Most clients seem to have a pretty clear idea of what they want you to design. Other clients come to you with nothing more than a business name and high expectations. Coming up with a design idea can be the most difficult step in the process, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the client’s industry. I recently had a forex trader ask me to build him a website. He didn’t have any input, he just wanted “something cool.”
A very common mistake among designers is being more concerned with making the website itself cool rather than making the website fit the product. Emmanuel Rouzic’s photography portfolio is a great example of what should be done. The subject is photography and 99% of the interface is photography. They made the content the interface and did a good enough job of it to win an fwa award (another great source of inspiration by the way)! Your design must fit your content. Read more…
Less than two years ago the real estate market was booming. With all the money Realtors were bringing in, dropping a couple thousand dollars on a custom website made sense. With the change in the market, all that is over. Whether you’re a Realtor yourself or designing for a Realtor, your budget is probably tight.
Rich or broke, Realtors need a logo, business card, fliers, and a website. Using stock files is a fantastic way to get professional -looking design done inexpensively. Even with stock, a designer may still be necessary, but it will always be cheaper than custom work. Many real estate offices employ an in-house designer, who may be the perfect person to turn a couple pieces of stock into a quality design for little to no cost. Read more…
Chances are that if you are on a normal stock photography website and you search “Paris Hilton”, all you are going to find is a hotel in France. Most stock photo and video websites don’t sell images of celebrities, athletes, politicians, or anyone else famous.
Be Careful
When you buy an image from most stock websites, you can use the image pretty much however you want. This is not the case when buying a photo of a famous person! Let’s say you run a blog all about the latest and greatest sports news and you want to do an article on former UFC champ Chuck Liddell. You can’t just search Google, find your favorite picture of him and slap it on your site. If you do, it is highly likely the license owner of that image will come after you. If you think the consequences for using a famous person’s image on your website is bad, you should see what happens to people who use unauthorized images of celebs in fliers promoting their products. This is a dangerous road that you shouldn’t walk down. Each license is different so read them very carefully before you buy. Read more…
When you think WordPress, you probably think blog. Yes, WP was build as a blog, but it is also a great CMS (content management system). WordPress is one of the simplest CMS’s out there and perfect a small business owner who needs a great website they can update themselves. WordPress is free, but to make it look professional, you need to buy a template for it. Here are some of the best stock WordPress themes I could find:
Read more…
So you need a website, but you don’t have much time, money, or know-how. The good news is that you probably have more options than you realize.
Custom Work
Custom work can be the best, but be careful. Just because a web design company exists doesn’t mean it’s good. Make sure you check out their portfolio to be sure. If you don’t know what to look for, check the client list. Big clients means they are probably good, but unfortunately big clients also means big bucks. Custom work is the slowest and most expensive route you can take. Expect to pay thousands of dollars for custom websites. Be wary of cheap work; you get what you pay for.
My Friend’s Brother Does Websites
Whether it’s your friend’s brother, cousin, dog’s former owner, whatever, this is usually a BAD idea. I get so sick of hearing this phrase from people because most people that “do websites” have NO idea how to DO websites. Okay, maybe they do appear to know what they are doing. Check their portfolio and client list just like you would someone you don’t know. If they are good, this is just regular old custom work so expect to pay custom prices.
You know all this already. That is why you are here. Let’s move on to the options you may not be aware of. Read more…
Let’s assume you’re a Flash guru, or at least on the road to becoming a Flash guru. Why on earth would you need to buy Flash stock? It’s not like you can’t build your own contact form with email validation or snazzy slideshow gallery.
Stock can be a great time saver and if you’re an experienced freelancer you know that time really does mean money. Before you read on, please note that I am in no way suggesting that stock should ever replace custom work. Though in certain situations it can be used as an out of box solution, I typically use stock only when I can seamlessly integrate it into custom work or use it as the base and then make it custom. Read more…
Zsg.com is a great example of Flash assets usage.
Whether you are using stock for a freelance client, your work, or your own business there is one important rule you must follow: Don’t let your design look like you used stock! Everything should look custom, nothing should look canned. Does that mean you need to pay hundreds of dollars for a model and a photographer to get that perfect picture of a friendly receptionist for you contact page? No, it means you need to follow a few simple steps to make it look like you did. Read more…
