Calhoun-Bouchey Artistry & Frames

Turning a business into its first digital presence

The client required a professionally styled website that would showcase what goods and services they offered. Without a website or structure present, everything related to the presentation of the client's brand had to be developed from scratch.

The aim was to develop something that would look professional and trustworthy while being easy to maintain for the client moving forward.

Visitors and client requirements

• Potential customers had to have an understanding of the services provided by the client, and a clear way to get in touch.
• The client needed a website they could update and manage on their own without needing ongoing developer support.

Starting from a blank slate: the logo first

This project didn't start with wireframes, it started in Procreate. The client had no existing logo, so before I designed a single screen, I sketched out logo concepts digitally, exploring a framed botanical mark that tied back to the "artistry and frames" of the business name.

First pass — a single framed branch

Refining the frame — ornate arch and scrollwork

From there I developed the concept into two polished directions and brought both to the client to compare side by side.

Direction A — not chosen

Direction B — chosen

The favicon got its own exploration rather than just shrinking the full icon down. I sketched a "CB" monogram (for Calhoun-Bouchey) in Procreate, woven through with the same branch motif, then carried it into color for the final mark used across browser tabs and social profiles.

Monogram sketch

Final favicon

The chosen icon then became the centerpiece of the full logo lockup, paired with a serif wordmark for the primary business name and a lighter, spaced-out line for the secondary tagline.

• Typography — A serif wordmark for warmth and craft, paired with a lighter, spaced-out sans for the secondary line so the two don't compete.
• Visual mood — Warm and earthy tones throughout, reflecting the handcrafted nature of the client's products and work.
• Consistency — The same botanical mark carries from the full logo, to the favicon, to accents across the site, so nothing feels like it was designed separately.

Building a layout from borrowed inspiration

With the brand identity settled, the client sent over a handful of other artists' portfolio sites she liked as references. Rather than copy any single one, I picked out the specific elements that were actually working, a large hero photograph and a sticky navigation bar that stayed put while scrolling, and combined those with layout and structural decisions of my own to build something cohesive rather than a patchwork of borrowed parts.

A site the client can actually use and maintain

The site launched and is live at lcbartistry.com, built on Astro with a custom Sanity CMS dashboard so the client can update it herself going forward without needing ongoing developer support. Every field in the dashboard is clearly labeled so she can make edits easily, and changes get pushed live through GitHub.

Any visitor can see the client's services, learn about what's offered, and reach out directly, all from a brand and a site that didn't exist before this project. The mobile experience was treated as a first-class version of the site, not an afterthought, since most visitors are likely to visit it via their mobile device.

Visit the live site ↗

What this project reinforced

This project showed how vital it is to have clear structures while working on products for people who do not have a digital identity yet. Even small choices regarding navigation and hierarchy affect the usability of the app, particularly for mobile devices.

Starting from a hand-sketched logo in Procreate instead of a template also reinforced how much groundwork happens before a screen ever gets designed. Taking a client all the way from "no online presence at all" to a live, self-manageable site was a different kind of project than redesigning an existing product, and it's the one I'm proudest of seeing through to an actual launch.