Cynthia Oswald

Surface Design, Fine Art + Branding for Creatives

Branding + Web Design

Featured on CanvasRebel: A Creative Journey Unveiled

Featured on CanvasRebel: A Creative Journey Unveiled

I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by CanvasRebel, a platform that showcases the stories and insights of creatives from various fields. In this article, I had the chance to open up about my unique creative journey and the transformative experiences that shaped me as an artist, designer, and creative entrepreneur.

The Interview:

In the interview, I candidly shared the story of a pivotal moment in my career. I recounted the moment when I learned that my salary would be cut by 10% due to the economy. It was a turning point that made me realize I needed to take control of my own destiny and create the life I desired.

The Journey of Self-Discovery:

Driven by determination, I embarked on a journey of self-discovery and relentless pursuit of knowledge. Through devouring books, seeking inspiration from others who achieved success against all odds, and turning inward for solace through prayer and reflection, I tapped into the depths of my soul to connect with my true passions and aspirations.

Building a Thriving Creative Business:

As opportunities started to present themselves, I collaborated with clients to bring their visions to life through branding, print, and web design. Each successful project fueled my belief that I could turn my passion into a sustainable career. Reflecting on my journey, I expressed gratitude for the misfortune that initially brought me to my knees, as it became a wake-up call that forever changed the course of my career and life.

The Transformative Program:

In the article, I also shared an exciting announcement: In September 2023, I will be launching a transformative program specifically designed to equip aspiring artists and designers with the knowledge and strategies necessary to transform their passion into a profitable business. This program will be a platform for me to share everything I have learned over the years, offering guidance and mentorship to those who dare to dream big.

Conclusion:

Being featured on CanvasRebel and having the opportunity to share my creative journey has been an honor. It’s a chance to inspire and empower fellow creatives who may find themselves at a similar crossroads. Through my experiences and insights, I hope to remind others that they are not alone in their creative journeys and that they have the power to create the life they truly desire.

I invite you to read the full article on CanvasRebel, where I delve deeper into my creative path, the challenges I faced, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. Let’s continue to support and uplift each other as we navigate the beautiful world of creativity.

Choosing the Best Website Platform for You

Which website platform is right for you?

Almost daily I’m running into the question from small business owners—which website platform is right for me? There isn’t one right answer. The answer depends on how large your business is, what type of business you are running, and what you plan to do with your site and offers over time. I personally work in WordPress and Shopify. Do I recommend WordPress or Shopify to everyone? Absolutely not. I wholeheartedly believe in guiding people to the best platform for them. That means that I have questions for them. I look for the best answer based on their unique needs. All that said, let’s dive into the different platforms I’m most familiar with—who they are for and what are some of the positives for each. And just because you might not see a platform on this list doesn’t mean it’s not a good fit. Just be sure to understand who the platform is best serving, what the limitations might be based on your unique needs, and what the investment will be from (considering design, development, and hosting) in order to assess whether a website platform is right for you and your business. 

WordPress

Who is WordPress for?

WordPress is an excellent option for anyone who is blogging long-form content to grow their audience. It works well for service providers who aren’t selling products on their site. It’s an excellent option for anyone looking to build a static website to promote their business. It can also work as an educational platform by integrating a plugin. If you have a multi-faceted business with multiple streams and offers, WordPress may be a solution for you.

The Positives:

  • As an open-source platform, anyone can contribute to the platform making it flexible and compatible with most integrations.
  • There is always a plugin solution for almost anything you can imagine with WordPress.
  • The platform started out heavy in the blogging arena and therefore is one of the best blogging solutions out there.
  • It’s also a desirable option if you are looking to optimize your content for organic searches—SEO.
  • It can be fully customized by your designer/developer to match your brand exactly as you wish.
  • With the latest page builder interface—Gutenberg—it is something you can maintain on your own vs. hiring a web designer/developer to continue editing over time.
ShowIt

Who is ShowIt for?

ShowIt is also an excellent solution for bloggers, service providers, and anyone looking for mostly static websites. They have an extremely attractive theme library, making it a desirable option for someone how wants a beautiful blogging site without a ton of work. ShowIt is gaining more traction online these days due to influencers who have marketed the platform. It actually utilizes the WordPress platform—meaning that it’s building off of WordPress. That said, depending on your specific needs and your budget you might consider using WordPress instead.

The Positives:

  • Showit offers a drag-and-drop website builder that makes it easy to create a professional-looking website without any coding skills.
  • It has a wide range of customizable templates and design options to choose from, making it easy to create a unique and attractive website.
  • Showit offers seamless integration with WordPress, making it a good option for bloggers who want to combine the flexibility of WordPress with the ease of use of Showit.
  • It offers excellent customer support and resources, including a helpful community forum and chat support.
Shopify

Who is Shopify for?

Shopify is for small to medium-sized businesses that want to create an online store to sell products or services (e-commerce).

The Positives:

  • Shopify is a user-friendly platform that allows you to set up an online store quickly and easily.
  • The platform offers a range of templates and customization options, which makes it easy to create a professional-looking website.
  • Shopify provides a range of features, including payment processing, inventory management, and shipping integration.
  • The platform has a large app store that allows you to add extra functionality to your store.
Squarespace

Who is Squarespace for?

Squarespace is for small businesses, freelancers, and individuals who want to create a professional-looking website without the need for coding or technical skills.

The Positives:

  • Squarespace provides a range of beautiful templates that are easy to customize, making it easy to create a professional-looking website.
  • The platform offers a range of features, including e-commerce functionality, blogging, and social media integration.
  • Squarespace provides good support and resources to help users create and manage their websites.
  • The platform is mobile-responsive, which means that your website will look good on all devices.
Kajabi

Who is Kajabi for?

Kajabi is designed specifically for entrepreneurs, coaches, and online course creators who want to create and sell digital products and courses.

The Positives:

  • Kajabi offers an all-in-one platform that includes website hosting, email marketing, landing pages, and sales funnel tools, making it easy to manage all aspects of your online business in one place.
  • It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and customize your website, even if you don’t have any coding experience.
  • Kajabi offers advanced marketing and analytics tools, including the ability to track customer behavior and create targeted marketing campaigns.
  • It has excellent customer support, including live chat and email support.
Thinkific

Who is Thinkific for?

Thinkific is designed specifically for online course creators who want to create and sell digital courses.

The Positives:

  • Thinkific offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and customize your online course, even if you don’t have any coding experience.
  • It has a wide range of customizable templates and design options to choose from, making it easy to create a unique and attractive online course.
  • Thinkific offers advanced marketing and analytics tools, including the ability to track customer behavior and create targeted marketing campaigns.
  • It has excellent customer support, including live chat and email support.
Circle

Who is Circle for?

Circle is an online community platform that can be used by businesses, creators, and organizations to build a community around their brand. It’s an excellent option for those who want to create a private community or membership site where members can interact with each other and access exclusive content.

The Positives:

  • Circle provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to create a community and membership site quickly and easily.
  • You can customize the design of your community to match your brand and create a personalized experience for your members.
  • Circle integrates with various payment gateways, making it easy to charge for membership or access to exclusive content.
  • You can create multiple membership levels, each with its own pricing, content, and access.
  • You can also create automated email sequences to engage with your members and keep them up to date on new content or community events.
Mighty Networks

Who is Mighty Networks for?

Mighty Networks is for creators, entrepreneurs, and organizations who want to build their own community or membership site to connect with like-minded people, share content, and sell products or services.

The Positives:

  • Mighty Networks provides a simple and easy-to-use platform for building online communities and membership sites.
  • It offers features like discussion forums, event management, and course creation tools, which are useful for creators and entrepreneurs.
  • Mighty Networks allows you to monetize your community by selling courses, digital products, and subscriptions.
  • The platform provides a white-label option, which allows you to customize the look and feel of your community to match your brand.

In closing, choosing the right website platform is an important decision for any small business owner. The best platform depends on the size of the business, the type of business, and the website’s intended purpose. When considering which platform to choose, it is important to consider the investment, including design, development, and hosting costs. While each platform has its positives and negatives, it is essential to assess which platform best serves a business’s unique needs.

Please note: website platforms are changing and growing everyday. The information above may change overtime. This is a short and inconclusive list to help guide you and point you in the right direction. Thorough research is needed on your part in order to determine the best platform for you.

Curate Your Brand In Really Meaningful Ways

Curating your brand in meaningful ways by using the 80/20 rule

In today’s world, it is easy to get caught up in trying to do all the things, do them perfectly, or make them more complex than they need to be. What is hard to do, and something I have been really intentional about focusing on is to do less.  Something I have found to be really beneficial for me to truly curate my brand in meaningful ways is by taking the time to reflect and figure out how to pare down my efforts and focus on the things that make the most impact. 

I learned this strategy from one of my favorite books: Do Less by Kate Northrup. In this book, she explores the Pareto Principle — otherwise known as the 80/20 rule. In the exercise, she asks you to list out all of your biggest wins. Then next to it, she has you list out all of your biggest efforts — for business this could be marketing efforts, sales efforts, or any way you have put yourself out there to grow your business and move the needle forward. Once you have the lists side-by-side, draw a line from your biggest win to the effort that you put forth in order to make that win a possibility. By the end of the exercise, you should be able to see that out of all of your efforts, 20% of your efforts brought 80% of your results. 

This exercise should help you see what is working best for you and what you can potentially eliminate or pare down on to give you some more time back in your business. How does this work with curating your brand? Instead of spending time doing all the things, spend time doing the things that are going to bring you the biggest impact with the time you have. 

My top two were writing and relationship-building through in-person events.

In my business, this looks like writing blog posts, and most recently, being intentional about showing up on video as a form of a blog — vlogging. When I do a video, it is quick to transcribe and a lot faster to create blog content if I can get good at it.

In person events are something I absolutely love! It doesn’t feel like it requires as much effort to build key relationships when at in-person events. What stinks is I figured this out right at the beginning of the pandemic, so I had to start brainstorming how I could still authentically show up to build relationships without being in the same room as someone — the solution for me was the use of video.

What efforts are your biggest business wins connected to? As you’re gearing up to do impactful work with curating your brand you want to be thinking about how you can do it with less so you aren’t spending more time. Take a minute to do the exercise Kate Northrup suggests — jot down your biggest wins, line them up with the effort that you put forth in order to get that win & see where you should put most of your effort going forward. 

3 Simple Steps to Bring Awareness to Your Preferences & Brand Cohesion

Bring awareness to your preferences and establish brand cohesion

Step 1: Define what is holding you back

Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve toiled over and worked on something all day long and it still just doesn’t feel right or as good as it could be? Then you go to sleep, and wake up the next day with this sudden clarity and you just know exactly how to move forward or what to tweak to complete that task or project? This happens to me quite often. Oftentimes, it takes a tiny little shift in perspective, taking a step back or removing something — giving yourself the space to reflect on what is working and what is not that helps you move forward. 

So take a few moments to define what’s holding you back within your brand materials. What brand materials am I referring to? These would be your visuals, your voice, and your communication platforms. Think about what is not feeling right? What is disjointed? Define it so that you can take it off the table and move forward without it for the time being.

Step 2: Collect the brand assets you like

It’s really important to acknowledge what’s currently working and collect it. Put it all together in one spot —create a brand assets folder on your computer to house these items. Add any colors and/or images that you like or that are working well across your branding platforms and any copy that is really speaking to you or your audience. Keeping it altogether makes it easier to see and visualize how it all can work together for your brand.

Step 3: List what is currently working

Write down what about your branding is working? Why is it working? What is it that isn’t working and why you think that is? This is an exercise in awareness. Knowing this things is going to help you in every decision that you make going forward relating to your brand and it’s going to help you be more cohesive automatically. 

I’ve written about this topic in a prior blog article, but I wanted to dig in a little bit deeper in this latest video. If you want to take a look at the prior post, click here.

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Consistent Spacing on Your Website & Why It’s Important

Website success tips

Key areas to have consistent spacing on your website

Set up rules for spacing throughout your site, consider creating rules for the following:

  1. Space around images
  2. Space below headers
  3. Space between paragraphs
  4. Space within page sections

For the final tip of the top 10 tips to make your website a success I’m sharing about creating consistent spacing. It’s really a pretty simple concept, but it’s something that’s easy to overlook. When you’re setting up your standards for your fonts, I recommend creating some rules around the spacing as well. 

You want to consider the space around your images and make sure that that spacing is always consistent. For example, you might have a few different ways that your images are showing up (2-column, full-width, etc.). Create rules for each instance so you can establish consistency throughout the site.

Also consider space below and above your headings, making sure that it’s always the same depending on the heading that you’re using, and then also have consistent spacing between paragraphs and in between the different sections within your page. I have previously talked about page breaks, or the page fold, making sure that the space in that page section is consistent throughout so your white spaces throughout is looking cohesive. The whole purpose of this is to create brand cohesion and create some rules around the spacing in your brand so that it feels put together it elevates the way it comes across. 

Want to see the full list of website success tips? Download my FREE Website Checklist!

Adding CTAs to Your Website

website success tips

Best placement for calls to action on your website

Top 3 Things to Consider When Adding CTAs to Your Website

  1. What’s the number 1 goal of your website? Be sure to create CTAs (calls to action) throughout pointing users to that goal/next steps
  2. Include one above the page fold on each page, and throughout the content, as well as the bottom of every page
  3. Make it easy for your user to know what their next action should be

Today’s tip is all about creating calls to action throughout your website and making sure that you share it in the most important locations on your site. You are going to include it in your menu, which essentially are different calls to action, but you also want to have a button or some specific highlighted call to action below the intro copy so that people know exactly where they should be going next after they read that information. Always be thinking about what the number one goal of the page is and then make sure that your call to action relates specifically to that goal and points the user to the next logical location. 

Examples of CTA’s are: 

  • make a purchase
  • sign up for your email newsletter
  • learn more about a service
  • contact
  • schedule a call

You want to relate back to what’s the number one goal for that page and the content and really, your website overall. You would think that creating calls to action would be very natural, but a lot of times we overlook it and just think that people will find what they need to do by looking through the menu. As the user is scrolling through content, they may decide to jump off the page and take action on what you are sharing so include CTAs throughout the copy/pages in natural locations. Sometimes it looks like having four different links that all lead to the exact same location from one page. Website visitors are looking for next steps, so making it really obvious is going to be helpful for them and it’s going to make the user experience better. 

I have one more tip in this series all about consistent spacing and then I’ll be moving on to the next series. If you want to see a full list of all my top website tips, download my FREE Website Checklist!