About Sara Cannon: Birmingham-Based Digital Designer & Accessibility Advocate
Sara Cannon is a Birmingham-based seasoned branding, web, and UX designer with over 20 years of experience crafting digital solutions that seamlessly blend creativity, strategy, and accessibility. Her design process begins with a deep understanding of a brand's core values and user needs, followed by a thoughtful, problem-solving approach. Specializing in creating engaging websites, Sara ensures that each project reflects the brand's identity while delivering a seamless and inclusive user experience. She also excels at leading teams to push creative boundaries and deliver exceptional results.
A Champion for Inclusive Design
At the core of Sara's approach is her dedication to inclusive design. By integrating accessibility best practices into every project, she ensures that the digital experiences she creates are usable and enjoyable for all users, regardless of ability. From designing accessible WordPress themes to developing responsive branding strategies, Sara is committed to making the digital world a more inclusive space.
When I’m not designing, I’m designing the internet from my home office in Birmingham, AL, where I share life with my husband, daughter, and a lively crew of pets. Oh, and in my downtime? You’ll probably find me painting, rescuing animals, or diving into other art projects. Let’s create something amazing!
Notable Projects & Clients
Sara’s portfolio showcases her work with a variety of clients and industries:
- Automattic Special Projects: Designed custom WordPress webistes with accessibility and brand consistency in mind.
- CUNY Academic Commons: Developed a responsive platform to foster academic collaboration.
- Brodo: Conducted a color contrast audit for the gourmet broth company, focusing on accessibility best practices.
- Conserv: Designed software interfaces, marketing materials, and websites to enhance user experience, workflows, and data visualization, helping Conserv support cultural institutions in preserving environmental data.
- Rooted In Rights: Transformed their online presence with new designs that focus on Accessibility
- Boreta: Created a visually compelling website that helped Boreta showcase his creativity and music.
For a full list of Sara's work, visit her portfolio.
Specialties: Branding, WordPress, Web design, UX/UI, Typography, Strategic Design, Remote Work, Design for accessibility.
LinkedIn - Twitter: @saracannon - Original Artworks: saracannonart.com
Professional Experience
Sara Cannon Studios (2020 – Present)
Founder & Principal Designer:
Specializing in accessible, impactful digital experiences blending creativity with strategic branding and design. I work on a variety of design, UX, and branding projects, crafting websites and identities that are visually compelling and inclusive.
Notable Clients:
- 15/10 Foundation: Created impactful branding and web designs to support shelter dogs in need.
- CUNY Academic Commons: Led a redesign project focused on improving usability and accessibility for this academic collaboration platform.
- LifeTutors: Refreshed their branding and created a new modern web presence.
- CUNY Open Press: Designed strategic branding for CUNY's new press arm site design.
Automattic Special Projects (Jun 2020 – Jan 2024)
Contract Web Designer:
As a design consultant, I collaborated with individuals and brands within the Automattic ecosystem to deliver custom WordPress designs and cohesive branding solutions, with a strong emphasis on accessibility for various high-profile clients.
Notable Clients:
- Brodo: Conducted a color contrast audit for the gourmet broth company, focusing on accessibility best practices.
- WeRateDogs: Worked on various sections of the site including a dog portal and e-commerce pages, enhancing the user experience through a clean, accessible interface.
- Boreta: Created a visually compelling website that helped Boreta showcase his creativity and music.
- Tressie McMillian Cottom: Designed a personal site that reflects Tressie’s academic and literary work.
- Rooted In Rights: Transformed their online presence with new designs that focus on accessibility.
Conserv (Oct 2019 – Feb 2020)
Chief Experience Officer (CXO)
Conserv is a platform designed to monitor and protect cultural heritage through environmental data collection and analysis. As Chief Experience Officer, I led the design of the software, enhancing user interfaces, improving workflows, and creating intuitive visualizations. I also developed responsive marketing materials and websites, focusing on a seamless user experience and product functionality. This helped Conserv provide effective solutions for preserving cultural institutions' environmental data.
Product Design: My focus was on creating user-friendly interfaces for managing sensor data and workflows. I also collaborated on mapping the user journey, and designed a tailored website and marketing materials. My goal was to ensure a seamless, cohesive user experience, from data visualization to checkout, helping users interact effectively with Conserv's innovative tools for collections care.
Bloc (Sep 2017 – Feb 2020)
Design Mentor
Provided mentorship to aspiring designers in Bloc’s Design & UX Bootcamp, offering advice and critiques to guide students toward becoming skilled, professional designers.
Education
Samford University: Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Concentration in Graphic Design
Sara Cannon is a Design and Digital Strategy Consultant, UX/UI Designer, Creative Director, & Artist.
Have a project I could help you with? Contact me at sara@saracannon.com.