ABOUT

Strategic Brand Design & Marketing Implementation

Getting your office admin to do your marketing would be cheaper, but you won’t get the same results.

Invest with an experienced design firm who will partner with you to get it right without the hassle.

Some background

Jolinda Anderson, owner of Shapes & Colors and lead web designer sits outside on a sunny day holding a notebook

I started my design career in the corporate office of Circuit City Stores in the 90’s. Since then I have worked for several in-house corporate marketing teams as a graphic and web designer – with my last role in a small creative agency in downtown Richmond.

In 2009, I founded my own design business and began working on a few freelance projects a year outside of my full-time design roles. In September 2019, I began the adventure of working for myself full time.

My passion is to help business owners use visual communication to make their companies or their marketing work better. Our team’s focus is in graphic and web design…but we have a network of creative partners who specialize in photography, videography, brand messaging, copywriting and social media. So if what you need is more than what we do, we happily play with friends!

We love to see people excited about who they are and what they’re here to do in the world. If you’d like to learn more how to work with us, get in touch!

Wanna get updates on life as a working creative in Richmond, VA? Hop on that newsletter list.

Our Team

As the lead graphic and web designer on most of our projects, I still love being directly involved with our clients’ work. Solving a WordPress problem or designing a logo to reflect the expertise of an established business still gets me excited to show up to work every day.

As our client list has grown, I have brought on support over the years based on our project needs.

Our most recent hire is Jenna Marbukh, who joined us in the fall of 2025.

We also get support from one of our favorite interns, turned contractor – Makayla Williams – from time to time.

Jolinda Anderson and Cierra Fountain looking over a design on a laptopIn January 2023, Cierra Fountain came on board as Junior Designer. Our team is small but mighty.

We aim to deliver a boutique level of service with a smile. Our clients appreciate the systems and processes we’ve developed to keep their projects on track. We are flattered to be able to work with some of the nicest people and truly celebrate when our clients win.

treat people how you want to be treated

Growing up in rural southern Virginia on a farm, I learned the power of community and the power of keeping your word.

I strive to bring the highest level of service and communication to my clients.

Live by the golden rule
colorful rulers laying on a bright pink background
My favorite ruler is from Color Factory, NY.

Illustration and digital imaging from VCUarts, graphic design from client experience

My composition, drawing ability and color theory are all thanks to VCUarts.

My on-the-job experience designing for corporate retail, the financial industry, educational institutions, freelance projects and small agency clients has given me a depth of technical and production skills as well as creative and relationship building skills.

designing for over twenty years
scratchboard illustration of a doll being painted in front of a globe
The Doll, Scratchboard illustration.

design, strategy, and smart execution can transform your business

It's a great honor to help someone create an expression of who they are or what their business stands for.

I take that honor very seriously and strive to work in a collaborative and positive way with each of my clients. In life and in business, things don’t always go as we would like. Even in times of complication or struggle, I try to work toward a solution, remaining respectful, patient and helpful throughout the process.

partnering to create great solutions
Tweaking the shapes and colors in my personal brand.

Brands We Love & Leverage

We work with and trust the brands listed below and leverage them all the time in my work – or to run my business. In full transparency, some of these companies offer affiliate perks to us if you decide to work with them (by clicking on the links provided), but we confidently recommend them all.

As a true partner to our clients, we discover what platform works best for them and we never force my clients to choose a platform or tactic that is just not a fit. We have built this website on WordPress and host it on WP Engine. However, we have clients on many platforms including WordPress, Weebly, Wix, Squarespace and Odoo.

WordPress logo
WP Engine

Get 4 months free when you sign up for WP Engine through my link!

Wix logo
Squarespace logo
FreshBooks logo
Gusto logo

Notable Creative Partners

We love giving credit where it’s due!
These are some of the local creative folks we trust. We have partnered with them personally and can confidently recommend their work.

bellrae marketing logo, cream text on dark blue background
Erin Braford
Tina Take My Photo logo
S. Helena Photography
Emmaline's Personal Styling
Zooom Printing logo
keith fabry let's create something great
Total Printing Company
41Active clients in 2025
523Cups of Coffee
21tabs open on my browser
255-star reviews

Our clients say the nicest things. Check out how they describe their experience working with us.

See our reviews On Yelp

“I adore our partnership.”

– Nonprofit retainer client

Shapes & Colors, by Jolinda place picture
5.0
Based on 25 reviews
powered by Google
Ashley Sill profile pictureAshley Sill
17:12 22 Dec 25
We’ve been working with Jolinda for years. Not only do we really appreciate her creativity, we really value her focus on delivering results that hit our business objectives. Thank you, Jolinda!
An incredible experience working with Jolenda. From start to finish!
Tamisha Williams profile pictureTamisha Williams
01:46 28 Jul 25
I attended a workshop with Jolinda on optimizing my website. She was incredibly knowledgeable and I felt more empowered after participating in her workshop. I left with things that I could immediately do to enhance my website and brand, but also long term suggestions that were seeds planted for when I have more capacity. I learned an abundance from her in 1 hour, so there's no doubt that if I hired her for more robust services, I'd gain even more insight.
Emily Crookston profile pictureEmily Crookston
12:43 24 Jun 25
Jolinda and her team are knowledgeable, honest, and take the time to thoroughly explain everything. As a business owner, I always appreciate finding partners I can trust (especially when it comes to tech!). I highly recommend Shapes & Colors.
Jill Vaughan profile pictureJill Vaughan
19:45 13 Feb 25
Shapes & Colors was wonderful to collaborate with on the JLV Communications website refresh project. They helped us update the brand on the site, built new pages, and trained my team to take it over. They were very organized and listened to our needs.
Andrew Ryan profile pictureAndrew Ryan
15:26 29 Oct 24
Jolinda is helpful, professional, and very responsive. We worked with her to develop a WordPress website for my firm. One of things I was most impressed by was the training and maintenance guide that she created. It's enabled us to maintain our site on our own post-launch. If there's something we don't feel comfortable tackling, she has helped with those updates to the site, as needed. Jolinda was always clear about expectations and what she needed from us. Building the site was a collaborative process and so smooth. I highly recommend Jolinda!
Anne Hurt profile pictureAnne Hurt
20:14 14 Oct 24
Jolinda and her S&C team designed Better Housing Coalition's most recent annual report. They were very easy and flexible to work with and creative in their approach. They were also good at offering suggestions, and taking and incorporating feedback from our team. We would recommend them to anyone looking for a graphic designer!
Dave Southall profile pictureDave Southall
12:43 03 Aug 22
Our company's advertisement flyer needed to be updated. The old one did not accurately portray what we do and it did not effectively stimulate a prospective customer's interest in our product and services. Jolinda was extremely helpful with ideas and also listened closely to our concerns. We were quickly able to get to a desirable end product through several mock-ups and productive back and forth conversations. The graphics she designed quickly pointed out the issues our prospective customers face. For a customer to see those issues visually before any discussion really helps move the sales process forward. We can now effectively move to the solution phase of a conversation with our clients much faster. Our decision to use Shapes and Colors by Jolinda was the best choice for us. This endeavor was a complete success. I look forward to working with her and her team on future projects.

Dave Southall
Cristy Corbin profile pictureCristy Corbin
15:57 16 Jul 21
When I started by business, Family Support Partners of Virginia, Inc., in October 2020, I knew I needed a brand logo, colors & a website in order to get information out to people to let them know that I existed. I contacted Shapes & Colors, by Jolinda & the vision I had was turned into an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL & efficient website that has warm & welcoming colors that may put people at ease when they click on my site, fspofva.com. The brand colors & logo Jolinda created based off of my suggestions fully capture & reflect the purpose behind my business, my personality, the types of things that bring me joy, & highlights the professionalism that I need people to notice. She also created a digital flyer for me to use with my marketing efforts & this clearly reflects what's on my website & why people would want to work with me. Jolinda was VERY easy to communicate with, she was swift to respond to my questions & clearly explained what she needed from me to bring my vision to fruition. If you're in need of any type of brand, logo, colors, &/or website design, or marketing material, I HIGHLY recommend Shapes & Colors, by Jolinda. Because Jolinda is so talented, knowledgeable & easy to work with, I continue to work with her to develop some material for ongoing needs that I have. She is worth EVERY penny that I have paid her to date! I strongly encourage you to reach out to Shapes & Colors, by Jolinda to experience her talent for yourself. You won't be disappointed!
Samia Minnicks profile pictureSamia Minnicks
02:05 27 Apr 21
Jolinda was the perfect designer to take on our family business launch! My family hired her for logo and web design. She was so patient with my (60+ year old) parents! She took her time to explain details that may seem trivial to some, but she was able to walk my parents through the process of logo designs and website building. She definitely has a way of customizing the experience to fit the need of her client. Jolinda was able to create a logo that speaks to our ideal client and a website that shows the very best of what our family drone business has to offer. I am confident that the investment we made has set a very strong foundation for a successful launch!
Debbie Luther profile pictureDebbie Luther
19:26 27 Jan 21
My experience working with Jolinda was incredible. I bought 3 large journals and a notebook journal for my girls this Christmas. Not only was she incredibly accommodating, helping me find the right color and paper for their personalities, she even delivered them to me. A pink one is helping a daughter plan a wedding, a blue one is helping my teenager process her feelings while doing high school online, and a green one holds future masterpieces for my songwriting daughter. Jolinda is now a part of our family story. Thank you!!
Nadia the CPA profile pictureNadia the CPA
17:40 14 May 20
Jolinda has designed digital downloads, flyers, business cards, pop-up banners, table cloths, email campaigns, Power Point templates and many other items for my CPA business. She created graphics, info-graphs, other printed materials, and updated the website for my event management company, Virginia Grace. I like working with Jolinda because she is creative and communicates clearly. We talk through my goals and how I plan to use her designs in my businesses. She asks questions to understand my needs and creates designs that are visually appealing and easy for my audience to understand. I recommend Jolinda as a partner to small business owners who need help with any element of their branding or messaging.

I also recommend taking one of her DIY journal making classes. I have two journals that I hand stitched. I use them for Taking notes and gathering keepsakes from my travels. The classes are fun, all the materials are provided, and you leave with a conversation piece for your memories. How great is that????
Kristy May profile pictureKristy May
20:41 04 May 20
I attended a Journal Workshop with Jolinda in the Summer of 2019. I must say I was a little skeptical that it would be an enjoyable experience for me because I regularly get frustrated and impatient when making things with my hands. But Jolinda was a great instructor. With her clear step-by-step instruction, I created a beautiful journal and had an amazing time doing it!

I did the workshop with a group of former coworkers, and it was a casual, relaxing way to have quality time catching up with them. I would recommend Jolinda's Journal Workshop even if you don't consider yourself creative. You'll be amazed at what you can do! I plan on doing the workshop again when I need a new journal.