Style Your Stack Design: Jodi Sh. Doff

Jodi writes The Long Goodbye. It's a stack for caregivers...and anyone who just wants a fabulous read. The best there is.

Kudos from Jodi Sh. Doff:

“Struggling with Substack’s stubborn wordmark was driving me crazy. It was too small to be useful and resisted being customized. After exhausting my own skills and resources (aka Google), I did the smart thing and turned to Nan Tepper at StyleYourStack. Nan has the actual tech skills and design experience I needed. I was already familiar with some of Nan’s design work for Woodstock Bookfest and her website, Nan Tepper Design. I liked her sensibility: minimalist but with a big impact. She was able to wrangle my wordmark into what I wanted. Next time, I’ll go straight to StyleYourStack and save myself the aggravation of insisting “I can do it all myself,” because, I can’t. But, I have Nan, so I don’t have to.”

There’s no one on the planet like Jodi. No one. She reminds of my idea of what Sophie Tucker (the last of the red-hot mamas) might be like. I learned about Sophie Tucker, because of Bette Midler, who channeled Soph relentlessly in her stage shows, telling the dirtiest jokes and singing some downright risqué songs. Bawdy, bawdier, bawdiest. Sorry, I do digress. It’s what happens when I go down the Sophie/Bette rabbit hole. So here, before we get back to Jodi:

Thank you for indulging me in that brief interlude. Admit it. It was worth it, right?

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Now that that’s out of the way, back to Ms. Sh. Doff. Jodi takes no crap. Not from anyone. And the thing I love best about her, is that underneath her tough, Queens-girl exterior, beats the heart of an absolute mensch. You know the word mensch?

Wikipedia says:

The key to being 'a real mensch' is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous." The term is used as a high compliment, implying the rarity and value of that individual's qualities.

Yeah, that. Yeah, her. And, she’s a genius writer. Jodi’s writing voice is unique, rebellious, deadly honest, funny as fuck, and always right on the money. I can’t get enough of her writing. I recommend you get yourself over to The Long Goodbye, and become a paid (or free) subscriber. But pay her, it’s worth every penny. She writes mostly about her caregiving commitment to her mom, who’s been dealing with dementia for years. Her essays may be stories about caregiving––and even if you’ve never had to be there for someone in that situation––you’ll absolutely get value from reading her work. And I’m here to tell you, it’s not just about caregiving. Jodi writes about life. And you’ll laugh AND cry. I’m sure I’m not her only number one fan.

Jodi and I go back about 8 years. We met at Woodstock Bookfest. I work as the web and graphic designer for the festival, and it’s my favorite event of the year up here in Woodstock, NY. There is nothing better than hanging out for 4 days with writers and readers. My people. So yes, Jodi and I met in 2016.

Yeah. That 2016.

I didn’t know her, and I looked at her thinking, “you’re not from around here, are you?” Because I know almost everyone, or so I’ve been told. We kept bumping into each other throughout the weekend, making chit-chat and sometimes sitting together at the author panels we attended. I loved her strong personality, her opinions, her bold honesty…and she was cute.

Okay, I’ll admit it–– right here, right now––I found Jodi extremely attractive, and kept hoping that maybe she was queer, too. I enjoyed a fun fling with her––in my head––and that was as far as it went! You can’t blame me. I’m a writer, too, I have an active imagination. Nope, not queer. Oh, well. After that festival, she didn’t come back until 2023. We’d fallen out of touch a bit but still had a connection on FB. What took her away? Well, several years prior to the pandemic, she became deeply involved in caring for her mom (as mentioned above) who’s living with advanced dementia. They live together––in Jodi’s apartment in Queens, NY.

When Bookfest re-emerged, post-pandemic, she happily made arrangements and came back to Woodstock in 2023 and 2024. We both launched our stacks around the same time. It’s been a tremendous treat to be able to read her work regularly. Take a trip over to Jodi’s stack, The Long Goodbye. I promise, you won’t regret it. She’s a gem.

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The Work

Jodi is not just a brilliant writer, she’s also a fabulous photographer with a great visual sense. I’m sometimes a pain in the ass when I see something that doesn’t look right to my eye, or needs just the smallest tweak. I accost total strangers about their logos if they don’t look as good as I know they might, if only they’d let me have at them. So when I saw Jodi’s original wordmark––you know––the ones that are rendered as teeny-tiny because of the weird limitations on size in the platform’s code––I had some Substack-induced palpitations. I don’t want to say I had a stroke, because I didn’t, but that’s what I want to say. Mostly, I can be a bit of drama queen, especially about design faux pas. Substack doesn’t always make it easy.

Because it’s hard for me to let things lie, I reached out to her, and said, “Please can I make it better???” She said yes, but was also protective of her brand and design work. We put our heads together, and collaborated beautifully.

The wordmark came first:

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The wordmark looks fabulous on her stack. Big and bold, just like Jodi, and easy for everyone to see:

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And because I can never leave well enough alone, I asked if I could work on her cover/welcome page image, too. And again, she said yes. But I want you to know, that Jodi gets creds for the design. I just improved the rendering, and we got rid of the default title that Substack provides. Definitely didn’t need that! Good, right?

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I didn’t want to press my luck, but I made a pitch for a more effective logo. The issue with logos on Substack, is that they also serve as a favicon, and the image shows up in the Substack app as your only opportunity to present your brand. That’s a couple too many jobs for one simple image. What’s a favicon, you might ask? It’s the little icon that shows up in a site’s browser tab, up top. Ideally, Substack will eventually add that option to the code, and a separate image for the app. Favicons need to be very simple, because they’re so small. More of an icon than a logo, ideally with one or maybe two colors. A logo can be more complex. In this case, what they’re calling a logo really isn’t a logo. Anything more detailed gets lost on this platform.

I’m going to stop now, but you get the idea. I’m a huge fan. I want you to be, too!

This is Jodi. She’s the bomb. Read about her here.

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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!