One of my favorite people in the whole entire internet asked me to design his Twitter background, and also needed tweaks made to his existing Thesis design. (As if I would tell him no, haha.)
Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing has a very simple yet meaningful design aesthetic, and it is translated very well into all the areas of his online life. His website sports a lovely and understated design based on Thesis, and his planners (which I love and use near-religiously) are a perfect example of something being simple, yet able to handle complication without being confusing.
(In case you can’t tell from my description, Charlie is one of those people who is very picky about what he wants, because he KNOWS what he wants – but is very zen about the process of having someone else create it for him. For me, this is the perfect kind of client to have.)
Charlie Gilkey’s Twitter background
Twitter background for @charliegilkey
Charlie uses the colors green, brown and orange to signify his personal blend of growth, change, and grounding. It’s all very organic, and it was a joy to work with vibrant colors like that. (I’m a color junkie!)
Tweaks to his existing Thesis theme
The next thing I did for Charlie was create a customized post gutter (similar to Copyblogger’s post gutter and Illuminated Mind’s post gutter), that includes related posts, bookmark and feed links, and the TweetMeme button.
post gutter @ ProductiveFlourishing.com
As you can see, it is understated, yet full of great, relevant information. This way, any of Charlie’s readers can share or save the post link, subscribe to his blog feed if they haven’t already, or keep scrolling and leave a comment. A post gutter like this invites more interactivity, without jumping into the reader’s face with lots of loud colors, spinning graphics, and sparkly purple unicorns (okay, that last one was just silly).
Oh, and that post in the screenshot? It’s the one he posted on Martin Luther King Jr. day this year, called The Change-Maker’s Creed. I recommend you give it a read, because it’s completely awesome and bears reflection.
I’ll bet you need some design work too.
If you need a Twitter background design, WordPress work, or Thesis work – you can leave a comment here and I’ll reply. I’d love to have your business. :)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great work for a terrific client!
I had the pleasure of designing Charlie’s logo, and blogged about the process of doing so here:
http://www.hitthosekeys.com/wildkeys/2009/02/creating_company_wordmark/
You did a wonderful job communicating Charlie’s business to the world – I’m totally in love with your logo work. :) Thanks so much for your comment and the link!
Thanks for the help and links, Rachael.
And I’m glad Lisa showed up to talk about our collaboration, too.
I’m blessed to have such talented designers around me who are willing to put up with me and turn the coarse stone of my ideas into polished diamonds.
Wow Charlie – you’re getting all poetical in the comments! :) Like I said, you’re a great client to have. I’m really looking forward to the other stuff we have planned to work on.
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