Rae Owens Dot Com, Baltimore, MD (2026)

06/05/2025

It’s June. This month I’m decluttering digital files, reworking some old concepts I’ve created, and wrapping up with my own website.

I went through all my Illustrator files and cleaned everything. I’m really not big on digital clutter and I prefer to delete files as I go. Even though it took a while, it was kind of fun to look back at some of the work I’ve done in the past and to see how much my style has changed over time. Some of the concepts above never made it out of Adobe, but a few did!

What I’d love to get done this month:

💖 Finish my HTML + CSS refresher course
💖 Revisit the templates I created in 2022. It’s time.

What’s coming in the very near future:

🌑 New services: VIP days, maintenance plans, website audits etc.
🌑 A slightly rearranged website that feels more “developed”

I’m slowly rolling these things out, I’m literally taking it page by page, but I’m really excited about how it’s all coming together.

What are your June plans? ⬇️⬇️⬇️

06/05/2025

Happy June. This month I’m focusing on improving my portfolio, expanding my services, and recommitting to building out everything I’ve started as a concept a

05/24/2025

🐻 Happy Client Happy Life 🐻 or however they say it…

// Sazafrass Factory - my ACTUAL very first client ever, and another one who’s still here… are we seeing a pattern? People come into my world and never want to leave 💅🏽💁🏽‍♀️ what can I say?

👈 follow if you know what’s good for you 🤓

Saz is so many things. She’s an amazing artist, speaker, muralist, mom, friend, and client. So happy to have her around, so happy to continue to work with her over the years! She uses her website to showcase and sell her original artwork, commissions, prints, stickers, coloring books etc, and you can reach her for speaking events, press, and media through her contact form. What doesn’t she do?!

Check out what she said about me, and if you want to feel the same way about your website and web designer, now is the time to get in touch!

//

05/22/2025

🥄🥣👩🏽‍🍳 Client Spotlight: Savoryspoons Granola

Listen closely when I say this: sometimes hiring outside of your niche is the best possible idea you can have. You want your website to feel like YOU. Not like everyone else in your industry.

+ 👈 follow or else 😋
(ALSO: Order a bag of literally any flavor, thank me later)

Stacy and her brand Savoryspoons have been with me since I first started my business in 2020. She’d previously worked with a designer on her original Squarespace template which was built on 7.0 > we upgraded to the first version of 7.1 together and then over time, moved on to Fluid Engine which is how it’s maintained now.

She’s very much a fan of the light and airy vibe, soft textures, neutrals, and the girl loves GOLD (so many gold spoons in the granola 🤩) which I always know exactly how to balance within her website’s design.

I share this because it’s a great example of a few things:

1. You don’t need a niche to get hired on repeat. I don’t only look for food brands to work with but I’m always happy to find one. Stacy has been letting me update her website for 5 summers.

2. As a business owner, you need to consider people who can get your website done the right way. Not just hiring a designer because everyone else in your industry hires them - you’re expediting sameness when what you really want is to be different.

3. Visually and aesthetically this project doesn’t look anything like something I would create if I were given creative freedom. But it does look exactly like what my client asked for and what makes her happy.

Don’t be afraid of hiring someone outside of your box once in a while! Switch it up and do something different 😀

05/20/2025

Which platform is the best one for your website? I’m comparing Squarespace and Showit - my favorite platforms to design with.

👈 follow or else 😀

Choosing the perfect place to build your website can feel like a decision you don’t even know how to make when you’re new to the online space.With so many options, it’s hard to know where to start.

Let’s compare Showit and Squarespace👇

When you should choose Showit:

✅ If freedom of design is important to you. Showit is truly drag and drop, you can achieve a really intricate design for your website without needing code at all.

✅ You don’t plan on touching your website’s design too often. You may even be open to or prefer leaving all editing up to your web designer.

✅ Blogging is a main component of your website. Showit is integrated with Wordpress and it’s the better option if you need more advanced blogging capabilities.

Squarespace may be better for you if:

⚡️You plan on maintaining your own website and making updates yourself. Squarespace is much easier to use on the front end if you don’t have time for a huge learning curve.

⚡️If your business needs e-commerce. Squarespace offers product pages and online stores so that you can sell digital and physical products on your domain.

⚡️You like the idea of having everything in one place. Squarespace is self contained; your website, domain, and emails can all be hosted together in the same place.

There are so many platforms to choose from, so being clear on what your website needs is a really good way to determine which platforms could work the best.

Which is your favorite platform for building websites? Tell me in the comments!

//

05/17/2025

✨Thinking about redesigning your website? Start here first: the website audit.

🤠 Lemme explain ⬇️

also follow me or else 😀

Before you jump into colors, fonts, and layouts🚦pause. A website audit is the real first step and the one most people skip right over.

Why? Because strategy should lead design.

And without knowing what actually is or isn’t working on your current site, you’re basically redesigning in the dark.

Here’s what a website audit helps you uncover:

✔️ What’s converting + and what’s falling flat
✔️ How your user experience is helping (or hurting) your goals
✔️ Where people are clicking, scrolling, or bouncing
✔️ What content is outdated, confusing, or missing
✔️ Technical issues you didn’t even know were there

Whether you’re starting from scratch or giving your site a complete overhaul, an audit gives you the data, clarity, and direction to build a website that actually works for your business, not just one that looks aesthetically better than it did before.

💬 Thinking about redesigning your website? Start with an audit first. You can do this on your own in a weekend… I may or may not be doing a fresh audit on my own website right now… 😉

If you need help understanding what to look for, DM me + I’ll show you the way.

05/15/2025

✨Client Spotlight✨

It’s been a few weeks since we launched Britt’s site but admittedly I’ve been having an interesting first third of 2025 😆 so I’m a little behind on sharing but… I gotta show you what I made because it really came out perfect!

Britt Olsen-Ecker is a portrait and wedding photographer based in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s awesome, I can confirm.

When we first jumped into this, all she had was a very simple 3 page website that she’d designed herself with Squarespace 7.0. Nothing much to it, just two galleries that were very long to scroll through and a combination about/contact page. That’s it 🥹

I knew it needed MORE.

❤️ More colors - all I could see was a sea of white with black. Britt very quickly said she didn’t know exactly what she wanted it to look like, but she did NOT want to see open white spaces. Anywhere.

❤️ More photos - every photographer needs to showcase their work and show potential customers a full range of what they like to shoot. We chose to focus on four main categories: portraits, weddings, corporate, and an album of just the fun stuff.

❤️ More strategy - every service provider has had to make the decision about sharing pricing on their website. In this scenario, I feel strongly about pricing transparency because her local market is full of talent. This helps people go from ‘maybe’ to ‘yes’ way faster.

This was so much fun to work on and I’m so thankful that Britt was open to my ideas, willing to push the design of her website a little further, and I look forward to finding more photographers to create websites for in the future!

//

05/13/2025

Do you ever consider the benefits of hiring a web designer to help you design and build your website? Working with a designer could help you get your website launched faster. I’m sharing some signs to look for when you’ve found a really good web designer.

Clue in ⬇️

👈 follow + favorite

Working with a web designer or developer for the first time can feel overwhelming. It’s a big decision to invest in a website and you want to be sure you’re making the right choice. Here’s a list of five green flags to look for in a web designer:

🟩 1. They ask you about your business goals, not just your brand colors
🟩 2. They prioritize user experience and conversions, not only aesthetics
🟩 3. They offer a clear and collaborative process, from timelines to revisions
🟩 4. They’re profile shows results, not just trendy mockups
🟩 5. They show you how to maintain your website

You might be thinking “”I’m really not sure about maintaining my own website.”” It’s a little intimidating if you’re not the most tech savvy person. But it doesn’t hurt to ask:

🔑 If they can show you the basics for changing images and copy. This gives you a little more freedom to make changes as you need to.
🔑 If it feels really scary to update your own website, find out if the designer offers maintenance plans

Hiring a web designer may not be as tricky as you think it is and working with a designer can help you get to your launch much faster than if you go it alone.

DM me to schedule a free intro call if you’re in the market for a new web designer!

05/13/2025

Have you ever felt like designing your own website is as impossible as nailing down your March Madness bracket? Me too. Bring it in for a group hug.

You might relate 👇

👈 follow or else

The very first time I decided to DIY a website for myself, I thought “Well how hard can it really be?” Guess what, IT CAN BE HARD. For someone with (at the time) very few design skills and a very big vision, I found myself routinely disappointed when my early ideas never quite panned out how I wanted.

✨The reality? Sometimes aiming too high, too soon, can set us up to fail
✨You won’t knock every website’s design out of the park, and that’s okay.
✨Perfectionism can get the best of us, done is better than not.

It took some time, but when I lowered my expectations for what I was actually capable of creating, things changed. I learned the skills I needed to create better designs for myself and for my clients. And when I can’t pull those big ideas off on my own, I ask for help.

If you’re always feeling like you’re on the DIY hamster wheel because your expectations are sky-high, maybe it’s time to bring them down to earth. (Especially because my trained design eye can tell when you did it yourself… just saying)

So, if you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or ready to give up on your website, slide into my DMs and let’s talk about how we can make it better and get your website on track - with or without the “custom” part if DIY is your thing!

Did you ever set super high expectations and then get bummed out when it didn’t go as planned?

All the time! 😩
Nope, I know what I’m capable of. 🤷
I’m somewhere in the middle 🤔

(Featured WIP for Kamen Impact Consulting 🚀)

01/02/2025

I hope you’re having a Happy New Year!

2024 flew by for me - did it feel like it went quickly for you? This year, my goal is to spend more time enjoying my business and all the wonderful things I get to create for people who don’t have the time or skills to build their dream websites.

If that’s you - let’s connect in 2025!

Rae Owens Dot Com

06/05/2025

06/05/2025

05/24/2025

05/22/2025

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05/17/2025

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01/02/2025

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