Style Your Stack Design: Douglas Halpert
Douglas Halpert is quite new to Substack. He writes short stories and occasional creative non-fiction, and he's the nicest man you'd ever want to meet.
Kudos from Douglas Halpert of Intermittently Human
The first correct decision I made was to hire Nan for the full Style Your Stack package. The second correct move was to give her wide leeway to do her thing. By that, I mean I provided a title, some concepts and text and let her bombard me with her many curious questions about who I am as a person and a writer, and what type of audience I am looking to attract. And then I went away on a vacation, leaving Nan alone with my project.
When I came back, there was an e-mail from Nan in my inbox containing a link to my new Substack. I have just put up my first post and already I am getting rave reviews from people about how beautiful my Substack looks, how it is “so me” and that they are eager to share it with others. I am proud of my wisdom in delegating the entire arduous Substack project to Nan since she did a wonderful job for a very reasonable fee, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the fun Zoom sessions that we had during the Substack Lamaze process.
Douglas had more to say, and you can read the whole thing here. He’s dubbed me a Substack goddess, of all things. Thank you, kind sir!
Douglas engaged me at the end of August, less than a month after I’d launched Style Your Stack. We didn’t have shared connections, but being a thorough and curious investigator, he discovered me on Substack and reached out, much to my delight.
He’s completed his first book of short stories, has submitted it to his editor and is shopping for an agent. Advised by marketing man Dan Blank of The Creative Shift to create a stack of his own and a separate author website, as well, he asked me to lend my technical hand and aesthetic eye. In addition to short fiction, Douglas is a poet and dabbles in creative non-fiction, too.
He’s a 19th century kind of guy and sometimes has regrets living in the 21st . He writes primarily of a world he wishes he inhabited. I can relate to that, though I would have placed myself as a young adult living in the 1940s, because I love big band. But I digress…
Douglas is a dream client. He’s reasonable, a clear communicator, he values talent and good work, and is skilled at building strong relationships…oh, and he’s a fabulous writer! He’s humble, curious, and very, very funny…but you have to be paying attention, his wit is endearing and droll.
He signed up for the whole shebang, my $1500 StyleYourStack package and my work for him involved designing a wordmark, welcome page image, and a logo/icon. I set up his entire newsletter, Intermittently Human, gave him a tour of his surroundings, taught him how to post and explained the importance of Notes and engaging in the community in order to grow his readership.
He’s also retained me as his website designer and his virtual assistant so he can free himself up to write. As his virtual aide, I do the back-end work; creating and scheduling his posts, proofing his work, and making sure his images are cropped effectively.
The Work
Douglas and I put our heads together, he told me a lot about himself, what appeals to him visually, font types he favors and colors that he loves. We discussed vibrant greens and soft lavenders. He loved the idea of a quill pen to reflect his yearning for another time.
I wanted a great portrait, and although his wife was able to capture his handsome mug, complete with lovely smile, I want him to aim higher, and at some point, I’m getting him to visit so I can take him to my guy, the incomparable Franco Vogt. It’s worth at least one trip to visit Woodstock; to meet me, tour the area, pop up to Olana for some 19th century splendor and have a blast in Franco’s studio. We’re shooting for shooting Douglas sometime in the near-ish future. He’s gonna need an awesome professional portrait when he sells his book.
Drumroll for the wordmark:
Banner image:
The “Logo” or icon:
I call it a logo in quotes every time I post about Substack’s version of a “logo.” I take issue with it, because it’s so small, and shows up in more than one spot. It’s important to know that doing a logo that’s super-detailed won’t really work well for the different locations it will occupy. It would be ideal for Substack to add an option for a favicon (the very simple image that appears in the browser tab. Then we could design a proper logo that would appear where it needs to be seen––in the Substack app.
Douglas’s icon was based on his signature, he pens a quite unique “H.”
Love the way that looks, and more importantly, he does, too!
If you need some inspiration, some great graphics that pop, and more creative ideas about looking your best, get in touch with me!
Take some time, look around, and if you’re asking “What’s my next step?” maybe the thing to do is make an appointment to talk with me about styling your stack, or just go for it, and sign up for Style My Stack, and I’ll get you started!
Bravo, Nan. This is beautiful!!! NOT SURPRISED!!! 💚💚💚
Hooray ! This is exciting news!