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About Us
We Grow Creative Shops Online Using Strategic Design
You design unique products that brighten the lives of your ideal customers. We get it, love it, and will help you level up by building an on-brand website centered around what differentiates your business from others.
Visiting artist Lisa Congdon's Portland shop. See Lisa's site in our portfolio.
L-R: Lisa, Arianne, Sam
Why Are We a Good Fit for Your Creative Business?
Because we truly care. We believe that shopping small, from independent brands, strengthens communities and encourages originality, diversity, and connection. We feel good making purchases that support artists and independent business owners (and their families) with empowering, self-directed work. There’s a different way to shop, and it encourages humanity!
What Makes Aeolidia Special?
No one has the track record we do with the types of brands we work with. We're the agency that gets big results for small businesses. We understand what works for independent designers (it’s not always what you’d think).
We create community and learning opportunities, and help forge one-on-one and group connections that grow businesses through our Facebook and mastermind groups. We have provided free consultations, training, and services throughout our career.
We’re your people. Our team of ecommerce experts are also soapmakers, block printers, toy designers, and knitters who have run shops ourselves and shopped from yours. We’re big fans of your business, and will cheer you on as you grow it.
Our core values make us a delight to work with. We are diligent achievers, curious learners, humble experts, positive allies, and creative supporters. Read about our values in detail here.
Giving Back
We believe that everyone should have the resources needed to find a fulfilling career. We believe that art and design businesses strengthen our communities and uplift our spirits. These are some of the organizations we are proud to support:
- Black Girls Code - training 1 million girls by 2040 to lead, innovate and create in science, tech, engineering and math.
- Clean Air Task Force - a science-driven, solutions-focused organization.
- Kiva loans to support small creative businesses (see our portfolio)
Find Aeolidia Captain & Founder, Arianne, here:
Aeolidians
We're Black owned, woman owned, and have 100% female leadership. Diversity isn’t just a value for us, it’s literally who we are as people, how we live and exist in the world and in our bodies. We believe our variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences to be critical to our success.
Arianne Foulks
Arianne Foulks
Location: Seattle, WA
Arianne Foulks is a founder, speaker, and Shopify Partner who has focused her career on building impactful retail businesses. She has spoken and taught for Goldman Sachs, Shopify, CreativeMornings, Alt Summit, and Growclass. At Aeolidia, her web design and development agency, she and her team create super-effective online shops for artists and designers. Aeolidia has spent 20 years creating beautifully thoughtful projects for brands including Rifle Paper Co., Lisa Congdon, Sugar Paper, and Burt’s Bees Baby. She will walk any distance, always has a pile of books by her bed, and was once bitten by an elephant seal.
Let's work together
Sam Hirst
Sam Hirst
Location: San Jose, CA
Sam is a critical part of the Aeolidia leadership team, and our clients rely on her big picture knowledge of online retail. Sam's block prints were featured on many popular design blogs during her five years as a small business owner, and she has a history of teaching and sharing her expertise with handmakers. Sam is a an artist, minimalist, nature lover, and hiker who wants to read more than she does, enjoys a good cup of coffee and is in training for her first open water swim.
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Helen Hulskamp
Helen Hulskamp
Location: Portland, OR
Helen reviews Aeolidia's design and development work, with the goal to give each shop a clear return on investment by planning an effective user experience and improving customer flow through checkout. She has been a software engineer and web developer since 1996, and her work has focused on conversion optimization and analytics. She has run a small-batch natural soap and skincare business and dives headfirst into new crafts regularly, particularly in the fiber arts, though any medium or material is fair game.
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Deanna Didzun
Deanna Didzun
Location: Seattle, WA
Deanna has been working with creative teams for 7+ years, managing projects for small businesses across the globe. She loves her role as a Project Manager in bringing each project vision to life. She also loves adding things to, and checking things off, her travel bucket list which ultimately led her to create a small travel journal ecommerce shop.
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Caitlin Krauchi
Caitlin Krauchi
Location: Washington, DC
Caitlin is a Project Manager with a background in ecommerce management, Shopify wizardry, and retail management. She is energized by collaborating with small (but mighty) teams and helping them bring their visions to life. If she’s not at her computer streamlining processes, she’s off coming up with new nicknames for her dog, figuring out how to fix the plumbing in her 1936 DC townhome, or playing board games with her friends.
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Christine Hughes
Christine Hughes
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Christine loves color and a good cup of coffee. Her fresh, friendly work has garnered praise for its delightful detail and smart design. Christine has been nominated for a Webby award and featured in national publications, including An Illustrated Life, Little Book of Letterpress, and Desire to Inspire. She and her family live, work, and play in a crooked house in LA.
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Barbara Kowalski
Barbara Kowalski
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Barbara is a web designer who has been designing with small business clients since 2013. She came into design by way of history, photography and human rights, through which she developed a deep sense of empathy that she brings to each project. She enjoys colour, folk art, learning tactile art and design techniques and buying too many handmade crafts around the world.
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Beckie Hermans
Beckie Hermans
Location: Upstate New York
Beckie is a web and brand identity designer who has been connecting businesses with their ideal clients through design since 2012. When not in her forever-being-rearranged home office, she enjoys walking in the grass barefoot, watching true crime documentaries, and seeking out hidden thrift shop treasures in and around her home state of New York.
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Jess Levitz
Jess Levitz
Location: New York, NY
Jess’ degree in Graphic Design led her to a career and body of work featured on noteworthy blogs such as Design*Sponge and Design Love Fest. She has illustrated for GQ, Vanity Fair, West Elm, and Macy's, and has 30+ winning stationery designs on Minted. Her plant-filled home has been featured online and in a Swedish magazine. She loves creating unique hand-made brands that make her clients tear up when they see the final product.
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Toni Antonucci
Toni Antonucci
Location: New York, NY
Toni is a Brand Designer with an affinity for all things visual. She looks to vintage typography, groovy patterns, and sunsets to find inspiration and evoke feelings of joy through her work. Toni is motivated by collaborating with excited, passionate business owners in transforming their ideas into reality. Her empathetic approach makes her a great partner for delivering authentic and thoughtful brand design. She loves curating Spotify playlists, mystery novels, road trips, and eating the rest of your french fries.
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Casey Shagena
Casey Shagena
Location: Detroit, MI
Casey is a big-picture thinker with an empathetic approach. She cherishes working alongside industrious entrepreneurs who have the tenacity to build something wonderful out of nothing. She’ll help you take your brand idea from a small spark to a captivating strategy--both on shelf or online. She has owned two mission-focused retail stores and developed brands that have been featured in The Dieline, Design*Sponge, Beauty Independent, Well+Good, Self, and Elle. You’ll find her roaming new cities across the globe (mostly for street eats) and indulging in plant-based, colorful cooking.
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Jon Manning
Jon Manning
Location: Vancouver BC, Canada
Jon has been developing complicated custom ecommerce websites with us since 2011. He is a big champion of micro businesses and loves to see them thrive. His creative outlets include paper crafts and ukulele. Jon's an avid musician and runs a record label, mostly releasing cassette tapes (old school!). His amiable nature and talent for explaining complicated things in a simple way makes him a priceless resource for our clients.
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Iran Mateu
Iran Mateu
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Iran is a front-end web developer who is always thrilled about collaborating with creatives and working with small to medium businesses. He's ready to fix any problem that comes his way in order to provide the best website for a client. Iran loves to travel and "Rewatch The Office for the 15th time" is coming up on his calendar. His french bulldog, Fenzie Frenchie, is a five-time Olympic gold medalist (The Cute Olympics, that is).
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Verona Gillespie
Verona Gillespie
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Verona is a front-end developer with a background in design. She has spent the last 10 years focused on creating client-accessible Shopify and WordPress sites, and teaching women how to build, and maintain their own websites. Verona is a chihuahua enthusiast, VP of Dogs Without Borders dog rescue, and Executive Director of a non-profit vet clinic. You can also see her on the Amazon show Bosch.
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Holly Marsh
Holly Marsh
Location: Astoria, OR
Holly has been in the e-commerce realm for a decade, stemming from running her own handmade accessories business. She dabbles in illustration, delights in color, fabric, and pattern design. She is a mentor and community builder among creative business owners, who is always available to listen and problem solve. She loves cheering along with fellow soccer fans, exploring the beach with her sons, and advancing her skills in the art of pie baking (pie wins over cake for her every time!).
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Lolly Dormido
Lolly Dormido
Location: Vallejo, CA
Lolly's been rocking the e-commerce email marketing world for over 10 years. When she's not building email flows, she's making music or hitting the pavement for a run. And when it's time to chill, you'll find her hunting down the tastiest vegan pastries, enjoying a good cup of coffee, or adding to their cool Tamagotchi collection.
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Jess Romero
Jess Romero
Location: Hollywood, FL
Jess has been helping e-commerce brands for a bit over 7 years now, by being their right-hand supporter and helping them brainstorm ideas on how to improve their e-commerce business. She also has run her own handmade and fair trade brand online so she knows first-hand what it's like to do all the things and be a scrappy entrepreneur. When she's not online, she spends time with her family in South Florida, and will jump on any travel opportunity that pops up (hello wanderlust traveler)!
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Jessica Molnar
Jessica Molnar
Location: Bellingham, WA
Jessica graduated from art school in 2006 and quickly became aware of all the things art school did not teach. She's been in a DIY MBA program ever since. In 2017 she began supporting fellow creatives as a VA. In 2022 became Certified as an OBM. When she isn’t at the computer tackling business logistics, you can find her out in the art studio, or hanging out with her family.
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Kai Davis
Kai Davis
Location: Eugene, OR
Kai has been running + growing Ecommerce businesses since he was 15 years old. Kai got his start in Ecommerce in high school, selling collectibles on eBay. After college, Kai started creating and selling digital products (e.g. courses, books). These days, Kai focuses on Growth SEO and helps his Shopify clients get found by Google and make more sales online. Kai is a mentor, coach, and community builder for entrepreneurs. Kai lives in Eugene, Oregon, and loves spending time hiking in the forests.
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Cat Walton
Cat Walton
Location: Northern California
Cat has spent most of the last 21 years as a mom, and cheerleader of her husband and two daughters. Cat’s grownup-ish kids are glad she can now channel all her attention to detail and “nit picking” (their words) into her job as a QA Specialist. While Cat enjoys the attention to detail that comes with QA, her dream job would be naming colors for a paint or makeup company - coming up with fun ideas for others to implement is her favorite pastime. Cat is in her happy place whenever she is hiking, kayaking or snowshoeing with her family in the Sierras. If she could, she would eat popcorn with chocolate chips everyday.
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Natalia Sylvester
Natalia Sylvester
Location: Austin, TX
Natalia is obsessed with telling stories. She's been helping creative business owners and mission-driven entrepreneurs craft powerful narratives since 2010. With a background in journalism, PR, advertising, and novel writing, she loves finding a brand's unique, only-they-would-say-things-this-way voice. Natalia's client work takes many forms, from business name and tagline brainstorming to web copy and email writing. When she's not reading or writing, she's tending to her plants and baking chocolate everything.
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Jen Lacey
Jen Lacey
Location: Fresno, CA
Jen's work has been elevating our clients' products for years, and she's a talented stylist who will stop at nothing to get the right shot. A picture is worth 1000 words, especially for online shops! She delights in wildflowers sprinkling rolling foothills, beautiful light, and the smell of wet earth. She has a degree in Professional Photography from Brooks Institute of Photography, and has been in business as a photographer since 2007. Additionally, she's a work-from-home, homeschooling mom of 3 kids.
Let's work togetherOne of the best teams on the planet. ❤️ I will be forever grateful for the ways you changed my business for the better. It was a pleasure to work with you and to observe the respect that each team member gave to each other. I’ll never go anywhere else.
Ashley Jensen
Mouse in the House Shop
Let's take your online shop to the next level
The Shopify websites we design have a reputation for substantial improvements to ecommerce conversion rates and online sales. Let's talk!
