Recent Projects
“Sarah was knowledgeable and skilled, providing great recommendations on tech stack, website design and workflow. I originally worked with Sarah to set up a community for me on circle.so, and quickly expanded the work with her to a redesign of my coaching website at nicholaswhitaker.com, a build of a second community for changingwork.org, and then a refresh of our website there too.
She was excellent at communicating during production to keep us up to date. She was responsive to feedback, questions and requests, and always made me feel like she was a partner in the project, vs a disconnected contractor. I would highly recommend her to someone looking for a high-integrity and professional service provider who is heart-led, and doing great work in the world.”
– Nicholas Whitaker, certified life coach, Expansive Media client
Custom Websites
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University Voter Information Website
Umich Votes is a website provided by the University of Michigan to provide students with information on how to register to vote and how to vote.
I worked with a multi-disciplinary committee of faculty, staff and students across campus to design this website. Key concerns were remaining politically neutral while providing clear waypoints for students from around the country to access the information they need.
Our process involved creating a visual identity for the website, creating wireframes and mockups of the website in Figma then building the website on Squarespace.
The live website has been updated since the original design outlined below.
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Addiction Treatment Center Website
Recovery Resources
Recovery Resources is a non-profit organization that offers a suite of addiction treatment services. I built Recovery Resources’ first-ever website so that potential clients could find information on essential resources related to addiction recovery in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado. The original version of the website was a typical brochure website. Later (just in time for the pandemic) we added e-commerce features so that clients can book and pay for services online. During the first 3 months of the pandemic Recovery Resources’ online transactions soared to 27 times what they had been!
Recovery Resources’ tagline is ‘Create a New Story’ so when we did a rebranding and website redesign in 2021, I wove this theme throughout the site with light, bright, hopeful imagery that references writing and new beginnings. On the homepage, I added a typing animation feature to illustrate the process of writing a new story. You can see the site live at:
www.recoveryresourcescolorado.org -
Meditation Teacher
Denise Dempsey
Denise Dempsey had built her own website on Wix and had been maintaining it herself for years. I was working with her in a consulting capacity to help her transition her business from an in-person model to fully online when we started the website redesign process.
I designed a warm, inviting website that retained much of the content from her previous website that is important to her clients. The design is meant to be calming and evoke the feeling of a meditation retreat. I added custom CSS to accentuate some visual aspects, to emphasize key pieces of text and to make sure it works smoothly on mobile devices. At my prompting, Denise hired a professional photographer to create brand photographs for her, which personalized her website and totally brought it to life.
One of the biggest challenges was to streamline the navigation from the many links on the old site to a more user friendly number. And we reconfigured some of the many free resources she offers, to strategically grow Denise’s email list.
On the functionality end, we integrated Squarespace Scheduling so clients could easily complete the intake process, book and pay for classes on her website. Best of all for Denise, the backend of her new Squarespace website is infinitely more pleasant to update than her old site was on Wix.
See Denise’s site live at https://www.stressreductionprograms.com/
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Hemp Testing Lab
Kennebec Analytical
I built a vibrant website for Kennebec Analytical Services, a start-up hemp testing lab, using the brand guidelines and graphics created by Duo Design. Concetta DiRusso, founded KAS as she was retiring from a career as an academic scientist. Seeing the emerging market of hemp in Nebraska, she jumped at the opportunity to offer her services.
The site is a clean, yet energetic design with a plethora of information for newbies in the hemp industry. I applied custom CSS to accommodate the specs set out by the brand designers and make the site look cohesive. Since launch, Kennebec’s administrative assistant has been updating and maintaining the site.
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Life Coach
Amy Marquez Coaching
Amy and I met through Arrive Co-working, a women’s co-working space. She had started building her website on Wix and after much frustration, she asked me to step in and start from scratch with a Squarespace website. Amy started her life coaching business after seeing Christian women in toxic relationships not be able to find the help and support they needed. I designed a website for her that celebrates the freedom and inner strength she helps her clients cultivate. Bright colors, energetic photographs and hopeful messaging were essential to the design concept. Amy also hired me to shoot custom headshots and environmental photographs to show her own strength and independence. I am so glad we got to work with Amy as she is such an inspiration! You can see the site live at:
https://www.marquezcoaching.com -
Database Website
Biz Source
Jennifer Knott, a serial entrepreneur, hired me to build a website for her new business, Biz Source, that is a platform for buying and selling small businesses. Biz Source eliminates the need for a broker and is an affordable way for buyers and sellers to contact each other directly. I based the design concept on Zillow and created a custom database with the ability for members to login, make payments, and create listings. The technical requirements to build this site were a fun challenge! Jennifer was able to put the site to use and earn money right away when business owners started listing their businesses for sale in the first week after launch!
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Artist
Margaret Bohls
Margaret needed a website to show her ceramic artwork, share her technical expertise and provide information about her practice to prospective exhibition venues. I built a fully-functional 13-page website for her with downloadable glaze recipes for others in the ceramics community. The site also features hidden pages with downloadable press packets that Margaret can send out as press packets or to institutions who invite her as a visiting artist. Check out Margaret’s site at
www.margaretbohls.com -
Childcare Center Startup
Little Learners Discovery Center
Little Learners Discovery Center contacted me to create a simple website to help them fundraise for a much-needed daycare center in Colorado. As we know parents (especially women) have been leaving the workforce due to a lack of affordable childcare. Little Learners is working to change that!
I chose a playful, wavy theme to speak to the energy and wiggliness of young children! I used custom CSS to make the colorful blobs, waves and images so the site loads quickly and ranks higher on Google. I also added a pop-up window with custom code to display the architectural renderings of the proposed building. The site is super vibrant, yet simple to use and straight to the point.
