Eye of a St Louis Web Designer
I moved my creative juices from the computer to the kitchen today, to decorate a traditional British Christmas cake. While the icing on this cake is no where near professional standards it was fun to do!
Merry Christmas from the eye of the St Louis Web Designer.
Our approach to designing web sites
We follow a very methodical process in the creation of web site , here is a simple description of our process…what I like to call the 4 D’s
Phase 1 : Define
During this stage we learn from our clients the full scope of their project.
- What do they want to achieve with the website?
- Who is the target audience?
- Who is the competition?
Armed with this information a tactical plan is developed and a full proposal produced to proceed with the project.
This phase of any project is always FREE
Phase 2 : Design
Keeping in mind usability and good web practices a polished concept design is created. This is a collaborative phase where client’s feedback is used to refine the design and helps us “home in” on the optimimal “winning” concept design.
Our tools of chice for the design phase are Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Phase 3: Develop
The “pictures” created in the design phase comes to life in the development phase of the project. The designs are coded to be understood by web browsers and undergo strict testing to ensure cross browser compatibility. Any functionailty assocaited with a web site is added during this stage.
Phase 4: Deploy
Once the site is complete it is ready to be launched online. The site is uploaded to a hosting account and publicised to the world.
St Louis Woman’s Exchange: web site in progress
I am currently working on a re-design of the web site for the St Louis Woman’s Exchange located in Ladue. I first worked on their site about 3 years ago and now they are looking for a face lift and the addition of some new functionality including the addition of an online catalog.
They have a fabulous selection of beatifully made childrens clothes.
Color and Productivity
I recently experienced first hand how the color of your surroundings can affect your productivity.
My office is painted a soft pale green, “Adratic Mist” according to the paint pot, and creates a great relaxing enviroment where I can focus to my fullest.
In a moment of craziness a few months back I decided that a change was in order and I wanted to funk things up a bit with a jazzier more energetic color. As a graphic designer I love color, I selected a yellowish green ” Cabbage green” and got to work.
It took me just a day after I had finished to acknowlege what a huge mistake I had made. I was unable to concentrate at all and very distracted by the color bouncing around the room. I lived with it for about a week thinking I would get used to it … but no. The office got re painted the very next weekend.
Client Book Signing
I always like hearing about my client successes and today had news from St Louis children’s author, Cynthia Reeg.
Cynthia will be enjoying her first book signing on December 8th. You can read more about it on her blog
Congratulations Cindy!
