Thankful for the Work: A Look Back at the Projects That Filled My Year

The season of warm coats and holiday sweaters is upon us. The lights are twinkling. The auto-responders are taking effect. And, we have few precious days before the calendar turns over and the new year is here. In between the school parties and the gift shopping and the holiday plans, I try really hard to make time to pause and savor the best parts of the year, both personally and professionally.

This week, I’ve found myself reflecting on the many parts of Doodling Pandas‘s year that made it so rewarding and a theme emerged that I really love. VARIETY.

Instead of highlighting specific clients (because, seriously, how could I possibly choose? My clients are literally THE BEST.) I want to celebrate the kinds of work that made this year special. Here are some of the themes where strategy and creativity came together in the best ways in 2025.

Identity Designs That Marked a Fresh Start

Identity has been the heart of Doodling Pandas since the beginning. Every service we offer starts with who you are and why you do what you do. So, it’s no surprise that some of our favorite projects revolved around helping businesses step boldly into new chapters. With logos, strategy, colors, and brand guidelines, we loved every chance we had this year to help our clients clarify who they are and how they serve.

Websites That Helped Businesses Step Into Themselves

Usually, once we’ve built the identity package, the next piece of the puzzle is the website presence. Websites offer clarity, credibility, and an avenue for your future customers to get to you. And we LOVE getting to put them together in a way that is clear, beautiful, and optimized for search (and AI) engines.

This year brought several site builds with new integrations, beautiful brand photos, and custom-written copy to take our client sites to the next level.

Photography Sessions Filled With Story and Energy

While photography has been an offering at DPC for a little while, we really leaned into this portion of the business this year. Between brand shoots that took websites and marketing to a whole new level to capturing so many beautiful families, every session filled me with overwhelming gratitude…and beautiful imagery to boot.

Creative Maintenance That Made Life Easier for Busy Businesses

Graphic design is where my professional story began. I fell in love with the idea of visual communication when I was in high school and getting to do this work full-time still brings me so much joy as it did decades ago. This year, I worked on many creative maintenance projects. From brochures to slide decks, web page build-outs to marketing campaigns and collateral, the graphic design work ran the gamut and never left me bored.

A Year Full of Heartfelt Work

Every project — big, small, bold, simple — left a mark on me this year.
I’m grateful for the trust and the collaboration of every person who let me be part of their story. I look forward to more great work (with even greater people) in 2026.

Here’s to another year of thoughtful design, meaningful strategy, hype-girl energy, and brands that feel like home.