In Announcements

We are so pleased that you’ve found yourself on our doorstep this Halloween. It’s been six months in the works and an uphill slog to build this house on the hill (not to mention getting the rights for the ghoul to occupy the cemetery) but we’re here at last, and we’ve left the door ajar just for you. There’s no need to ring the bell, but we appreciate the thought — come right in, make yourself at home, and stay for a spell. 

Trick or Treat?

What began as an idle daydream on a dreary afternoon has finally become a reality: the story goes, as it’s been told once or twice (and in the originally telling there was a necromancer and some nefarious business with a misplaced coffin), Noisy Ghost Co. manifested at first as a desire to balance work and life, leaving more room to write, more time to create, and to make really great things that made people happy. It was a really simple dream that proved to be a bit of a pain to summon into form. The story begins a little something like this:

Seated in my cushy office job one gloomy afternoon where there was no end in sight (save for the inevitable existential contemplations of someone who’d steadily been watching their dreams die), I texted four words to my partner: “I’m gonna do it.”

The “it” in question wasn’t flinging myself beneath a falling piano. Nothing so dramatic as that, though I think if Edward Gorey was around to paint it, I could accomplish some serious languishing atop a tombstone. The “it” was quitting my cushy user experience designer job at an established company that was paying me exceptionally well to take a big risk — going completely independent without a client in sight, that would allow me the opportunity to share my experience as a designer with a group of creative professionals who were so dear to my dreary heart:

Writers.

“It” began as a nervous titter. An excited stirring that for a moment — I think I might’ve believed in my delerium that whatever I wanted for myself was just only out of reach: I might have to claw at it, but it could be mine — it was a little like writing a book for the first time. The idea of the thing was there, but only partially formed: I had a flashlight and a long stretch of dark road ahead of me, and that’s when I heard the first rappings that would eventually resurrect my ethos as a designer, calling forth the thing that I’d been missing for so long in my tech career: 

“The spirit of design that remains curious, inquisitive, and explorative never dies. The Noisy Ghost began as an intangible concept that wanted desperately to be real — to be believed in. It set up shop and announced its presence by knocking over the furniture and shoving things off the shelving until I started paying attention to the idea that would eventually possess me entirely.”

I wanted to marry my two loves desperately: writing and design, because it’s only ever been writing and design, because who needs a better excuse than books, right? (People who haunt libraries and book shops know this love affair defies explanation: because books. Right.) 

Why Noisy Ghost? Because books. Because horror books. Because in my soul, there lives a tiny spirit that keeps my love for these things very much alive and animated and curious for more, and is completely unself-conscious in its adoration for writing and design.

Phew.

We’re happy to say that at last, Noisy Ghost is here to haunt for good. 

What we do

We believe that every website is like a book: it ought to tell your story. We can help with that — but we do not stop there: Noisy Ghost offers a complete design service dedicated to authors who want to present their platform a little bit differently in an over-saturated market. We coach, we mentor along the way, and we help you make the best of your new home on the web.

About our work

We create haunting, memorable design pieces that best marry our knowledge of user experience, web, brand, and graphic design. Whether it’s digital or in print, we help our clients by translating their stories into resonant visual mediums that surprise, delight, and occasionally terrify.

Check out our portfolio if you’re curious.

How we help authors

Our service offering is pretty well-rounded: beyond website design, we help authors, small businesses, and other creative professionals with their graphic design projects, the visual design for their web and mobile products, their branding and identity development, and their user experience to improve conversion and performance.

We offer a three-tiered design service for author websites, depending on where the client is in their journey. This is to say that we build the house to match the budget, but we always leave room to grow… Kind of like the Winchester Mystery House, but without all the corridors that lead to nowhere.

Who we are

Hi! I’m Kira — a senior user experience designer, with a background in web, graphic, and brand design. That spells out as nineteen years’ raw-knuckle experience working in both marketing and product development, and thirteen in the industry. I’ve worked for companies like Lightspeed, Airbnb, and fashion mogul, Dynamite — but my passion is helping authors tell their story through their websites and book marketing. 

I am committed to producing work that is beautiful, user-friendly, and competitive with the competition. I am in love with narrative design structure, which is why I adore working with authors, and it goes without saying that I am a voracious reader too… but I have something of a secret identity: I write horror and dark fantasy for young adults. Maybe that’s not so secret, given the theme of my company, but suffice to say that in off-hours I dabble in dark fiction.

As a fangirl, folklorist, and Fortean, a lot of my inspiration and influence comes from the fantastic, but I’ve always liked working with people who want to aggressively represent the genre they write, who like to scrutinize the details, and who want to present their author platform a little bit differently in an over-saturated market. 

Where we’re from

Noisy Ghost was born out of the need to forge a connection with other like-minded creative professionals who found themselves struggling with their book marketing, website design, and brand development. As someone actively trying to publish, I’ve put in the time and effort on my own author website, and over the course of building it, discovered that I could apply my knowledge of user experience and web design to make the standard stuff sparkle. 

More literally: we’re from the graveyard of the imagination. Or, the attic. Or the basement. Or in between the walls. We’re the manifestation nudging the ideas that need a little nurturing to become something tangible. We’re the entity that helps others realize their potential — whether that’s honing their user experience so they can sell books better through their website, or strengthening their author brand because the patina needed a little polish. 

Even more literally than that: Montreal, Canada is our current haunt.

What’s to come

While we’re just starting out, we’re happy to say that our portfolio is polished and we’re gearing up to fling open the doors to the Haunted Library.

With a hoard of resources at our disposal, we’re super excited to start debunking the great author website design mysteries, how to develop awesome author branding, and how to handle the part of publishing a book that both indie authors and seasonsed professionals often groan at: book marketing.

We want to equip you with the best tools to venture forth, unafraid, into that shadowy forest so that you can spend more time doing what you love: writing. 

Over the coming weeks, we’re going to pick up the shovel and dig a little deeper into our products and process, unearthing the scary stuff and making it a little more friendly. Subscribe in the sidebar to get our blog posts directly to your inbox.

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