I am a Chicago-based Web-designer/ writer/ Internet marketing specialist. I've worked in publishing for more than 15 years as a magazine editor, Web designer, book author, magazine feature writer, and Web director (pretty much in that order).

Here is a collection of my work and other things I find interesting.

You can contact me by emailing lisa[at]lisahazen.com

Portfolio

• writing
• web
• marketing

About

• personal
• professional

New

• new
• notable

NEW/NOTABLE

July 19, 2010 News and Pews Site Launch
HarperOne came to me with a unique project. They wanted to create a site that would help them better communicate with their audience. A blog wasn't what they were looking for—rather, they wanted a site that would solicit subscriptions for a full-featured newsletter, and act as a static resource for past newsletters. As an incentive for signing up, they offered a free book giveaway. I created both a long form and announcement version of the newsletter using Campaign Monitor, so staff could easily send out newsletters through Campaign Monitor's Web interface.

June 24, 2010 Smidgens Studios Site Launch
Andy Jusick is a Chicago-based advertising executive and illustrator who has dreamed of writing a children's book his entire life. When that dream became a reality, he asked me to build a site for him that would help bring his books' characters to life.

May 12, 2010: 510families.com Site Design
The site design for 510 Families has been one of my all-time favorite projects. The site comes from the Rookie Moms, who used the success of their inaugeral site to create this site, which provides a comprehensive list of fun things for families of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. I love how it all came together, and not just because it involves some of my old haunts.

May 10, 2010: HarborDucks.com Site Launch
I had so much fun designing the site for Saugatuck, MI-based Harbor Ducks. This 30-foot amphibious vessel can handle both land or sea. The look of this site (with a custom design on a WordPress platform) is playful, while incorporating scenic shots by local photographers. We turned around this site launch on a tight deadline to make it far in advance of the busy Spring/Summer tourist season.

May 1, 2010: DrStreicher.com Site Redesign
Almost three years ago, I designed a site for Dr. Lauren Streicher, who is one of the most well-known OB-GYNs in the country. Lauren asked me to update her site with video from her ample media reel. I had the videos converted and integrated them into the existing site. The result is a site with a greater emphasis on the different media that Lauren has contributed to.

April 13, 2010: StudioLotus.com WordPress Redesign
About a year and a half ago, I redesigned the site for the Atlanta-based Pilates studio, Studio Lotus. At the time, they were using Adobe Contribute to do site updates. But they decided to migrate the site to WordPress platform to make managing dynamic site content even easier. We created a custom calendar that allowed them to easily manage class schedules for the different studios, and a dynamic contact form that streamlined the communication process with clients.

March 31, 2010: 680docs.com Site Design
The Affiliated Physicians of Suite 118 is a group of board-certified internists on the faculty at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern. While these doctors practice independently, they share a an office and resources. They wanted a site that would cut down on calls to the front desk, by offering answers to frequently asked questions, downloadable forms, interactive maps, and contact information.

March 3 , 2010: stephens-studio.net Site Build
Stephens Studio is a Carlsbad, CA-based graphic design and marketing company who needed an online prescence to promote their business. They designed their site themselves and had me build it for them. The site utilizes dynamic PHP pages to serve up their work by category. Thumbnails shuffle on the homepage to rotate through their work. And using a Javascript rotation, the images on the homepage cycle through their message.

February 12 , 2010: NRSV.net Site Redesign
Three years ago, I designed a site to help promote the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (NRSV). Proving that publishing's changes affect even the market for Bibles, HarperOne wanted to redesign this site so it was more geared toward generating Bible sales. The redesigned site is built (of course!) in WordPress, allowing HarperOne complete control over promotion and updates going forward. And the austere design aesthetic (with the colors of a sunrise in the header, coupled with blues, purples, and bronze) gives a sophistcated approach to the physical design.

January 10 , 2010: SOMA Pain Management Center Site Design
SOMA Pain Management Center is a Chicago-based practice with a holistic approach to medicine. They wanted a bright, clean site design that demonstrated the uniqueness of their practice and communicated the diversity of services they offered. I used Wordpress to create a site that is easy to maintain, and very search-engine friendly.

January 8 , 2010: HOW Feature Article on The Post Family
The Post Family is a group of seven Chicago creatives who have achieved the creative ideal—finding an curating a collaborative space that they use as a gallery, workspace, and even a place to host kick-ass parties. Here's how they made it happen.

December 7 , 2009: Life Events with Creatives feature on HOW Blog
Creatives infuse their talent into pretty much everything they do. I wrote this feature for HOW magazine's online presence, which shows an amazing stop-motion wedding invitation created by two Chicago-based creatives. After four months and nearly 5,500 photographs later, they created a video wedding invitation their guests (and likely you!) will never forget.

November 24, 2009: 59 North Site Design
Sandra Carpenter is a travel writer living in Stockholm. She wanted a site that would take her existing blog content, and expand it into a site including travel tips, a portfolio of her existing editorial work, and also promotes her book project. 59 North is the result—a dynamic Wordpress (of course!) blog that also integrates her husband's exceptional photography as part of the design.

October 30, 2009: Boston Body Pilates Site Redesign
Boston Body Pilates wanted a redesigned site that's dynamic, evocative of their studio space, ably represents all their offerings and locations, and easy to update. I used Wordpress as the platform—and JQuery to create different rotating messages on the homepage. I integrated Boston Body's existing scheduling software into the site design, so clients are able to reserve classes, buy class packages, check schedules, and even send gift certificates through the site.

October 5, 2009: Rebecca Walker Email Newsletter Template Design
Rebecca Walker is an author, blogger, speaker, and teacher. (TIME magazine even named her one of the 50 most influential people of her generation.) She needed a versatile email newsletter she could use to connect with fans, promote new writing, events, and more. I designed and built a template that she can maintain herself using Campaign Monitor that is as evocative as Rebecca's personal style as it is informative.

September 22, 2009: The Swell Season Site Refresh
To coincide with the launch of their new album, Strict Joy, Oscar-winning singer/songwriters The Swell Season wanted to make significant improvements to their site. At the behest of Glen Hansard himself (read about my fun night out with the band here), we added a discussion board, custom Twitter feed, integration with social media sites, and many personal photos to the site.

September 3, 2009: Voices of the Holocaust Launch
I'm so thrilled by the launch of this site. This site collects the earliest-known oral histories of Holcaust survivors, recorded by Dr. David Boder on a wire recorder in 1946. This site restores those recordings and makes them available online. It also maps the locations or survivors and provides a detailed history of these survivors. For this site, I created the user interface (which necessitated intricate search functions), and the physical design.

August 27, 2009: LakeviewPt.com Launch
Lakeview Physical Therapy had created a Web site six years before using a (now antiquated) Web authoring software. Needless to say, they were eager to update their look to better reflect their service and range of work. Using an existing Wordpress theme template, I worked with their limited budget to create a site that was easy to maintain and much more visually pleasing. (Not to mention, super search-engine friendly.)

August 20, 2009: Sara Paretsky Redesign Launch
To accompany the launch of her new book, Hardball, Sara Paretsky wanted to redesign her existing site, and make it more modern, dynamic, and easy to maintain. Wordpress enabled us to easily maintain tour information, integrate her existing blog, create a dynamic content management system, and refer sales to a variety of different online venues.

July 11, 2009: Motivational Miracle Launch
Candy Lopez is a Bay Area-based motivational speaker. She found that she was losing out on business because she did not have a robust Web site. We designed this site to show not only the types of services Candy offers as a speaker, but also her personal experiences and how they have shaped her professional life. A balance is struck between a strong, professional presence, and a human, compassionate approach.

June 10, 2009: Incorporating Movement Overhaul
I built Incorporating Movement more than two years ago. Pilates instructor Rebekah Rotstein needed to revamp her site to accommodate a growing demographic of Spanish-speaking clientele, new services, travel events, and exciting press she had received. I gave her site a mini-makeover, establishing new sections, dynamic rollovers, and an enhanced section exclusively for Spanish speakers.

June 1, 2009: JulianneBalmain.net Launches
Have I mentioned how much I love working with authors? Julianne Balmain (pen name: Nadia Gordon) is a San Francisco-based writer whose fourth mystery novel (Lethal Vintage) just pubbed. Her site was about 10 years old, but she really wanted a place to promote the new book, events, and other writing projects. Julianne had a limited budget, so I built her templates in a Wordpress blog, then taught her how to build all the pages. The result is a dynamic, extendable site that she has full power to update and maintain going forward.

May 18, 2009: AnneMoore.net Launches
I was delighted to work with this Chicago-based author to create for her a Wordpress-based blog where she could promote past work, solicit new work, and muse on different things that inspire her. To keep costs low, we tweaked an existing Wordpress template to make it entirely her own, and then incorporated some of her son's fantastic photography to illustrate the fiction.

April 20, 2009: Designs for Voices of the Holocaust
In 1946, Dr. David Boder headed to Europe to record the stories of Holocaust survivors in their own words, using just a wire recorder. More than 60 years later, these survivors' voices are being heard again through this ambitious project, where the oral history can be heard through Flash movies on this site. I was honored to create the user interface and design for this inspirational site.

March 25, 2009: Launch of I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids
Authors Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile have definitely stirred up something with modern mothers and wives. Appearing everywhere from The Today Show to Oprah, these women have authored three different books that aim to tell the truth about motherhood, marriage, and being a modern woman. This site was designed to create a dialogue with their readers and encourage others to post their own "dirty little secrets" about their lives.

February 16, 2009: Launch of Guiding Hands School Site
Based in El Dorado Hills, California, the Guiding Hands School is a special-needs school for children aged 2 - 14. The school requested a site that not only showed the diversity and spirit of their student body, but also gave parents a place to learn about events, programs, and connect with teachers. I had a lot of fun designing with the photos they provided and playing with their purple, blue, and yellow color palette.

February 3 , 2009: Back from maternity leave!
After taking some much-needed time off after the birth of Cormac Peter Hazen in November, I'm now back at my desk. I'm currently filling up my schedule with new projects for the coming weeks and months. Please feel free to contact me if you're interested in talking about your Web or writing project!

December 20, 2008: Iron and Wine site design
The site for the music group Iron and Wine provided a lot of different opportunities for interpreting their music through the Web medium. We built this site using the Good Barry platform, which allows the band to easily maintain dynamic information like news items, promotions and tour dates. We also created two different media players that allow visitors to both stream entire albums and experience live music via the homepage.

November 4, 2008: Studio Lotus site redesign
The owner of Studio Lotus, an Atlanta Pilates studio, came to me because her site had outgrown its existing design. The site needed a structure designed that would appeal to new customers, existing clients, and teachers looking to bolster existing education. Using her existing collateral as a basis for the redesign, I better adapted her palette to the new design, and redesigned the interface with drop-down menus to help users better navigate the site.

October 15, 2008: Guiding Hands site design
This project came to me through my trusted programmer, Kim Flournoy. She had been hired to build a site for Guiding Hands, a California-based special needs school. All they needed was a designer. After working with their team, we came up with a colorful palette that showed the diversity of the children and programs the school offered, along with a structure that makes it easy to find a variety of information. Here's a screen capture of the site.

October 14, 2008: Fringe Home site launch
This site was a collaboration with another Chicago-based designer, Amanda Mans of Blueprint Design Group. Amanda created the design for the site for this Oak Park, IL based interior design business, and I built out the site. I loved bringing Amanda's designs to life.

October 6, 2008: djandersonconsulting.com site launch
I created this site for DJ Anderson, a Bay Area-based career and life coach. With this site's design, DJ wanted to create a look that was distinctive and stood apart from other coaching sites. (During our research, we found that there are far too many sites with rainbows and bursts of light.) We used a refined palette that was soft enough for individuals, but sophisticated enough for corporations. And we used the metaphor of stacked rocks to indicate that the person was on the right path.

August 20, 2008: MyGyne.info site launch
Gynecologic Specialists of Northwestern is a new practice recently established by three of Chicago's best doctors. (Dr. Lauren Streicher frequently appears everywhere from print to TV to radio, addressing issues of women's health and was recently named one of Chicago's top doctors by Chicago Magazine.) In collaboration with the introduction of their new practice, the doctors wanted to launch a site that would allow them to interact with their patients in a variety of ways. On the site I created for them, you can search for detailed information on more than 100 different gynecological conditions, surgical options, or procedures. You can access post- and pre-operative instructions and request appointments and prescriptions online. You can even log in to access test results or send a secure message to any of your doctors.

July 17, 2008: Old Colony site launch
Old Colony creates a variety of co-branded snacks with well-known companies, like Andes, ReaLemon, and Musselman's. (You may already have sampled their snacks on airlines, one of their biggest clients.) They needed a site that enabled direct sales to customers who wanted to order their products by the case, and facilitate inquiries from new customers. Everything on this site was handled from scratch (so to speak). Shawn shot all the photography and I rebuilt everything on the Good Barry platform.

July 8, 2008: Thomas Claire site launch
Paint-your-own pottery studios are common in pretty much every town across the country. Thomas Claire Kristin LaMarre wanted to take that successful business model into consumer's homes. Her new business is completely Web-based—you order their pottery kits online, and everything you need to create your own custom pottery is sent to you. You simply return it in their pre-paid packaging, they fire your masterpiece, and they send it back. The model is great for rainy-day crafts or parties. The site design presented a lot of different challenges in customization, but with the programming skills of Pixel IQ, I'm thrilled with the result.

June 15, 2005: Rock Your Website article for HOW magazine
A common failure of current Web sites is that once they're built, they sit. Simply having a Web site is no longer enough. A site must be a dynamic destination that acts as a bold advocate on behalf of this subject. In this article, I interviewed a number of experts who advised readers on how to take their Web sites to the next level. (And also warned about a number of potential pitfalls along the way.) This article will appear in the February issue. Read it here.

June 1, 2008: Storey Publishing Launch
A few months ago, I was asked to create some designs for the redesign of Storey Publishing. Having been a veteran of two redesigns for ChronicleBooks.com, I was eager to help contribute to the strategy for this North Adams, MA-based publisher. Although my final designs weren't chosen for implementation, I was delighted to contribute to the process. Here is my design, and here is the new Storey site.

May 30, 2008: Launch of Site for The Swell Season
Maybe you know Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their music. Or maybe you saw (and loved!) the movie Once. Or perhaps you saw them on the Oscars when they won the award for best song. This site celebrates the beauty of their music, using a custom Flash player to play music and video, original show photography, and a Wordpress CMS for easy updates.

April 22, 2008: Launch of Priya Arts
Priya Arts is an organization dedicated to taking the words of the Bhagavad Gita and interpreting it in music and video. This site introduces the concept to interested parties and will be updated later with information and clips about this project.

April 10, 2008: Launch of Pilates-Pro.com Redesign
It's really exciting when I get the opportunity to take a site I initially designed to the next level. I originally designed pilates-pro.com more than two years ago. In that time, the site has grown and evolved. I redesigned the site with new content areas, a job board, an interactive discussion board, and all sorts of other exciting additions. An integrated effort, we also created a full-featured newsletter to promote the new site.

February 2, 2008: Updates to NRSV.net
It's always very satisfying to see sites that I've designed grow and evolve. NRSV.net is the site for the New Standard Revised Version of the Bible. Since I designed the site two years ago, they have added several new editions and more information about the line. I updated the site to include this information.

January 15, 2008: Launch of Macalicomm.com
Kevin Donnellon is a public relations specialist whose focus is the golf market. He needed a site that would demonstrate his experience and expertise, while providing case studies which shows prospective clients exactly how he does it. I designed this site using a content management system, which allows Kevin to easily update all the content on his site on his own, empowering him to make site updates himself.

December 24, 2007: "Make Your Creativity Productive " article in HOW
Creatives are known for their big ideas—but often, inspiration is at odds with productivity. In this article, I spoke with the brilliant minds at Behance, who offer eight tips for making sure your creative ideas see the light of day. This is scheduled for the June issue, but you can download it and read it here now.

December 10, 2007: "Illustrative Design" article in HOW
Today's designers (myself included) are pretty detached from the core of design—actually taking a pen to paper. This article talks about how to put down your mouse, pick up a pen, and liberate your creativity by sharpening your illustrative skills. Von Glitschka was my inspiration for this piece. This is scheduled for the June issue, but you can download it and read it here now.

December 1 , 2007: Margot Madison Stationery Launch
Margot Madison is a successful small-business owner, a wedding-invitation designer to the stars and now the purveyor of different customized paper product lines. This site has been my most ambitous to date—using sophisticated AJAX scripts, users can place orders for custom stationery orders on the site. (Featuring Margot's wonderful designs.)

November 26, 2007: "Top of the Web" article in The Artist's Magazine
As a group, fine artists tend to come up short when they represent their work online. (And that's an understatement.) The Artist's Magazine asked me to write an article about some exemplary artists' Web sites and these sites can provide inspiration when building their own sites. The article will come out in the March 2008 issue, but you can downlad and read the article here.

November 21, 2007: Everyman News launch
Michele Weldon is an award-winning author (she's even been on Oprah!) and Medill Journalism professor. Michele's new book, Everyman News, pubs this month. This book provides an analysis of the evolution of contemporary American newspapers. The site includes interactive Flash maps, excerpts, discussion guides, audio, and more.

November 1, 2007: HOW article on Design for the Christian Audience
My article for HOW Magazine about design for the Christian market entitled "Putting a Fresh Face on Faith" hit newsstands with the December issue. I spoke with a variety of incredibly fascinating designers who are working to elevate the level of design for the Christian audience from the likes of clip-art doves, praying hands, and dusty-leather bound Bibles to innovative and (yes) inspirational design. Read it here.

October 24, 2007: Madisono Gelato Placeholder launch
Madisono Gelato is a new and delicious client is building a business that supplies Cincinnati's best restaurants with his creamy confection and a new store that sells direct. In the coming months, we'll be working on developing a site that sells online.

October 22, 2007: Sara Paretsky launches podcast series
Together with author Sara Paretsky, I recorded a series of ten different podcast episodes. Sara read from her new novel, Bleeding Kansas (which will hit bookstores January 1st) and her series of essays on her journey as an author and advocate of free speech, Writing in an Age of Silence.

October 5, 2007: DrStreicher.com launches
Lauren Streicher is one of the most well-known OB-GYNs in the country. But besides her wildly successful practice, she is the author of a book, Chicago Sun-Times columnist, host of an XM radio show on women's health, regular guest of iVillage's In The Loop, and a regular contributor to ABC and CBS news. This site tells about her many (many!) accomplishments and promotes her to the world at large.

September 24, 2007: HOW article on Design for the Book Publishing Industry
My latest article for HOW is about a subject close to my heart—design for the book publishing industry. I spoke to people from Picador, HarperCollins, Quirk Books, and (of course) Chronicle. It was fascinating to hear about how different publishers hone their design process, an I loved hearing the stories about how the designs came together. (Even an Oprah pick.) Click above to download the article as a PDF, or look for it in the next issue.

September 17, 2007: Help Yahoo Help You
It's beyond cliche that customer service for Web entities is disappointing. This site was created as a way for Yahoo's users to suggest ways to improve their customer service and create an honest, ongoing dialogue. With this site, I installed Wordpress on the server, souped it up with a bunch of plug-ins, and integrated the design with custom CSS.

September 10, 2007: Alert Chicago launch
The City of Chicago had a ton of information they wanted to make available to residents about what to do in an emergency, but no real Web structure to do so. They wanted this site to be a hub that people returned to, with realtime news and information. I designed the architecture and look and feel for the site, hoping to convey a unique Web presence for the city, as well as a useful hub of information.

August 15, 2007: Studio on Sixth launch
I designed this pretty little site to promote a cottage for rent in San Francisco's Sunset neighborhood. Quick and dirty, this site took just three days to build and launch. Check it out at Studio on Sixth. Just goes to show, there is no job too big or too small!

August 10, 2007: Guru of New launch
Sarah Browne, a digital strategist and market researcher based in Carmel, California. She wanted me to create a Wordpress blog for her with a charming retro feel that she could use as a place to profile what hot new products and trends live up to the hype, and which do not. The Guru of New is the result.

August 2, 2007: Red Room placeholder
A small job was designing a placeholder page for a fantastic site that is coming in a few weeks named The Red Room. This site will be an online home for all of the world's best writers—a place where they can post information directly to their readers and easily host their online presence. Writers including Salman Rushdie, Norman Mailer, Amy Tan, and Po Bronson are already committed to participating.

July 31, 2007: Mommy Track'd Bookstore launch
The folks over at Mommy Track'd hired me to design their bookstore portion of their redesigned site. This was an interesting challenge, as it involved going into their existing templates and integrating an Amazon store within their framework. (Without making it look like the user ever left their site.) The result (I hope you agree) is seamless.

July 19, 2007: Incorporating Movement launch
I designed this site for New York-based Pilates instructor, Rebekah Rotstein. She wanted a site that would bring together the health and life benefits of the practice, and promote her new business as an instructor. Shawn created her logo, which provided the launching point for the design direction. There's even a Spanish translated version!

July 10, 2007: June Chronicle Books Newsletters
Chronicle never disappoints with the books it asks me to write about monthly for their email newsletters. The featured books in June were Pretty in Punk, a book teaches knitters not how to craft cardigans, but rather punk mohawk hats and skull-and-crossbones armwarmers. I also interviewed the authors of Extreme Barbecue, who themselves interviewed guys who barbecue pigs in steel drums and coffins (not used, thank you). And lastly, I wrote about the pop-surrealist work of artist Alex Gross.

July 1, 2007: Kids Off the Couch
In my quest for world domination of mommy blogs, I started writing for another. Kids Off the Couch offers different activities for families that don't involve anything you can see on Nickelodeon. I am the Chicago guide, which means that I'm discovering a bunch of fun things for Finn and I to do. Tune in for your weekly adventure!

June 28, 2007: LeeFenVisual
Lee Fenvyes is a Bay Area-based artist and designer. For Lee, I set up a Web store to sell some of his work and revamped his style sheets to refresh the look and feel of his expanded site. I'm really pleased how the entire site came together.

June 16, 2007: May Chronicle Books Newsletters
In May, there were some really interesting books to write about for Chronicle's enewsletters. I took a "walk down memory lane" (har har) with Core Memory, a photographic (and surprisingly beautiful) look back at vintage computers. Also, I spoke with Joyce Ostin, who photographed everyone from Tom Hanks to Steven Spielberg for Hollywood Dads.

June 4, 2007: Web Design Work for Golin Harris Presentation
Working with big firms like Golin Harris mean that I can't talk about the details of the work we do because of brand confidentiality and work done on spec. But let's just say that it was fascinating to conceptualize a well-established brand through a proposed Web site design that is very of-the-moment. Frustratingly obscure description? Email me and I'll tell you more.

May 14, 2007: April Chronicle Books Newsletters
I love writing the monthly enewsletters for Chronicle Books. Every month, I get a box full of fascinating books that really resonate with me. In April I wrote about the enigmatic designer Florence Broadhurst (who was mysteriously murdered in her home), pastry chef Emily Luchetti's favorite recipes, and graphic artist Jeffrey Brown's new book, Cat Getting Out of Bag

May 10, 2007: Life's Golden Ticket site design
Written as an inspirational parable (in the style of The Alchemist or The Five People You Meet in Heaven), this is yet another title that you may be seeing on the NYT best-seller's list soon. There's buzz about this book from everyone from James Redfield to Publisher's Weekly.

May 1, 2007: Pentagram Papers Article
The article I wrote about the 35th anniversary of the Pentagram Papers project is in the most recent (June) issue of HOW. Read it here.

April 11, 2007: Redesigned site launch
Finally! I've only been in business now for almost a year and am now officially launching my portfolio site. My excuse is that I have been so very busy with client work. Please hang with me while I work out the kinks.

April 10, 2007: Milk Memos Featured Book on Mommy Track'd
I did an online feature for Mommy Track'd promoting the title, Milk Memos. This charming book was written by two women who returned to work at IBM only to face the bane of the working moms' existence—the pumping room. This book is a great exploration on how to balance work and motherhood.

March 30, 2007: Launch of iwasareallygoodmom.com
The site that I designed for this humorous, clever, and wise book that tackles the expectations/myths of modern motherhood just launched at www.iwasareallygoodmom.com. For obvious reasons, this was a project particularly close to my heart. The authors are going to be all over the media—you can find them on The Today Show, Rachael Ray's show, and Shape magazine.

February 22, 2007: Launch of NRSV.net
This site was to support the NRSV, or the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Published by HarperCollins San Francisco, this revised translation was prepared by the National Council of Churches. with the goal of updating the Bible for a contemporary audience. This is widely accepted as the most ecumenical of all Bible translations.