My 5 year blogaversary!

Wow, my 5-year blogaversary. I've been blogging for 5 years today. I've been looking back at the last 5 years all morning so thought I'd share my trip down memory lane with you:

5 Year Blogaversary | 2013 | Emily Bode blog

2013 – Brave Girl Spirit

The first logo for Brave Girl, my former blog. bravegirl.com wasn't available so my friend's boyfriend thought to name it BRAVEGIRLSPIRIT.com, after the American Spirit cigarettes he was smoking. I loved the packaging for those cigarettes and spirit felt so right.

I made the logo organic & simple linework to represent a bonfire (triangle = fire, two lines crossed = sticks). It symbolized the fire within I was feeling about starting this new venture. I think I knew then I would be doing this blog thing for a while.

Trying it all, seeing what sticks

Since no one needs to dig back to those first posts, I'll give you a little recap. That first year I was super unhappy in my first job out of college. My blog was all about exploring my craft as a designer that I wasn't allowed to do at my job. It wasn't for lack of trying, I pushed hard to create in a way that came naturally to me. Looking back on the things my boss did allow me to do, well, it's cringe-worthy. I was so dead set on doing things my way that I didn't recognize it really wasn't that good looking. But I had to go through that to get better. When I see my paintings, line work, & first go at handlettering, I try to remember that.

I have a secret to admit…I don’t always feel brave.I am terrified of failing.I don’t want people to know I can’t do it all.
So that’s what this is for me. A place that says, “you are brave, girl, not in spite of your weaknesses but because of them”.
I am excited to explore whatever that means.
– from my first post in 2013

5 Year Blogaversary | 2014 | Emily Bode blog

2014/2015 – Brave Girl Refresh

In 2014 I quit that job, became a freelance designer, and we moved from our rental to our first house, The Moon Lodge. I'm just now noticing I rebranded my blog every time there was a big personal event in my life. You'll notice if you keep reading.

For the new logo, I used a bold and blocky sans-serif typeface with a pink "X". I wanted to show this balance of being courageous and strong yet soft and feminine. I was trying to find this in my life at the time so I wanted the logo to represent that. The "X" was to keep the 2 sticks from the bonfire of the first logo.

My first photoshoot

I did a photoshoot with a good friend from design school for my new brand too. It was my first photoshoot! I put on my overalls and my hat and we found a gorgeous old building to shoot near and the old post office that is Atwater Brewery now. It had this bright blue tile that my friend Lauren and I loved. I used the tagline There's a new brave girl in town for my marketing.

My Mom and Grandma loved it, and that's about all who saw it.

Brave Girl Mission Statement

I wrote this mission statement out of anger. At the time, people in my career life acted like I was some little girl who didn't know anything. I worked my ass off to have a solid education and be a good designer. All they saw was my youth, my blonde hair, and my loud laugh and translated that to "she's not capable of having her own business". I believed, and still do, that our vulnerability and our sensitivity is the EXACT thing that makes us courageous and brave and I was fed up with other people treating that as a weakness.

Full customized site in 2014

I'm so proud of my 2014 blog for the reason I mentioned but also because my web developer friend, Justin, and I designed a totally customizable blog. We had just won a Gold Addy for a website design so we were feeling pretty jazzed to make another site. I was happy to have him get his Wordpress chops by practicing on my blog. I still long for this About page. It was dreamy.

5 Year Blogaversary | 2016 | Emily Bode blog

2016-2017 – Brave Girl with Station Seven

By now I started to narrow down what I wrote about. I did so many personal projects when I started blogging, it helped me find what I liked to talk about and create. I really started to grow into my style in 2016 and met a lot of people in the blogging community. It made me realize my blog was SO personal. I wasn't talking about outfits or products but rather how I felt about outfits and products. I'm deep, we all know that.

Having the logo be my own handwriting symbolized this for me.

Station Seven Wordpress templates for the win!

The site itself was an overhaul from that custom work Justin and I did to a Wordpress template from Station Seven. While I loved the custom, the web landscape was changing so fast. I needed to spend less time tweaking an old site and more time being more easily available to you, my readers. I don't remember how I found Station Seven I only remember crying out Hallelujah! and being over the moon to have found a web design service that was GORGEOUS and super easy to use.

5 Year Blogaversary | 2016 | Emily Bode blog | Photo by Leigh Ann Cobb photo

Top 100 list and published in a magazine!

I was working full-time as an in-house designer and planning our wedding during this time so OF COURSE, let's add a blog rebrand to that mix. I went from being embarrassed and insecure about my blog to being really proud of it. It was around this time I was published in Bella Grace Magazine and was voted a Top 100 Women's Blog to Follow. I think more people started paying attention and it made me so happy because I dedicate so many hours and thoughts to this space. It was rewarding to have it recognized.

I wanted more connection with my creative community in real life too. The blog led me to great friends, fun events, and co-work turned therapy sessions. Blogging is difficult to navigate sometimes. Having a few people who "get it" feels really good.

Brave Girl Photography

Leigh Ann Cobb was our wedding photographer and we got along so easily during all of our engagement photo sessions that I asked her if she'd start shooting for my blog after our wedding. GAME. CHANGER. I'm not a photographer and I don't want to be one. I like focusing on writing and designing so working with a photographer has been wonderful. Leigh Ann isn't the only photographer I work with. There are many talented photographers in the area so I consider myself very lucky. Leigh Ann's moodier, deep tones, and editorial style aligns with my writing and my personality so I love working with her.

5 Year Blogaversary | 2018 | Emily Bode blog

2018 – EMILYBODE.com

And now we're here. Sitting in my favorite bakery, looking out the window at the cold rain I'll have to walk in soon, just completely in awe at the way things can change so much yet come full circle all at the same time. The biggest rebrand I've had in 5 years was changing my blog from Brave Girl to my name Emily Bode.

By now you're definitely not surprised this happened at the same time we moved back to our cottage after living in Grand Rapids for a year. You're also wondering what else was going on because surely that isn't enough change. Well, you're right, I launched the rebrand a few weeks before teaching for the first time at Grand Valley State University and working at a print shop a few days a week.

Modern typeface with neutral color palette, a more sophisticated look

A modern, editorial typeface with gorgeous ligatures that make me drool and thin line work with a neutral palette represents this Brave Girl all grown up. I'm not a girl anymore, I'm a grown ass woman.

These last 5 years, being a brave girl for some really hard things has had everything to do with bringing me here to my own name. It's very symbolic and needs an entire post dedicated to it.

Wisdom and white space

I like to think my blog now is a better balance of being courageous but also content and happy with my life. When I look back on past posts I can now see that my early 20's were just so hard and tumultuous. I think it's mostly still positive and so many amazing things came from the past. But the other side to that was I wanted so badly to do things my way but I was also naive, doubtful, and moody about not knowing what to do next. I just didn't have patience and I wanted EVERYTHING all at once instead of sinking into what is truly calling me.

This rebrand has not been about adding more but removing what isn't me. Clearing the clutter. Keeping white space in your life is just as difficult, if not more, than creating white space in a design layout. It's natural to try to jampack everything in. The challenge is keeping it out.

So, what can you expect from here on out? At this rate, I'm averaging a rebrand about every 2 years. 2 years from now I'll be 30 so you can be sure there will be some kind of change here. A midlife crisis or a new haircut or something big.

Images clockwise: @inkdiplettering / @jessekamm / @jazzyhwang / J.Crew — 5 Year Blogaversary | 2018 | Emily Bode blog
I LOVE moodboards. I created this one after Summer 10x10 Challenge in 2018

Summer 10x10 Challenge | Emily Bode — 5 Year Blogaversary | 2018 | Emily Bode blog

But really, I hope you come here to be inspired on your own creative journey, or for capsule-like style ideas, or to just check in with a woman who loves to write about what she's going through in an attempt to make sense of it all and smile at the end of the day.

Thanks for these 5 years. That's, like, a very serious relationship. Some people get married in less time than that! Not Joel and I, we're marathoners. Some people have kids in that amount of time! Others have jobs that last this long! Also not me, you know my track record.

I mean, half a decade, that's a damn good chunk of time. Thanks for being here with me. I couldn't, I wouldn't, do it without you.

Cheers to 5 years! xo, Em