Web Design | Graphic Design

Listen To Your Designer

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:58:56 +0000

A personal blog of advice to clients:

OK, so a budding young web designer and I have been swapping advice recently, and once again the good old phrase popped up “It is what they wanted”.

This is so infuriating for a designer, we cannot do our job to the correct level when a client who works in Scaffolding, Finance or Teddy Bear Repair (Insert job of your choice), know more than we do, there are rules to web design and graphic design, when a client want’s something that does not make sense (Flash for example, terrible for SEO) and a designer tries to tell them (sometimes politely, sometimes abruptly) that it will not work, some clients get upset. Why?

If you were in Singapore and waltzed into Raffles, would you tell the head chef to make you a Salad Cream and Marmite toastie, as you do not like whats on the menu?

If you were in Harrods, would you tell the £48k a year window dresser how to do her job?

If you told a builder whilst building your house that you do not want air vents, windows or doors, do you think he would build it?

The list could go on.

Leave design to your designer, I appreciate some people have an eye for design, people in industries such as interior design, painting, architecture etc, and ironically these are the clients that will take your advice and feedback, those with no design or creativity will want a word document their 8 year old nephew designed!

Two pieces of advice

Clients like this: STOP! You will end up with a pile of pants, that does not work, and then you will wonder why you have no orders, or new clients.

Designers: If you have a client like this, advise first, then if no joy, run! Put it in your terms and conditions somehow. But remember, sometimes a client will give you an idea or advice that will change your world!

Never ignore the client or the designer, become a team, and take on board each others skill sets and talents, but do not let a Plumber in Kent tell you how to design his advert!

Now, you can have the soap box back. My rant is over!

Is Your Blog & Website Seperate?

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:47:54 +0000

All In One Websites & Blogs

This used to be a common thing, up until WordPress and other blog companies gave the power to the people, and opened up a chance to have your website and blog all in one, just like this site, you are reading a blog entry right now.

The benefits are huge, combining your website and blog gives you so much SEO and control they really should be more expensive.

For Instance:

No need to check your stats twice, blog and web site.
No need to login and logout of two separate sites.
More options when you host the blog yourself.
Blog software, like WordPress, is free either way.
Customers do not need to find links to your web site from your blog.
When people see what they like, they are already there!
Everytime you add a blog entry, your site pings the relevant sites, increasing your web sites SEO.

These are just a few reasons why you should be thinking about combining your web site and blog. Your website is a shop or office front for your clients, you would not be happy if your dentist reception was 5 streets away from the actual surgery, would you?

To see some of the options available to you, click here, or contact us to find out more.

Financial Web Site Design for CFM

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:16:11 +0000

We were approached by CFM originally for SEO purposes, and we both agreed that the best option here was to pull down the existing site and rebuild from scratch, this is often an easy option, as existing web sites have all the content they need, so it is mainly a design job.

Once we had copied all of the content and relevant information on to our local machines, we then set about giving CFM a more corporate look, using WordPress as the back end so that they can benefit from the SEO power of WP.

We are sure you agree, that the site now has a strong, corporate feel without being unapproachable, we even have the owner starting to write and posts blogs, to keep fresh content appearing on the website, awesome for SEO.

Who Can See What? Excellent Google Tool

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:06:46 +0000

With larger screens and smaller net books, do we really know what our web site visitors are seeing? This new tool from Google seems to have a fair idea, but as with all Google tools. do not let it become an obsession, if you did everything Google told you to do, you would never see your children in a school play, get to meet your friends at a rugby match, have time to see the in laws (hmmmm!) or anything else for that matter. Google can have you obsessing in no time, so be careful.

That said, this gives you a good indication of the main screen sizes people are viewing in, showing a percentage (%) overlay of your website, for instance, 90% of our visitors see the Auction & Fun tabs, 95% see our Contact tab, 98% see our Portfolio and Services, and 99% see About Us, so we have everything in the right place, for the less seasoned web designers out there, (self builders) I would advise using this briefly, then maybe placing your menu top left, left or high left, to get maximum exposure.

Simply visit the link below, add your website, click go!

Hope this helps!

See the “Google Labs Browser Size Checker” here.

10 Reason Why You Do Not Need SEO

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:16:59 +0000

This article was written by Ian Rhodes and we thought it so good and on the button, that we asked him to let us feature it, and here it is.

All this talk of ‘Number One Ranking on Google‘. 1000’s of ideas, 1,000,000s of pages of blog content and all for what? One simple positioning on a search engine. Do we really need it?!?! The answer is a straight forward ‘No’ if any of the following apply to you and your business philosophy.

1.) ‘We don’t need help finding new clients’

How true the above statement should be! Your business is steeped with decades of history, you know that anybody thinking of employing a service offered by your business will be straight on the phone. Why give more money to a third party such as Google?!?!

2.) ‘We’re just too busy… especially with our upcoming trade show’

Another very popular reason to avoid SEO – the simple fact that you just don’t have the time! What with all these opportunities to schmooze current clients, meet up with old friends, and pop another grand in the pocket of your local printer, where are you going to find the time to develop an understanding of Search Marketing.

3.) ‘No need to worry, our CEO’s son bought a book on it’

Exactly! We’re not talking rocket science here are we? Plus it gives the CEO’s son a great chance to show off his skills in a school project. He’s promised to read a book all about it and then do an SEO on the website. It’s not exactly challenging is it?!?

4.) ‘Our clients don’t use the internet to research within our industry’

This is an ever popular reason not to bother with SEO. Let’s face it, it’s not you that’s too busy to optimise your website for your prospects, it’s the fact your prospects simply don’t have the time to sit around all day looking at a computer screen.

5.) ‘Not to worry, our designer has already done this’

Fantastic news – not only does your website look great, your designers billed you a few hundred pounds to build in SEO. Makes far more sense to get one company to do everything for you doesn’t it?

6.) ‘Our site already comes up No.1 !’

Even better news for you – anybody searching for your company can already find it! All they need to do is search for Company Name Widgets, Mytown, Mycounty and up you come! No need to optimise for the search engines, it’s already done for you!

7.) ‘It’s just not worth it’

How true. Why would you spend marketing budget on optimising for Google when tried and tested routes to market like your Yellow Pages ad, or your ad in the local paper appear to work fine for you? Last thing you’d want to do is switch budgets from ‘proper’ marketing channels to these new fangled internets.

8.) ‘It’s in the capable hands of our IT manager’

You get the best of both worlds! Not only can he fix your company laser printer whenever it’s jammed, he is also working on the project to make your website visible to the search engines… and lets face it, the last thing you want to do is tread on the toes of your IT Manager? What happens the next time you can’t login to your computer?!? He’s not going to come running to your rescue knowing full well you didn’t allow him to write your website content AND do the SEO is he?!

9.) ‘I heard it’s all a big waste of time and nobody uses it anyway’

Couldn’t agree with you more… what’s all the fuss about? It’s been around for years and lets face it… it’s just for nerds anyway. Nothing better than hitting the phones and getting in the face of your potential clients. That way you can tell them all about the features of your company without wasting time building a website SEO thing.

10.) ‘There’s no budget, nice idea, but no budget’

Totally agree. What’s the point in spending more of your money when you can’t guarantee a return on your investment? The websites years old, your competitors are miles ahead of you so you can’t even try and compete. Best just to focus on doing what you do best.

As you can see, there are a wide range of reasons as to why SEO maybe irrelevant to your business…. if you’re comfortable knowing that all around you your competition is advancing upon your territory, stealing your clientele and generally making a nuisance of themselves then stay clear of opportunities such as SEO…. you know it makes sense, don’t you?

Visit the web site of the author, here.

Build Your House On Rocks

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:21:28 +0000

This is not a blasphemous blog entry, but proof that words from thousands of years ago are still valid today, even in a digital world, I have edited the words to a song I once sang in Sunday school, as a young kid. The thought just came to me as I was sat looking at the recent web site statistics, and realised how far we had come since we first started up, at first we were quick and shoddy, and then over the years we have steadily spent more time and thought on SEO and quality, and the results show it all.

This hymn, although edited for web design purposes, can affect every part of your life, heed it well, and change the keywords to almost any situation. Build your personal and business lives on rock, sand will only sink you.

The wise man built his website upon the rock

And the search engines came tumbling down

Oh, the search engines came down

And the clients came up

The search engines came down

And the clients came up

The search engines came down

And the clients came up

And the wise man’s website stood firm.

The foolish man built his website quickly and cheaply upon the sand

And the search engines came tumbling down

Oh, the search engines came down

And the clients came up blank

The search engines came down

And the clients came up blank

The search engines came down

And the clients came up blank

And the foolish man’s house went “splat!”

So, build your website with strong foundations

And the clients will come

Oh, the blessings come down

As your prayers go up

The blessings come down

As your prayers go up

The blessings come down

As your prayer go up

So, build your website with strong foundations.

Taylor Accountancy – SME Graphic Design

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:48:41 +0000

Ahh Amy Taylor, now here is a woman that just keeps on climbing, a very approachable lady with a very helpful character, in fact she has been nominated for a ‘Mumpreneur ‘ award this year, and we are betting on her as a favourite to win it!

Anyway, Amy approached us again a week or so ago to design and prepare a business pack for print, she did want the standard business pack but with a few tweaks, instead of one thing offered, she swapped it for a branded Power Point template, Amy had a new logo designed and wanted it branded across her business, the Twitter background itself is still not up, as when either Amy or ourselves try to upload it, Twitter goes kapput!

We have had Amy for a client now for maybe 6-8 months, and we are sure she will not be a SME for much longer, and we wish her luck she will not need, for her future award and growth.

Need an accountant? Visit Taylor Accountancy here.

Phoenix HSE – Corporate Graphic Design

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:40:02 +0000

We have done a considerable amount of work for Phoenix over the last year, and feel we have a close relationship with them, two of the Kip FX team were even at their Xmas party in London in 2009. Phoenix are now an international company, with Dubai and South Africa under their wings (excuse the pun), but this does not make them a faceless organisation.

Being corporate always conjures up an image of pin stripe suits and boardrooms, and although this is pretty accurate, underneath the suits are normal people, and we like to think we treat every client the same, whether they are a corporate account or a sole trader.

The work we do for Phoenix has covered award design, national advertising, eLearning literature (PDF’s available here) and general Health & Safety handouts & literature.

A Web Site Auction?

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:11:48 +0000

Have you ever heard the success stories regarding auctions?

My friend bought a 4 bedroom house for £70k at an auction!
My Uncle picked up an A8 Quatro for just £8k at a car auction!
I bought a signed Queen LP for £100 on eBay!

OK, so we made these ones up, but I am sure you have heard someone so excited about an auction buy, that you wish you had gone with them that day.

The thing is with an auction to work, you need to know what you are buying, you could buy a house for £20k but it might need £400k worth of work, or a car that is only £2k may need a new engine and interior, the point is, it is only a bargain if you know what you are getting.

So we decided to auction of some of our projects each week, for two reasons, firstly for a marketing exercise, and secondly, so that someone could benefit from a bargain, from a company that really know what they are doing.

Our auctions will be selling full products only, no need for new engines or structural repair!

To see our latest auction, just click here!

Website Security – Hackers

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:50:36 +0000

This is a reminder for anybody that has a website, email or any other online accounts, to be very aware.

We pride ourselves in security for our clients, we have never had one issue regarding security or hacking from one single client, but we have had this problem ourselves, one of our banked domains had been hacked and used in a naughty way, this is our own fault for not changing our passwords when one had been compromised, if you lose your house keys, you get a new lock, you should do the same with your passwords.

Do not think that your website or email is not worth millions, and people will not go after it, because they will.

Your domain if not managed correctly and often can easily become a phising site or worse, luckily we had an email about the one we had hacked, from a client who had his demo on this domain originally, so had it bookmarked, otherwise we would not have known.

The people responsible for hacking it are known to us, and it is our own fault for giving access to it and then not changing the password afterwards.

Password/Security Tips:

Change your passwords as often as possible.
If you give your password out (web designers etc) change them again when they are finished.
Do not use the same passwords on multiple accounts.
Always check the domain in the address bar is the correct one.

Stay Aware!