Behind the Scenes: Promise Tangeman

A little back story can be found here. Basically I wanted to re-do our website. But when it comes to design I'm your grandma who's compelled to tell you how to drive despite never having gotten a license. Did you know you can turn right on red? Slow down, here comes the stop sign. Do you think that ampersand needs to be nudged a little to the left? No right. Maybe left. This obviously translates into designers wanting to  A. slit their wrist, or B. slit mine. And since most days I enjoy my life and want it to continue living it, I knew I had to hire someone who I was not only in love with, but in awe of.

So I searched until one day the sea parted and I ended up in a magical land of rainbows, which turned out to be the website of Promise Tangeman.

Cue the doves and the gospel choir. 

There was nothing on her site I wasn't 100% in love with. So much so that (the next sentence will make my husband pass out) I gave up complete control. Even happily.

I told her I wanted to photograph the bags with real photographers from all over the world, and that I wanted a retro-Hawaii vibe with an emphasis on fashion and travel. And then I didn't see one thing until it was FINISHED. And it was exactly what I wanted. Except for even better because she executed it in a way I could have never conceptualized.

The other thing that rocked was how well she organized me. For as much as we love prettiness, there's also a lot of info that has to go into a retail site. Stuff that was even confusing me, she wrapped into a pretty little box of chocolates. With simple-to-follow diagrams of each flavor so you're sure not to choose the kind with that gross cherry stuff in the middle. She is awesome like that.

On top of it, she agreed to be our little hottie patottie boho chic model in the desert! Here are some of the shots that weren't included in the look book. How much did she rock this shoot? 

Lordy girl.

Sorry about the size differences, I stole these from the other blog post I wrote about this day.

One of the other highlights of the trip was getting to meet Melissa Jill. She has a popular blog and I've been following her for years. Here she is rocking her Ginger. Work it gurrrl.

I was especially grateful to have her there because she showed me how to use the video feature on my camera. Which on one hand is great, on the other was just enabling my bad habit of learning the least I can to get by. Especially when it comes to technical stuff, because "it always works out". Then again, it always kind of does. 

Melissa took this of me shooting...

this shot on the right.

She also took this killer shot of Kim, who is Promise's amazing hair stylist. 

 Promise had the best team of people with her, including Alex of Ave Styles who writes a super inspiring fashion blog and also offers a variety of styling services. 

What what.

 

I wrote more about everyone here. 

Basically it was just a great day with fantastic people. I came away super inspired (minus a minor man-ssage incident).

And I'm so grateful to Promise for all the work she did to create the site of my dreams. I should also mention that she worked with Showit to make it. I've used them before and wrote about how much I love them. They have great customer service. And there's simply nothing else out there that offers so many options, and so much flexibility.