With the creation of the blog, and absolutely no design skills whatsoever, I wanted to stick with a basic design that wouldn't require much maitenance. I was inspired by neutrals and clean lines--I was particularly inspired by the quote shown above, which was said by one of my close friends at the time.

 

The concept of the blog was to show college-aged girls that it was possible to not look as though they had just rolled out of bed while staying within budget.

By Winter 2011, I was ready for TQM to have more color; however, as I was just starting out, I was too enthused with bright colors, and inspired by the flamboyance of martinis. 

 

Another big lead was the name change from "@Phizzi" to "The Quirky Martini". Although I didn't drink at the time, I chose the name because the blog represented multiple compartments of my life jumbled together.

The Hepburn Project was a full concpet that I created and undertook within the duration of Spring Break. It was (clearly) inspired by the classiness and simplicity of Audrey Hepburn. Each section was broken into self-help manuals for the "20-something Audrey in a Modern world". I wanted to help bring college students back toward the simplicity of life while still embracing how drastically and quickly the changes in the world.

Further inspired by Audrey Hepburn, I stripped down the whole design that I originally had and created a more simple one. Gone was the image of a blue martini, and in its place was a clean minimalist-style blog that moved towards more lifestyle topics, versus mainly fashion ones. I began to write and respond more to topics that spoke to me, instead of trying to follow the trends... This was the key time when I began to collect a higher amount of UMVs.

 

In its final stage, The Quirky Martini was exactly what I wanted it to be: ladylike with a hint of snarkiness, and in search of what happiness meant. Inspired by my recent summer stay in New York for an internship, I became even more laid back and focused on what I valued as an individual, over what others valued as part of the flock.

 

For the final logo in the rebranding process, I wanted to play with not only typography (as I was taking a typography course at the time), but also about placing text and images in abstract ways. I felt as though the final look was modern and sleek with an indiviual punch (the gutsy pink) stamped proudly right across the front. The martini glass also returned, as I was finally legal--I felt as though it was a small coming of age moment that I could share with not only my readers, but also my fellow bloggers.