Developing a website alone doesn’t serve the purpose. For any website to be successful many aspects should be considered else the website will be a non-starter. If one focuses on what and who makes a website successful then the purpose of website is solved.

While many people are of the view that a website is worth [...]]]>

Developing a website alone doesn’t serve the purpose. For any website to be successful many aspects should be considered else the website will be a non-starter. If one focuses on what and who makes a website successful then the purpose of website is solved.

While many people are of the view that a website is worth single answer for a thousand questions. It’s true and there’s no denial about it. But here the question is not about having just a website but a website which really the serves the purpose for which it has been made.

Now many argue that the best looks can always pay off well. This is something which everyone takes care well off. But it’s a common knowledge that there are scores of websites in World Wide Web while many are new coming which go unnoticed. So it’s imperative that one chooses a good web design which can do the task.

So before you choose good web design london organization. It’s important to check the credentials of the designing company. But now choosing a good web design organization is just a search away from internet. This is music to many ear’s.

Internet is an ocean of information you can get lot of information that can help you accomplish the task. As such one can take the technology to their advantage to get right information from right source. One always gets first hand information about web design London companies.

Now thanks to the internet revolution you have blogs, forums, chat rooms, special bulletins you say it is there. Now one can get access to information with out even relying on some hired agencies which in some or the other way can actually manipulate things.

With blogs you always have the advantage of airing one’s personal views. This to a greater extent can provide information as there are some people who rely on word-of-mouth. Now you can post all your queries in the forums and get advices on web design london from the experts themselves.

Not only can that one even get expert advices about the best competitive prices that are available around. So now gathering information about the best web design london is absolutely a click away from internet.

So if making a website from web design london can offer the best opportunities then one might also avail the best available information from the internet. So the right web design london Company looks into your needs and objectives and translate into a website that will appeal the intended audience.

My graphic design company gets requests from freelance designers frequently about advice on how much to charge for design jobs. Accurately bidding on design jobs is easily the hardest part of this business. I’ve been doing this for quite some time now with what I consider to be pretty good success. Bidding on jobs gets [...]]]>

My graphic design company gets requests from freelance designers frequently about advice on how much to charge for design jobs. Accurately bidding on design jobs is easily the hardest part of this business. I’ve been doing this for quite some time now with what I consider to be pretty good success. Bidding on jobs gets easier the more you do it, because with each prospective client you get a little better at feeling out their individual needs. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule that can be used over and over again. You’re not going to get every job you bid on and you probably don’t want to. However, no designer can afford to spend large amounts of time putting together proposals that don’t get accepted. I’m sure any freelance graphic designer with a mortgage can verify this. Sure, part of accurately bidding on design jobs comes from experience but there are some things you can do to help streamline your bidding process to weed out time wasters and land more legitimate clients.

The first thing you should do is know what the other advertising agencies, design companies and freelance designers in your area are charging so that you can establish a guideline for what is a fair and acceptable hourly rate or flat fee. You don’t want to charge too much but you don’t want to be known as the cheapest in town either. I would personally rather bid too high than too low.

When you speak with a client about a new job make sure that you get as much information from them as possible. From this information you should be able to ballpark the time involved based on previous projects. Yes, I know every job is different, but at least this gives you a place to start. It’s been my experience that the majority of clients want to know a hard cost for the finished work and not an hourly rate. Sometimes an hourly rate can even scare potential clients off simply because it’s too open ended. To bid a flat rate effectively, set an hourly rate for yourself based on what is competitive to your area while allowing you to operate your business profitably. Compare your hourly rate to the actual time spent on a flat rate proposal for a good way to know if you’re profitable in the jobs you’re bidding.

One thing that I do that really helps land a job is to determine price ranges for specific types of jobs like; logo design, post cards, basic website design, e-commerce sites, etc. I’ve found this to be useful on two levels. First, I have established a slight buffer for myself when working on the project. Second, I have found potential clients to be more receptive of a price scale, because they feel like you are open to working with them on getting them to that lower end of the scale. This, of course, is entirely up to the client and how they affect the flow of the project and approval process.

The key to coming up with a reasonable price scale is to use the information that the client provides you about the job. This information will help determine where they may fall in your price range. Use your own design experience to help determine the potential hours that may go into a job. For instance, a client wants you to bid on a logo, letterhead, envelope and business card design package. This could take you anywhere from 6 to 16 hours depending on the client and complexity of the job. So, you estimate the job at 16 hours and a rate of, we’ll say $65 an hour, which equals $1,040. Hourly rates and design fees are going to vary from state to state and location to location, but here’s what your client proposal may look like;

Example: Company Logo / Identity: $800 – $1,200

Work Flow:
• Will provide at least 2-3 initial directions for your logo and letterhead system and work chosen direction to your satisfaction.
• Will proceed with development after verbal or written approval on directions.
• Concepts will be presented via email and / or other specified method.
• You can expect to see initial directions within 2 weeks.
• If major changes or reworks are requested after an approval design is subject to hourly rate of $65 per hour.
• Art will be provided to you in print ready format (Set up for print production)
*If you choose to proceed with us our payment terms are 50% deposit to start and 50% upon completion.

You will notice that I threw in some extra information in that example. I like to make sure that I’ve covered all of my bases just incase a project does take longer than expected. It’s been known to happen. I always write my proposals in contract form and have the client sign two copies when beginning a project. One for me and one for the client. At that time I collect a non-refundable 50% deposit. I recommend that every graphic designer implements a policy of retaining a deposit to begin work. You will find this useful if for some reason a client backs out of the project or drags the project on longer than expected. That has also been known to happen. The other point that can come in handy is stipulating that reworks after approvals or unending revisions will be billed at an hourly rate. Sometimes you will get a client who wants work done beyond the scope of a project. You should make sure that you’re covered in that event too. I would go to my hourly rate for all work provided above and beyond the scope of the project.

Here are a few more examples for your reference only (based on a $65 per hour rate). Remember these are guidelines to help you. You should evaluate each client and the information your client provides to determine your own price estimate structure. These examples are estimates on design work only. I suggest providing a separate estimate for printing if you are providing printing services.

1) Logo Design Price Scale: $350 – $800
• Price scale reflects amount of conceptual design, type of illustration and detail of illustration used.

2) Tri-fold Brochure Price Scale: $650 – $1,000
• Text and images provided by client.

3) Post Card: $175 – $350

4) Basic Website Design: $850 – $1,800
- Site could include:
- 4-15 page site with CSS Optimized for Search Engines
- Contact Form
- Stock Photography
- Simple Content Management System
- Populate site content from “text” information provided by client
- Please visit our blog at www.pixelproductionsinc.com/blog to view our article about using a website design contract.

Like many things the key to an effective estimate is to be clear! Specify a fair price and include the services you are going to provide. This could be anything from stating that you will provide 2 to 3 initial directions to your time frame and terms of payment. Be specific! The less questions you leave your client with, the more professional you appear and the greater the chance of securing the job at a price that works for both of you.

While there can be no argument over the benefits of CSS stylesheets in opposition to inline styling, there is still a great deal of controversy over the adoption [...]]]> Most Web Development professionals in London have reached a crossroad in website design which will influence the way they proceed with current and future web design projects.

While there can be no argument over the benefits of CSS stylesheets in opposition to inline styling, there is still a great deal of controversy over the adoption of new web site design layout.

On the one hand we have the tried and trusted method of Web page creation using Tables and on the other we have the contemporary method of using DIV’s. The core problem is which method to use? Which method is better?

Web Development purists in London will argue for complete and full adoption of W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which means only using DIV tags to build and layout your website pages. There are a few major points they use to back up their argument, most of which surround and support SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

The Benefits of using DIV’s

•The DIV tags original purpose is for the design and layout of website content.

•Using DIV’s means less code needed to construct a webpage, which means less code for a search bot to navigate through. This means quicker and more comprehensive indexing of your website. “Content is King” for search bots. •Because of the “Top down” method in which data is displayed in the website page, search engines are able to search and rank the importance of your content on your webpage.

But the ideas of the Web Development London are being challenged by industry professionals who claim that DIV layouts are simply not robust enough. Their major arguments for using Tables focus around Web browser compatibility.

The Benefits of using Tables

•The Table tag and its properties are universal across most if not all web browsers, meaning less technical “work-arounds” to make your design display properly. This means more time is spent on improving designs than trying to make designs simply display correctly.

•Table layouts allow the designer a level of measurement and accuracy which is difficult to obtain with a full DIV implementation.

•Tables make creating a visually intensive design easier. Why? Because what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) as Tables set out content in a manner that is visually logical to the human eye.

So, back to the question, which method to use and which method is better?

Each website design or web development project should be evaluated for its needs and purposes before building can begin. You have to ask yourself what is most important for this site.

Most website builds have one major focus. This focus is either economic, informative or visually extravagant. All good websites contain elements of all three but tend to put emphasis on one of these areas.

Economic Focus

Economically driven websites focus heavily on driving traffic to their website in order to sell goods. These sites need great SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and tend to use the latest technologies to give them the edge. In this case using DIV tags for structure would increase the overall SEO London of this site and could potentially offer a better solution than a Table layout.

Information Focus

Informative sites tend to have a great deal of content which is usually dynamic and populated from an integrated CMS (Content Management System). Your template needs to be malleable enough to expand with changing content. In this case using a combination of Tables and DIV’s is not a bad solution. Using Tables to setup a strong outer structure which will be cross browser compatible and using DIV tags within the Table structure to minimize the “code clutter” and give the site a little boost in SEO.

Visually Extravagant Focus

Everyone’s favorite kind of website. This type of website focuses on the visual impact on the user. Sites like these can be very intricate and building a website that doesn’t compromise the original design is vital. This style of website also needs to look good in all browsers. Using Tables would be the best approach for intricate designs because of its robust nature, browser compatibility and its ability to be precise.

In all three of the above cases there are a hundred counter arguments for using only DIV’s or only Tables. But before you tear your hair out over which method to use, remember that what this all boils down to is what is best for the client. As a website designer and builder your responsibility is to produce a website that fulfils their needs on time and on budget to the best of your abilities.

No one ever said there couldn’t be a compromise between Tables and DIV’s.