text.

On Blogging So Frequently

Throughout this year, I’ve dedicated myself to attempt to blog five times a week, every week. Whether or not it’s been beneficial, I’m unsure. The original reasoning was that I was curating so much content that it was impossible to share it all throughout a few days a week. As my goals worked towards sharing my original content, which I’m not sure I’ve done enough of, I’ve been on a steady pace of churning out as much as possible on the same frequency. I’m not sure if it’s possible to continue to maintain a blogging schedule of five times a week, although I’ve already planned for it. Perhaps in 2014, I’ll be posting less but creating more conversations.

Lifestyless Blogging

Lifestyle blogging has become a gigantic niche of its own which many of you identify yourselves under.  While it’s fantastic to be able to connect with several lifestyle bloggers, it’s very important for me to focus on the original intent of my blog. There’s a very fluid definition of design blogging which commonly intersects with lifestyle blogging. It’s fantastic to not have a box to be put in and I think bloggers should always feel free to post whatever they want. However, in the upcoming year, I definitely want to bring the focus back to my career as a designer and less of my career as a blogger. I’ll probably never share what I wore, what I ate yesterday, or a lot of details regarding my life. I occasionally like to share pictures I’ve taken. However, I’ll be very reserved on engaging in some of the trends that are outside of what this blog’s purpose is. That definitely won’t stop me from gushing over you sharing your food, your outfits, latest purchases, and recommendations because I want to read them all! If you do care about the more mindless things I do in my day to day life, I’m trying to post more often on Instagram and I’m usually blabbering on Twitter.

Communication

I’m always in awe whenever you guys start discussions or say amazing things in the comments. I try to do my best at answering your questions via whichever medium and commenting on your blogs. I hope to continue to be active in the same rate I’ve been doing this. I also would like to say that the launch and utilization of my newsletter has not been its best. Due to this not being the only newsletter I manage, I can say I’ve neglected it and plan to change that in the upcoming year. I definitely don’t want to spam your inbox (as it happens to me) and I will never sign one of you up without permission. However, if you’re intrigued on future thoughts, somewhat like these, feel free to subscribe.

Re-branding

Moving my blog was the biggest goal of mine this year and I’m happy I’ve done it. In the process I’ve learned some very important lessons, like just ask. I’ve almost always gotten a positive response when reaching out to a fellow designer or blogger for an idea or input regarding a new post. I’ve also learned that I could do without the color red in my life for a while. I’ve learned what works in terms of this blog’s design and what to change in the upcoming update. It’s been a fantastic experience overall and I reassure any blogger who wants to re-brand to go for it.

Withdrawing Limitations

To be honest, this year was really about re-building an audience. I needed to gauge out the type of reader this blog would attract. I regret spending so much time worried about this fact. I have been very limited on the design-related content I originally planned for Studio 404. I regret not plunging forward on some of the tutorials and articles I wanted to share here. I also regret limiting myself in terms of opening up this shop. I really had nothing to lose but the thought of becoming something I didn’t want to become really hindered the process. You wouldn’t believe the amount of paper I’ve accumulated in the past year. It’s time to stop limiting myself to fit within what I’ve defined myself to be. As a twenty-something, I’m still growing and learning my creative style. I’ll never be creatively fulfilled, so I’m not sure why I’m not sharing more of my design journey with you. What’s design without sharing to have open communication? 

Connections

I’m so so happy to have made so many great blogging connections this year. I’ve had some great conversations with fantastic ladies over coffee. I’m planning to travel more next year and if I’m nearby, let’s meet up! You really have no idea how much of a difference it makes to talk out your blog life with another blogger until you’ve done it. These conversations have helped me mold my plans for my business and my blog. I’m happy to connect with each of you!

I Won’t Say Goals But…

I know everyone is tired of reading about everyone’s goals and thoughts for 2014. I know you’re over this post but bloggers share their goals to be held accountable. I don’t really think of what I need to do as goals or resolutions. They are just simply things I need to do or have begun to do. I will be posting more, quality original content. I can’t just post for the sake of posting. I will continue to share inspiring artists and their stories because it helps mold me and inspire me. We’re launching a really awesome project in the next few days and that’s exciting. I’m also holding myself accountable to the things I often say I will do. I want to talk about projects that didn’t work out. I want to share what I’ve learned over the years about being burned. I also want to reassure and validate my life in my career. While I do many things, foremost, I am a designer and I intend to continue to do just that—design with intention.

Photos: (Unsplash) & (David Yarde)

The post Editor’s Letter: Reflecting on 2013 appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

It’s finally done! After almost seven years and three months of chatting, I finally have updated my brand! If you’re reading this from Bloglovin or your RSS Feed Reader, please feel free to take a peek. Studio 404 is the new home of Static-Romance. Who knew moving a over five years of blog posts over could be so difficult? I’m extremely thankful for my poor husband who was up with me until 3 this morning checking making last minute changes, troubleshooting the MySQL database, and moving over all of my images. Lots of deprived sleep time later, here we are. It’s safe to say we won’t be moving for a while!

He’s also responsible for all of the development work which wasn’t easy. I’ve been designing less for web and more for print in the past years and I’ve never designed for responsive. (I can’t say that I did this time either but he figured it out!) The design you’re looking at looked completely different until around 8:00 p.m. last night when I realized what I was trying to do wouldn’t work. As a designer, it’s hard to let go of things you’re comfortable with. The last time I designed a custom theme for my blog was well over two years ago. Adjusting to the magical powers of CSS3, which was barely around the last time I touched new code, wasn’t easy. It was important to me to get the type right which was the central focus of the design.

Everything else is pretty simple. The biggest change was adding a portfolio which I’ve never had in my entire blog career. It’s not up yet, so while it’s exciting, I have some work to put into figuring out what goes in and what stays. I started sorting it all last night but I’m just not sure. It doesn’t help that we’re in the process of one of the biggest projects of our lives with the shortest deadline. I have a feeling there are a lot of sleepless nights in my future. You will also see a link to my new Etsy shop. I’m still in the process of product line strategy but I’m excited about what’s in development. I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Outside of all of my exhausted ramblings, I’m very excited. I’m excited about what’s to come versus what has been. I want to spend more time focusing on delivering great content. I attended a Haute Blog webinar last month on increasing your traffic and pitching your blog. The one thing that stood out from Allie Lehman’s talk was delivering great content. While I have been focused on sharing inspiration for such a long time, I realized that the quality of my posts and content suffered greatly. My goal here at Studio 404 is the be able to showcase creatives from all over the globe while offering content that is worthwhile. I no longer want to waste your time. I want to provide something that is worth your time.

It is the first of the month which means I’m overdue for a wallpaper post! I’m excited about this month’s wallpaper because I’ve had a chance to play around with my lettering.  It’s a very small token of gratitude to you guys for sticking with me through this crazy move and I hope you enjoy all of the things to come!

Download:  2560×1440 | 1920×1200 | 1680×1050 | 1440×900 | 1280×800 | iPad | iPhone

The post Welcome to Studio 404 appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

With over 400 posts under my belt, it’s a little hard to reference back to every single thing I’ve blogged about. A lot of images have been broken over the years which means a lot of posts are sadly wasted. I’ve decided in honor of moving over to Studio 404 to post a few best-of roundups to get all of you need readers caught up on some of the inspiring things that have happened. I thought I could get through the entire site in one post but these are just posts up until the beginning of 2011. Yikes! I’ll be splitting this up in parts and posting throughout the last few weeks at this domain. Some of these really gave me nostalgia for the old ways of design but I love where design trends are headed. So conflicting! Enjoy.

Allied Arts Website of 12 Spring Inspired Websites

Deuce Creative Business Cards of 13 Spring Inspired Business Cards

 A by Velimir Pavic of 45 Inspiring Design & Typography Works

Happy Hours T-Shirt Design of 32 Awesome T-Shirt Designs

Donnie Darko Illustration by Powl Goudsmit of 15 Fresh & Inspiring Illustrations

Type Veteran Wallpaper by Radu Ceucă of 45 Inspiring Typography Wallpapers

Art in My Coffee Site of Web Design Friday

Brittany Murphy – Girl, Interrupted Quote

Typeface Lust: Vitesse

In The Mood For…Ampersands

The post Best of Static-Romance: Part 1 appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.

The rules are simple, just leave a comment below sharing what inspires you about art! The contest ends Friday and the winner will be announced on Saturday. I hope you’re all excited to enter! Many thanks to Heatherlee of Lady Poppins for making this happen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Giveaway: Lady Poppins Floral Print appeared first on Studio 404 Paper.