Category: The Company

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Subalpine’s Designs @Society6

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I did it! It’s been percolating for many years in my mind, about a decade. I finally decided on a platform to license our designs and jumped in. I’ve loaded in a half dozen photographs and watercolors and curated the best products according to the designs. I’ve got a million more ideas, and I already enjoy finding and being inspired by all the other talented artists.

There’s still time to shop for the holidays and with Society6’s Holiday Flash Deals, you can save up to 40% off everything.

Check out our shop. Expect more posts as new designs are released or follow @SubalpineDesign on Society6 to stay up to date.

Next post, I’ll catch you up on all the new textile projects and behind the scenes of my latest watercolor, The View from Our Place.

  • The View from Our Place
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Amazon Services

In the last update about Subalpine Design’s projects, I briefly touched on the Amazon content that has become a large part or our current workload. Here we’ll expand on that with some direct links to examples.

Photo Editing

Using photographs from Lukas Schulz, Subalpine Design added a banner and tips on how to apply and use essential oils.

It’s difficult to make a blanket statement about the photographs used for Red Silk Essentials (RSE). We use a wide range from taking photographs ourselves, working with talented photographers, and using royalty free images from unsplash and pixabay to purchasing images.

Enhanced Product Description

Once a brand has been registered and approved with Amazon, the brand can start generating A+ content, basically space to tell their brand story. This was also recently called Enhanced Brand Content (EBC)s. Working with the product owners, we’ve designed templates for Red Silk Essentials, VitaJuwel and their new line inu! Occasionally I write or edit copy, mostly, I choose the modules to use and format photos and text.

View RSE’s peppermint roll-on product page on Amazon.

The comparison module is handy for directed cross-product references.

VitaJuwel

RSE is an Authorized Distributor of VitaJuwel (VJ) products, so Subalpine Design has created A+ Content for some of their products as well.

Stores

Subalpine Design has also been designing stores on Amazon.

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Looking Back, 2019 in Review

It’s easy to get right back into the daily routine and not take the time to look back and reflect on the work that was done in the last year. Before the first month of 2020 flies by, let’s take a little peek at Subalpine Design’s projects from last year and where we spent our time.

Red Silk Essentials
For the fourth straight year in a row Red Silk Essentials, by far, kept us the busiest with a wide range of active projects that we manage for the brand from composing e-newsletters on mailchimp to updating Amazon content and a lot of the in between like photographing and packaging design. In 2019, Red Silk updated its essential oil product line to be exclusively organic and expanded its offering of pre-diluted roll-ons, diffusers and carrying case options. The gemstone water catalog grew with more products as well. This meant both the website and the Amazon store kept up a steady demand for new imagery.

Websites
 In the last update about the business, it felt as if I’d gotten off track by focusing on website design. While Subalpine does continue to maintain and update a handful of websites for clients, no longer do I try to keep on top of all of the trends. Usually working within a theme, I have very little to do with css anymore. There have been no new web creations, only maintenance: product or blog posts, backups/updates, plug-in configuration, or even server migrations. Art & Framing Center of Pagosa Springs and the Weminuche Audubon Society were some of the websites supported in 2019. Personally, our website(s) moved into the cloud with AWS, and we added an SSL certificate.

Seasonal Educator
Since 2017, I’ve also volunteered with Audubon Rockies’ Four Mile Ranch Environmental Education Program and posted briefly about it. This fall they asked me to become a part of the seasonal staff; so from about August to October, I put in 100 hours as a Seasonal Educator, primarily visiting the second grade classrooms to prepare the students for their field trips where they learned about both terrestrial insects and aquatic macro-invertebrates. When I wasn’t leading with our talented team of volunteers, I was able to guide visits from Kinders and 4th Graders. To some degree, my skills as a designer were put to use, creating a poster for volunteer recruitment, photographing ranch visits, and re-formatting the Volunteer Training Manual, which is still a work in progress.

Wilderness First Aid Badge from NOLS Wilderness Medicine

NOLS Wilderness First Aid
Moving into the staff position with Audubon required at least a certification in basic First Aid and CPR. It just so happened that a NOLS Wilderness First Aid/CPR class was offered in August in Pagosa! I’ve wanted to take this or the Wilderness First Responder course for over 20 years—since I was active on a Search & Rescue team back in 1998. You bet I took this class and certified. The goal now is to keep the certification up to date, especially if I continue to work with the Four Mile Program. Personally, it was good to have the refresher as most of our vacation and exploring time is spent in remote areas, far from medical support.

What’s Ahead in 2020?
It seems Amazon content will continue to be a focus. There are some new updates set to publish in a few days that I plan to write about in a separate post. I’m sure there will be websites that need some help.

In 2019, I started sharing illustrations on this website, and this year I introduced you to Lou. There’s currently a new Lou sketch in the works with a long list of more ideas and inspiration streaming from her. A goal last year was to draw more regularly, preferably daily. In some ways this is a personal goal, but it blurs into the business realm as soon as you start exploring Subalpine’s portfolio. With a lot of the businesses I’ve worked with, we’ve created logos by either drawing on the computer, a tablet or even on real paper. So I figure it’s a good skill to practice. With the new year, I found a new approach and have successfully drawn at least 14 out of 16 days, planning to post more about that soon. Also there are sketches in the works that will be the first forays into serious watercolor. I’ve invested in a nice, small kit. Now I need to create some paintings and play with technique.

And who knows? There’s a whole year ahead, plenty of possibility.

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Celebrating 15 Years of Subalpine Design

Happy Birthday to us… it’s hard to believe that Subalpine Design is 15 years old this year!

GROWING
It has been an incredible and dynamic journey that continues to amaze me in its evolution. When I began this business in partnership with my husband, I was working only in print design, full time for a fairly large, international company. The president of the company asked the graphics dept who wanted a side-job? I raised my hand and began to learn what it means to be self-employed and maintain an LLC.

MEASURING
Over the years, the work has ebbed and flowed depending on the projects and many other factors including networking, the economic climate, skill sets, and availability. Because I like to actually work with people in person, opportunities often opened by Subalpine Design became priorities to work for local retailers, businesses and non-profits or volunteering while Subalpine sat more idle. My husband’s participation has changed from year to year as well, but it is his full time employment that has afforded us the opportunity to experiment with Subalpine Design.

FORKS IN THE TRAIL
We thought I needed to branch more into web design in 2007 when a fellow designer introduced me to WordPress and everyone who wanted a logo was looking for a website, too. That demand hasn’t changed much. It was a challenge to develop custom WordPress theme designs and broaden our clientele outside of the local community. It wasn’t until 2016 when I started to realize how far off track I’d gone. I haven’t taken on a new web project since.

SURVEY & REORIENTATE
The landscape of web management was always beyond my capacity or desire to maintain, and mobile development has taken the lead. In the world of tech, you so quickly lose it if you don’t use it and continue to upgrade it. Defining my recent role on a software team, reaffirmed  strengths in the design, layout, mock-up, wire-frame, UX side and moved me further away from the technical, developer side.

RETRACING MY STEPS
I have been slowly turning the boat around, so to speak, changing course to re-examine Subalpine’s roots in a way. In retrospect, I’ve found some interesting areas to critique. Subalpine Design hasn’t lived up to its greatest potential. Not that we do a bad job. I think you’ll find our clients more than satisfied and if anything desiring for us to expand our services.

A large part of the problem seems to be that I’ve focused too much on adapting for them and not applying that knowledge to Subalpine Design. This company often doesn’t get the attention it deserves because we’re fulfilling client needs and balancing it with personal ones. It wasn’t until 2010 when we launched this website. It’s not hard to get stuck or distracted, unable to establish any goal.

I can wear a lot of hats and it’s taken some experience to know which ones I should wear for other people. There’s one client who might like it if I morphed into a React developer, another an SEO specialist, everybody needs sys admins…

THE PATH AHEAD
I used to think I could do it all, if I desired. These days I realize as long as I am working for myself, it’s best to identify my strengths and pursue that which fuels my passion, while tempering it with a dose of reality. Our mission has always been to help people through DESIGN.

I’ve been carving out some personal time to research ideas that could take the business in a more artistic direction, while continuing to support design clients. I’ve been afraid in the past to tread the path I’m exploring now, and am still trying to figure out why. I think I’ve been skeptical of standing out in the ‘global’ market of the web and figuring out how to leverage the right tools without compromising my values, deciding if it’s worth the effort without knowing the return. At times I’ve been uninspired. It seems when I get an idea I want to nurture, other projects and priorities begin to appear. The next step begins by showcasing and continuing to refine skills in illustration and photography. We’ll see where Subalpine leads us next.

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Taking Care of Business

I’ve been reflecting and have found the time to recap some of the things I worked on in 2017, filling in some of the gaps. So far it’s been about crafting and volunteering.

From a Business Perspective, I’m proud to report 2017 was one of the most profitable for Subalpine Design; and the first Quarter of 2018 has stayed on trend. It all boils down to opportunities and relationships, the synergy of orbits colliding and helping each other along. A good spoonful of motivation hasn’t hurt.

You can never go home again? Subalpine Design pulled our roots in closer last year and transplanted ourselves from our office in Aspen Village back home. It had been growing more convenient to meet in-person clients in places of their choosing. Most of our business transpires over the web. Developments in cellular tech and connectivity are paving the way for more mobility; and there are ideas to work from the road and eventually expand the home office.

A substantial portion of our time went to working with my husband’s employer, Rydin Decal, to redesign their parking permit software. It’s not something I can share the designs on. It’s been a heck of a learning curve. I’ve not always faced the challenges well. I’ve dipped my toes into the realms of SCRUM and Agile development; been exposed to new modalities to communicate and document; reverted to fewer alerts and distractions to try to root; and metamorphosed through my technical skills to come back to my most valued work is communicating graphically.

While I appreciate the access of working with the Product Owner, one-on-one in most of my other projects, I miss and am challenged by the exposure to many points of view by working in a team. I quickly learn where my edges are and which ones I’m willing to push. Evolution is not always beneficial. If given the choice and ability to envision the outcome, sometimes we choose not to adapt. Sometimes our endurance comes from recognizing and refocusing on our strengths.

There were local relationships expanded with projects like Four Ravens Farm’s logo and label design. Look for their honey, jams, soaps and more handmade goodies at the Pagosa Farmer’s Market.

I also attribute Subalpine’s bounty to dedicated and dynamic partners like Red Silk Essentials. Cindy continues to push the possibilities while respecting my boundaries. We collaborate well. She’s allowed me a lot of artistic free reign with her brand, while maintaining her vision. We recently went through a wordpress theme redesign, that from the technical perspective of cloning and upgrading an active site with its database and files went smoother than anticipated.

There were several other projects from cultivated partnerships that have contributed. I was able to lay out a few CD covers for my good friend Mark, and continued to support a community of entrepreneurs: Art & Framing Center of Pagosa Springs, Stephanie Morrow, Synergy Support Systems, Santa Fe Classic Limo, Alpine Leadership and Margit Deerman.

Since 2016, I’ve been transitioning the scope of the company away from web design and back to where I feel my strengths lie in graphic design, while continuing to support a handful of clients with their existing sites. I do like coding css and basic html and am thinking a post on my Tech journey might be next.

On the other side of the spectrum, with all the fun I’ve been having with fonts and remembering how much I like typography, I’m slowly finding some time to play with hand lettering. Subalpine has also expanded our toolbox over the last few years to include more tablet options, with the intention to start a regular digital sketching practice. No examples to share just yet…