Overview
In 2012, Sheila Flaherty hired me to build the digital identity for her debut novel, East of Mecca. She needed a site that could carry the weight of a literary debut: intimate, cinematic and tied to the Saudi Arabian setting of the book. I designed her author logo, selected and customized a parallax WordPress theme, sourced and edited the photography and shaped the visual system that would represent her work online.
The site launched in 2013 and I've been her webmaster ever since. In 2026, I led a full redesign on the original WordPress foundation, refreshing the brand, typography and imagery for a second decade.
My contribution
Brand Identity / Visual Design / WordPress Development / Webmaster
The team
Sole Designer (Me) / Sheila Flaherty (Author)
Process
Brand and identity
I designed Sheila's author logo from scratch: a single orchid in a celadon pot, set against white space. The orchid was her chosen flower and the brand colors were drawn from her creative brief: white, black, celadon and a touch of raspberry fuchsia. Simple, peaceful, beautiful.
Site design and build
I selected a parallax WordPress theme as the foundation and customized it heavily to match the visual direction. The design emphasized immersive storytelling through scroll-driven photo sequences, atmospheric color palettes and typography that balanced literary tone with screen readability. I sourced photography that evoked the book's settings: souks, beaches, camels, women in cultural dress, the textures of the Gulf.
Book cover collaboration
I worked with Sheila on the East of Mecca book cover design, refining the title treatment and the dancer photography that became the visual anchor for the entire brand.
Ongoing stewardship
After the 2013 launch, I stayed on as her webmaster. Over the years that meant content updates, photo refreshes for new reviews and accolades, theme migrations as WordPress and Themify evolved, support for a 2013 to 2015 book tour and updates tied to a CineStory screenplay finalist nod and Evanston Public Library presentations.
2026 redesign
After more than a decade, the site needed a refresh. I redesigned the home and East of Mecca pages on the same WordPress foundation, using updated themes from Themify (Elemin and Landing). The redesign included new hero imagery, a refreshed orchid logo, new title treatment, an updated headshot session and a formalized brand system documented in a new core branding elements guide.
Outcome
The site launched Sheila Flaherty's career as a published novelist and has remained her primary digital hub for over a decade. East of Mecca went on to earn almost 2,000 reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Sheila has stayed with me as her sole web designer for thirteen years, through the original build, dozens of updates and a full redesign in 2026.