Happy new year, everyone!

I hope your holidays were filled with lots of coziness & eating way too much junk food.

My December was filled with resting, hooping, designing, coding, and spending time with my family. December is usually very, very busy for me — but this year, I’d finished nearly all of my projects for the year early in the month, and I spent the last few weeks just gearing up for an incredible 2013.

This meant, of course, a rebrand.

I’ve been telling people that this new look is to demonstrate my brand having “grown up”.

In 2013, I’ll be focusing on quality vs. quantity.

I’ll be doing only 24 custom websites this year — and I’m calling them (re)Brand Experiences now, because they are about so much more than design and code. (You can learn more about them here.)

Starter sites as a 2-week process no longer exist. I’m now only offering them as a single day intensive. This is better for me, and it’s better for you, EVEN if the idea of spending the entire day focused on getting this thing done is kind of scary. (It’s fun. I promise.) I’ll have a few openings a month for Starter Site Intensives, either on Wednesdays or (less often) on Saturdays.

I’ve made it even easier to work together.

I designed my new services page to give you a clearer idea of what the process of working with me is like. I know it can be nerve-wracking to spend a significant chunk of change on what can feel like a hope and a prayer. I want to make that process less scary. If you’re still in the trenches of making a decision, you can get on my list to receive a free copy of my 2013 How to Hire a Designer Guide.

Working with me specifically means: We’ll be talking a lot about strategy — content strategy, social media strategy, smoothie-making strategy, if you want. (I love a good smoothie. Disclaimer: I can’t teach you how to make money off your smoothies. Sorry.) We’ll communicate about our project mostly via Basecamp (my project management system of choice — I recently made the switch to the *new* Basecamp, in fact, and I love it even more). When necessary (or whenever we feel like it), we’ll jam via phone, Skype, or Google Hangout, but only by appointment. (I require appointments because I hate breaking out of “the zone” to answer my phone, and nobody wants an “uh huh” zombie who isn’t giving them their full attention.) We have to be able to have fun.

I’m launching a sister company.

Last year, it became very obvious that one of the toughest things to keep up with was website maintenance. Obviously, the more successful launches my business has, the more maintenance clients I’ll have. My partner-in-all-things, R.T., has been helping with website maintenance for nine months or so, but we recently realized that we need more availability for our own clients and that there’s a great need for skilled people willing to provide general WordPress maintenance to the world at large. We’ve teamed up with one of my very best friends (a gal named Jessica) and we’ll be launching the Website Refinery soon. So soon. Hopefully next week. The Website Refinery will handle all of your site maintenance, backups, WordPress installations, plugin integration, etc., R.T. is the Shop Foreman, so you’ll correspond with him more often than anyone else, but as Operator the Most, I’ll be handling the high-level stuff, so you can trust that you’re in good hands.

I hope this is the year we work together.

I’m making an effort to book those 24 custom sites — er, (re)Brand experiences — sooner than later, so please get in touch if one of those spots should have your name on it (especially if wait lists aren’t really your jam).

I also have strategy sessions available if you just need to chat about things & get a little clarity.

What do you think of my rebrand?

I’d love to know what you think of my new look, either in the comments or via e-mail (leah@leahcreates.com).

Have you forgotten the old one already? Here’s a screenshot to compare.