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Tag Archive: design-26
I have recently been helping a local business convert their website. What they had before was just the basics and they were looking for something that was new and fresh. They were also interested in getting more business from customers locating their business from the web. Since I had just switched my own site over to a WordPress based site, I offered to help them. It has turned out to be a great learning experience for me and another door has opened in my array of ways I can assist my customers.
Here is a picture of the site before.
While the site created the feel of warmth, it wasn’t inviting. It also required the customer to click in order to find any information out regarding the business. The studio owner was wanting that step taken out for the customer.
The studio owner also felt the menu items were too wordy and just kind of ran across the page – Agreed!
Here is a picture of the site after!
This is the site after we converted it to a WordPress format.
Much warmer and when the customer is on the homepage, it is capturing them and giving them a brief idea of what they have to offer without forcing them to click on the menu.
We still have a little tweaking to finish up on, but we are getting there and have already found quite a strong turnaround with their analytic scores.
Check out the site for yourself. I would love to have your feedback!
The IMTA (Iowa Motor Truck Association) help their first annual event the summer of 2008. They enlisted my help to create a logo for the event and then all the event materials. Since they also have a towing division, we created the same pieces and tailored it to both divisions.
Following is the booklet I made for them and the additional pieces they needed. Notice on the cover, I put a picture of the Iowa Speedway (location of the event) inside the semi truck grill. I was so happy with how that turned out! The book is eight pages long. Trying to create a piece that is exciting for the trucking industry proved to be a challenge for me! Not an area I was too familiar with to begin with. Now, I can say I get it a bit more!
Front Cover
Back Cover
Inside spread - page 1
Inside spread - page 2
Inside spread - page 3
Inside spread - page 4
Inside spread - page 5
Inside spread - page 6
Pride & Polish Application
Registration Form
Sponsorship Opportunites - front
Sponsorship Opportunites - back
Exhibitor's Contract
I am in the process right now of assisting a local business with some brand development. They are looking to grow their business and have just not invested the time or money into that for the past three years. Now, they are ready. Lucky for me, I get to help!
Their first focus or area of concern is in their name. Another business located not too far from them recently put up their new business sign and guess what? Same name, with the same font. All in upper case even! While the two businesses are not in the same line of work, it still has started to create confusion for the current customers. All the more reason to make this companies revised logo a bit more “unique” for them. The current logo is very general and uses a very common font. It isn’t surprising to me that this happened.
I have met with the owner and her associate and we have gotten the basics revealed. I am now starting with the basics of all and revising the logo. I will post the old and the new when we are up and ready.
Case in point, spend the time and effort needed to make sure your business starts in a very “unique” spot from day one regarding the image you want to portray. It will only make your job easier down the road! Less room for confusion among the clientele!
Even though I don’t 100% agree with all the rules, I love this 7 Rules to Understand Design and Designers wall decal.
1. Designers are meant to be loved not to be understood. 2. The purpose of design is to make the ordinary extraordinary. 3. The best designers are the ones who find the good clients. 4. Design must seduce, shape &, more importantly, evoke an emotional response. 5. Good design can be planned but great design just happens. 6. Design the right things, design the things right. 7. Imagination is more important than knowledge.
So my new site has been up and running with wordpress for about a month now. I have to admit right away, I thought it was going to be a bit more “user friendly” for us non-web developing clients. I am a graphic designer, not a web developer. Although it would appear to many that I would understand both processes, I really don’t. I am starting to think though that I should learn a bit of it so I don’t feel so lost all the time.
Thankfully I have a great person helping me along the way and he does know WordPress better than most. I just hope he is still glad he has me as a client…
It is really bothering me that my site just doesn’t have the feel I want it to have yet. I am a designer who loves color and wants more of it! I love the idea of having very bold colors on top of black backgrounds. Why does that seem so hard to get on my site? I also love different fonts. I personally own more than 10,000 of them and would buy more if I had an open checkbook.. Why can’t I use those fonts I love so much? It just seems so simple to me!
So, please be patient… my site is going to have the look and feel I want real soon. Then the content will be right behind that. And then hopefully, the business will start to boom! Big deams!