Open Book Redesign

📍 The Project

 I was hired to redesign the website for The Open Book, a beloved independent bookstore in Warrenton, Virginia. Their existing site felt cluttered and overwhelming, and they needed a fresh, more inviting design that would reflect the heart of their shop: community, curiosity, and a love of reading.

🧠 The Inspiration

 To create something truly personal, I took inspiration from the store itself — literally. I pulled colors from their cozy carpet, the owner’s favorite book cover, and the store’s iconic green reading chair. These touches grounded the design in their physical space and gave it a local, lived-in feel.

🧩 The Process

 Using the Bookmanager CMS (a system tailored specifically to bookstores), I rebuilt the entire website with cleaner layouts and clearer visual hierarchy. I streamlined the homepage, reorganized the content, and introduced banner graphics that are still in use today — even after their team updated other assets with a Canva expert. Only two pages from the original redesign — the About and Media pages — are still live, but the structure and style I introduced continue to shape the site.

🎯 Design Goals

• Highlight what makes The Open Book special

• Simplify the user experience

• Build a stronger connection between online visitors and in-store personality

• Offer a platform for showcasing staff picks, book clubs, and local partnerships
  
  

📦 The Outcome

 Even as the site evolved, my original framework stuck. Their current banners echo the tone and layout I designed, and the heart of the site still reflects the vision we set out to create: a small-town bookstore with a big personality.