Hey. I'm Stephen.
About me and Lakeshore Visuals
I love creating visual design and writing.
If money were no object, I would build a midcentury modern tiny house that has some heavy tropical influence on a beach somewhere. I would have a desk with an amazing view in an open-air office and I would write and design and make videos and share it all for free.
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But, since that's not the case, I'm offering my services for a reasonable fee so that I can help you do meaningful work from a beach or my backyard or a coffee shop or pub anywhere in the world.
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I've been creating visual and written content for more than two decades and I just keep loving it more every year. Over that time, I've grown a passion for small businesses and nonprofits trying to make the world a better place. With Lakeshore Visuals, I'm putting those passions together into a giant mega-passion.
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I often go to events for nonprofits or visit small businesses that I really appreciate and notice that the visual design could be... better. And I think about all of the ways I could help them out. But I don't have the time to do it for free and they don't have the money to hire me onto their staff.
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My goal with Lakeshore Visuals is to bridge that gap by essentially being a shared provider for multiple organizations to keep me busy with meaningful work while providing you the flexibility to have access to professional visual and written services when you need them.
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Background
I learned photography and videography in college; I developed real film in darkrooms and shot video on actual tapes.
I honed my photography skills and added some more writing and design as a Public Affairs Specialist in the Army.
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Later on, I picked back up with my video skills by shooting weddings and some other commercial work.
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I spent about a decade in education, where I all kinds of of visual design work to increase engagement and connect to diverse audiences... teenage audiences that require a lot of work to engage.
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During all of that, I did a lot of writing, design, photography and video work on the side. You can see some work samples here!
Why not hire a designer? Designers are expensive and when you don't have enough work you have tough decisions to make. If you don't have work for me to do, simply pause your subscription until you have more work.
Why not hire a freelancer? Freelancers can be great! Sites like UpWork and Fivrr have incredibly talented people. But, they can be hit-or-miss. And when you find a good one, they might not be available next time and you have to start the process over. With Lakeshore Visuals you have consistency and reliability.
How many projects can I request? You may request as many projects as you like. You will manage your requests in your Trello board. They will be completed one at a time.
How long does it take? Many jobs can be completed in 1-3 business days. Others can take up to a week or more. Take a look at our full services menu or schedule a consult to get a more detailed breakdown.
How does pausing service work? We know that design work ebbs and flows, and you might not need a bunch done every week or every month, but when you need it, you want it to be high-quality and quick! We bridge that gap. Maybe you have a big event coming up and you need some promo material (flyers, brochures, updated busniess cards, digital business cards, etc…), but then you won’t need anything else until the next quarterly event in four months. No problem. Turn your subscription on when you need it, pause it when you don’t. Only get billed again when you’ve exhausted your month. We bill based on a 31-day cycle. So, if you sign up for services and use 15 days and then pause it, you’ll have 16 days remaining on your account to be used up before you’re billed again. Couple of quick caveats, or fine print, whatever you want to call it… - When a pause is requested, it will take effect at the end of the next business day - When an account is turned on, it must stay active for at least five days - If we hit our maximum capacity, resumption requests will be added to a queue, but all inactive members will be notified when we get close to capacity so that they can plan accordingly
How do I make requests? We manage requests with Trello. You'll have a To Do list, a working list and a completed list. Trello is pretty versatile. You can type out requests. You can write them on a napkin or legal pad or your hand or whatever and take a photo and attach it. You can make a video or audio recording and upload it to Google Drive and link it in Trello. I'm sure there's more, but you get the point.
What if I want changes? No problem. We'll make all the revisions necessary until you're 100% satisfied before moving on to the next project. Revisions are common early in the process, but as we learn what you like they are much less frequent.
What if I just need one thing? No worries. When it's done, you can pause your subscription. Then, simply start up again when you need more. If you really never need anything again, you may transfer your remaining days to another business. Sell it to them, gift it to them, trade it to them... whatever. Just let me know and we can work it out. Or, you can try the pay-as-you-go method... but it's usually more efficient to work in a plan.
Do you offer refunds if I don't like the service? Due to the high-quality nature of the work, there will be no refunds. We occasionally offer reduced rates or complimentary projects through our social media accounts, so keep an eye out for those so that you can "try before you buy." In addition, subscriptions are transferrable. If the service isn't a good fit for you, you may pause at any time and sell, trade or gift your subscription to another organization.
Are there any other costs? We do not charge anything on top of our monthly subscription rate. We try to use mostly free tools or tools that we already have subscriptions to, however, some projects may require you to pay for additional services (such as web domains, licensed content, application services, etc). You will be consulted for approval before work progresses. The only exception is travel expenses for any work that requires us to travel more than 100 miles (by road) from Muskegon, Michigan.