Koren Motekaitis hosts a popular radio show in Davis, CA called “How She Really Does It”.  We interviewed with her back in December 2008 about our book, Blogging with Moxie.  Around the same time, Koren inquired about having her site, which was at the time managed using iWeb, redesigned and moved into a blogging platform.  For a podcaster, Wordpress was the obvious choice. The popular Podpress plugin would allow Koren to send her feeds to iTunes easily, add and manage podcasts easily and incorporate designed-to-match embedded players for on-site streaming.

Koren wanted a look reminiscent of one of her favorite stationery designers, Erin Condren. Using Koren’s preferences for lots of color and dots (a carryover from her previous brand), we came up with a non-traditional website that gives the site visitor several areas to explore. First we chose a palette that was fun and hip but with a certain maturity. Then we then began work on her new logo. After several rounds, we came up with a multi-colored, stacked logo that makes the best use the space for her lengthy show name.  Then it was on to the site design.

Our intial pass was a full-bleed, full-color version of the site, but Koren preferred pops of color on a white background. She wanted the logo on a white background, as well, so our task was to create a banner that used color, but still kept the multi-colored logo on white. Since we used ‘tabs’ as a design element throughout the site, we solved this by echoing this element in the banner.

The size and complexity of the site, as it runs both a blog and ‘static’ content, as well as a fully-function podcast section, required that we incprporate Wordpress MU, along with multiple plugins and custom widgets to achieve the functionality desired.  There was a lot of custom programming for this site and technically, it was a project that challenged our skillset and allowed us to grow. We also migrated over 120 past shows by hand from iWeb, recaptured and relinked all of her images and Amazon links to ensure that everything was compliant with Wordpress.

Once the development of the project was finished and the site launched, Koren requested our assistance with some print design, primarily some folded notecards with matching envelopes and double-sided, rounded corner business cards to match her new look.

Listen to How She Really Does It with Koren Motekaitis — where inspiration and possibility meet!