Amanda HAWKINS

1. “Bold, intuitive design is neither simple nor intuitive. It's a skill set and a value statement. Amanda took something as visually benign as a community calendar and turned it into an impactful website. Her work is about immediacy and focus. It's the visual landscape our community uses to engage in social justice and progressive politics. For all of the Arizona grassroots organizations & community organizers that use the AZ ROOTS website as a tool to collaborate & engage, thank you Amanda!” The Crew @ AZ Roots, azroots.info

2. “Amanda knows how to build a website into a piece of art that's organic and textured while incorporating impressive, customized development work, like my site's albums/music section and its smooth mobile and tablet friendly responsive design. Even with very little constructive feedback from me, Amanda created a website that visually represents my personality, story, and music more accurately than I could ever imagine.” Zach Fountain, rushmorebeekeepers.com

3. “Amanda's mix of professionalism, expertise, and friendliness is hard to come by. She is extremely competent as a developer and problem solver and maintains open communication throughout the project. As a web designer who has hired Amanda for web development, I know I can trust Amanda to go above and beyond in delivering what she promises to do, and I also know I can trust her to be kind, patient, and professional with my clients. I honestly can't recommend her enough.” Amanda Csakan of Brand Epiphany

4. “It was a genuine pleasure to work with Amanda to bring the bits of my vision to life. My blog / website finally feels like 'home' now - a true reflection of self. Amanda was efficient, proactive, thorough, and flexible. She has the rare ability to stretch and blend your vision and ideas with her unique gifts in artistry and creativity. She smoothed out any of the bumps that I had anticipated with a project of this size and her knowledge of WordPress is impressive. She created efficiencies where I didn't see them possible. I would recommend Amanda without hesitation for a solid experience - start to finish.” Jessa Fowler, livingfromthisdayforward.com

5. “I'd like to give a special shout out to Amanda Hawkins, someone who has never met me, yet seems to know me fairly well. She is responsible for waringis.com's new look, which I finally feel like represents me. It's unreal.” Jana Helms, waringis.com

6. “Amanda has built 3 websites for me. These websites have been an integral part of my career as a musician and booking agent. Amanda has great artistic instincts, and goes above and beyond to achieve great results. I'm extremely happy to work with her.” Evan Phillips, evanphillips.net

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ART bio

Amanda Hawkins believes art is a means of parsing out emotions and creating space where life can be messy and nonsensical. This is clear in how she uses texture, layers, and contrast throughout her work. Her paintings - which incorporate watercolor, pastels, pen, pencil and found materials - are versatile works that have been called "whimsical" as well as "tragic." Though abstract, her work embraces intimacy and evokes childhood optimism and nostalgia. Collage is also one of Amanda's passions; she uses multimedia to blend grimy and minimal with bright colors and abstract elements.

Amanda has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and considers herself a recovering graphic designer, a background which involved the creation of everything from jumbotron slideshows to logos and printed materials. Though graphic design is no longer a primary focus, design and the digital world are still very much a part of her life through web development. For Amanda, creating websites combines the science and precision of code with the art and subjectivity of design. She describes the first time she turned a design into a website as being like magic, as if she were painting with words.

In addition to designing sites herself, Amanda partners with other artists and designers to bring their design to life while she pours herself into coding. She is also a maker of DIY planners and templates, which are as much planners as they are art projects - blending structure with life's beautiful rough edges. When she's not creating, Amanda can be found playing with her kids, listening to music and dreaming of road-trips to the beach.