Jamie Sandstedt

I'm Jamie — a web and brand designer with nearly 20 years of experience helping publishers, nonprofits, and growing businesses create digital experiences that look great and perform even better. My work spans everything from full website redesigns and brand identities to eBooks, email design, and social content — with deep roots in the food and wellness space. I also run my own food blog, A Coastal Kitchen, which gives me a firsthand understanding of what content creators actually need to grow. If your site needs better performance, your brand needs clarity, or you're building something new — let's talk.

Projects

Custom Wordpress Design — Simple Green Smoothies

A wellness brand with a wide content footprint — spanning recipes, programs, and community — that needed a design system to hold it all together cohesively. I led the project from client discovery through Figma mockups, making deliberate decisions around information architecture, content hierarchy, and navigation to serve a broad audience across multiple site sections. The work extended beyond the core theme into recipe eBooks, email templates, and social media graphics, ensuring a consistent and polished brand presence across every channel.See More

Full Custom WordPress Design — Zestful Kitchen

An everyday gourmet cooking brand that called for an elevated editorial design approach — clean layouts, intentional typography, and generous whitespace that gave recipes room to breathe. I focused on building a deep, navigable content architecture that made it effortless for users to explore by season, ingredient, and technique, all while maintaining a warm, approachable feel. Figma mockups were handed off to a developer, with the work extending beyond the site into social media graphics and email design for a consistent brand presence across every channel.See More

Full Custom WordPress Design — House of Nash Eats

A high-traffic food blog serving millions of readers monthly, where the design challenge wasn't just aesthetics — it was engineering a user experience that could handle serious scale without sacrificing warmth or readability. I focused heavily on content hierarchy and UX flows, making it effortless for readers to find recipes, browse categories, and convert to email subscribers across every device. Accessibility standards were woven throughout — from contrast ratios and typographic legibility to keyboard navigation and semantic structure — ensuring the site worked beautifully for all users. All design work was completed in Figma and handed off to a developer, with a clear, component-driven system built to support the site's continued growth.See More

Full Custom WordPress Design — The Critical Thought Lab

A professional development platform with a multi-tiered membership offering that needed a UI system balancing intellectual authority with an engaging, reader-first experience. I designed the custom WordPress theme from discovery through Figma handoff, with clear pathways guiding visitors through newsletters, memberships, and coaching services. Beyond the initial design, I continue to serve as an ongoing creative partner — managing the site, handling content updates, and leading social media strategy and graphics, email marketing and design, and broader content creation across every brand touchpoint.See More

Custom WordPress Theme Design — Boxwood Avenue

A multi-faceted lifestyle brand spanning interiors, travel, and curated goods that required a design system elegant enough to hold it all together. I led the project from discovery through Figma mockups, making deliberate UX decisions around information architecture, content hierarchy, and intuitive navigation. Accessibility and mobile-first design were built into every stage, ensuring the experience felt as refined on a phone as it did on desktop. The result was a cohesive custom WordPress theme that translated the brand's warmth and editorial sensibility into a site that's as functional as it is beautiful.See More

Custom WordPress Digital Experience — Millennial Money Man

A high-traffic personal finance blog where the UX work centered on trust-building — clear typographic hierarchy, scannable layouts, and intentional content structure that made complex financial topics feel approachable rather than intimidating. I paid close attention to conversion flows, ensuring calls to action for courses, newsletters, and resources were woven naturally into the experience. The resulting Figma design system was built for scale, supporting a site that regularly reaches over a million readers annually.See More

Bespoke WordPress Theme Design — Fed & Fit

A wellness and recipe platform with significant content depth across recipes, meal plans, books, and resources — requiring a design that organized complexity without overwhelming the reader. I prioritized clear wayfinding, logical content groupings, and conversion-focused layouts that naturally guided users toward newsletter signups and purchases. Mobile-first design was central to every decision, with all Figma mockups handed off to a developer in a clean, scalable system that matched the brand's warmth while keeping the experience effortlessly functional.See More

Custom-Built WordPress Visual Identity & UX — Rachael's Good Eats

A platform where scientific credibility and approachable warmth had to coexist seamlessly across recipes, nutrition content, fitness resources, and a robust shop. I focused on careful content architecture and semantic structure, ensuring the site communicated expertise without feeling clinical while guiding readers clearly through a wide range of content. Accessibility was prioritized throughout, with Figma mockups handed off to a developer and every component designed to serve both the breadth of the brand and the clarity of the user journey.See More

Ground-Up WordPress Theme Design — Towards an Open Monograph System

A scholarly open-access initiative requiring a design approach rooted in clarity, credibility, and inclusivity for an audience of researchers, librarians, publishers, and university administrators. Accessibility was a core requirement — not an afterthought — with particular attention paid to semantic structure, color contrast, and keyboard navigability throughout the Figma designs. The goal was a site that felt authoritative and mission-driven without the stiffness often associated with academic institutions.See More

Work History

UI/UI Web Design | Branding

Jamie Sandstedt DesignRunning a design studio that bridges strategy and craft. I work with web publishers, startups, nonprofits, and established brands who need more than surface-level design — they need systems that perform, scale, and actually solve business problems. My approach combines brand personality with technical performance: sites that load fast, meet accessibility standards, and convert visitors into customers or subscribers. I handle everything from WordPress and Shopify sites to ongoing management, custom ebooks, email design, and comprehensive brand identities. Whether it's a complete redesign for a high-traffic site or maintaining an existing platform, the goal is always the same — make it work better for real people.

Recipe Developer | Content Creator | Photographer | Social Media

A Coastal KitchenMy own food blog — where theory meets reality. I'm not just designing for food bloggers anymore — I am one. This means I understand the WordPress plugins that actually matter, which social platforms drive traffic, and why page speed isn't just a nice-to-have when you're running ads. It's made me infinitely more useful to my clients.

Content Creator Services

Delectable DesignCreating design solutions specifically for food bloggers who've outgrown generic templates. I design custom recipe ebooks (pdf + epub) that turn website visitors into email subscribers, develop social media graphics and templates that keep brands consistent without the daily time drain, and build complete branding systems (logos, accessible color palettes, typography) that work seamlessly across every platform. I also handle WordPress block editor customization and email design. The work is rooted in understanding how food blogging actually works as a business — something I experience daily running my own food blog, A Coastal Kitchen.

Designer

CultivateWPOct 2020 - Feb 2026 • 5 yrs 5 mosPartnering with top-tier web publishers to redesign and optimize their WordPress sites — the kind that get millions of visits per month and can't afford downtime or performance issues. The challenge is redesigning at scale: maintaining SEO rankings, preserving ad revenue, improving Core Web Vitals, and meeting accessibility standards, all while making the site more usable and on-brand. Every design decision is backed by data, tested for performance, and built to handle serious traffic. Working with clients like Cookie + Kate, Feasting at Home, Spend with Pennies, and Millennial Money has taught me what it takes to design for success at scale.

Lead Designer

YippaContract EmployeeJul 2013 - Jul 2020 • 7 yrs 1 moLeading design for nonprofit and advocacy campaigns where clarity and speed mattered more than anything. When you're designing for time-sensitive issues — gun safety legislation, wildlife conservation, voting rights — you need to distill complex information into visuals that move people immediately. I created everything from annual reports and infographics to campaign landing pages and social media toolkits for organizations like Defenders of Wildlife, Everytown for Gun Safety, Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, PBS NewsHour, and American Cancer Society. The work taught me to design under pressure and for purpose.

Designer

Moxie (Previously Engauge Digital and Spunlogic)Full-time EmployeeOct 2007 - Sep 2008 • 1 yrCut my teeth at a large digital agency working on national brand campaigns. This is where I learned how enterprise design works — multiple stakeholders, lengthy approval processes, big budgets, and bigger consequences. Created websites and digital marketing for brands like Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, GMAC Insurance, Junior Achievement, and TBS. The experience taught me how to present work confidently, incorporate behavioral research into design decisions, and maintain creative vision through rounds of feedback. Agency life isn't for everyone, but it's an education you can't get anywhere else.

Production Artist

Milesbrand AgencyFull-time EmployeeMar 2003 - Sep 2007 • 4 yrs 7 mosWhere I learned the fundamentals. Started in production — prepping files for print, managing specs, making sure everything was pixel-perfect before it went out the door. Gradually took on design work for a real estate branding agency creating materials for master-planned communities and luxury developments. Worked with builders like Shea Homes, Pulte Homes, and C.P. Morgan. This is where I discovered I loved digital design more than print — the ability to iterate, test, and improve rather than locking something in ink. Built the technical foundation and attention to detail that still serves every project I touch today.

Education

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Art History · Sociology · Anthropology1997 - 2000

The Art Institute of Colorado

Graphic DesignAug 2002 - May 2004

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