AIDA has been around in advertising since before little web was born. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. And it has lost none of its relevance now, in fact it has been given new life with the hard job of attracting people’s attention in the noisy, busy World Wide Web.
Read MoreThe Role of a Creative Director
I have been a designer now for 22 years, coming up for quarter of a century is quite, well scary, as it basically suggests I am getting old. For 15 of those I have been a Creative Director across 3 different agencies, one of which was my own and now on a consultant basis, each brings different challenges.
Read MoreWhy Good Web Design Benefits From Process
There's more to web design than simply an idea. Getting the best out of your idea includes research, development and then producing it. "We don't just colour in a few doodles, there's method to out madness."
Read MoreHow I trippled my instagram following in a week
I wanted to see how easy it was for small businesses to grow followers on Instagram without the input of a marketing resource. Aside from my role as a web designer I am a digital artist, I sell limited edition prints and commissions so for this experiment I featured my Instagram around my small business as an artist.
Read MoreDesign Thinking, Disruptive Innovation and Accelerated Mobile Pages
I often attend industry events - as a freelancer it is a good opportunity to chew the cud with other designers, developers and UX specialists and keep abreast of our fast paced world.
Read MoreWhat are Progressive Web Apps?
It may be a buzz word you have started to hear and a couple of my clients have started to ask about them so I thought I would write a short synopsis to these new trending terms.
Read MoreExplaining User-Experience Design
Exploring the idea of User Experience Design, how to optimise it and how it differs from normal design.
Read MoreHow do you find the right website designer?
What to look for when hiring a freelance web designer or freelance graphic designer. A freelance web designer or a freelance graphic designer is a design trained and skilled person who works for themselves and can be hired on their own to work directly for you. This means that they work for many different client's instead of for one company or agency who in turn works for many different clients. In that respect they are like a small one man business, or sole trader. Some freelancers may work in a team of freelancers making sure they cover a far reaching set of skills.
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Let’s make art with all this data
I work in web, I collect data, lots of it, for all sorts of different clients for all sorts of different reasons.This data is taken away to be injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected! (thanks Arlo), and spat back out in the form of ‘Something I May Like’ - and here's my moral conundrum....
Read MoreWhy I want robots to push my buttons
So this isn't new, in fact - as a lot of technology first starts - it was foreseen in science fiction literature decades ago. We don't talk to each other by seeing colours and pressing buttons, and as computers - or robots - become more intelligent it begs to reason why we wouldn't talk to them in the same way as we talk to each other....
Read MoreGetting a job in the tech industry
In this article, Abi talks about getting a job in the tech-industry. Firstly looking at the history of the web and why copy-writing, copy-editing and content creation has become so pivotal, she then focuses on the most important skills you need as a writer to make you stand out from crowd. Take a look and discover what it takes...
Read MoreWhat's it all about?
Articles I have written about topics that have been on my mind - An insight into what makes me tick...(part 1)
Read MoreWebsite Build
As with any web design agency, I thoroughly research and use industry recognised products, platforms and frameworks to give what in my view is the best solution to the requirements of my clients. In the last year I have come to believe that platforms such as Shopify, Squarespace and Wordpress are now sophisticated enough interface and administration systems to allow us to work with the pre-built tools and concentrate on design, user experience and keeping the cost down when designing for small businesses.
Read MoreA bit about Web Design
A website designer, is a name often used for the requirement of design and build of a website, but in this instance I am talking about just the design aspect. Each element of the design process needs to account for the different device view ports, so when thinking about designing a website we now think about it across any device from mobile to tablet, laptop and desktop, offering the best experience for that device.
Read MoreHire More Mums (They have superpowers!)
Design Director Abi Fawcus gave one of the talks at the reasons.to conference in Brighton 1-3rd September 2014. As part of an incredibly creative and inspiring 3 day conference Abi was pushing the virtues of Mums in the work place with her talk: HIRE MORE MUMS… they have superpowers!
Read MoreWhat business taught me about Marketing
10 things I learned along the way each making it a little easier to gain great clients…
My first job was selling flowers on the side of the road with my friend Polly. We were 5. My house was on quite a busy street with, it seemed, quite a few elderly people living on it. Her house in contrast was up a completely quiet lane with the odd horse, virtually no cars and definitely no foot passers by.
Read MoreGood Suffolk Food & Drink Website Design
We love our amazingly diverse and entrepreneurial food and drink producers in Suffolk and I'm always trying a new product that comes on to the shelves. We are also fortunate to have two supermarkets - Co-Op and Waitrose in the coastal area that make it their duty to promote and stock local brands. Here are a few sites that I thought reflected the product well, or made me smile.
Read MoreOne brand or Two?
I often work with estate agents and Departments within an Estate Agent’s portfolio are sometimes diversely different in their outlook, process, marketing and in some cases brand identity. When asked recently the question ‘One brand or two?’ in reference to the visual identity of departments within an Estate Agent my reply was that one brand is always stronger and here's why:
Read MoreWhat is Graphic Design exactly?
Design is big, it is talked about more than ever before and we are always hearing about design thinking, user experience design, visual design, information design, product design, interface design, interaction design. We hear about how big business are bringing in holistic design to improve every aspect of their business and drive sales - but what about good old fashioned Graphic Design?
Read MoreExperience design for small businesses
The design workshop session generates lots of information in a creative freeform way. This phase makes sense of the data providing set specifications and schematics. What I have written here is a cut down version of experience design for small businesses mainly focusing on information architecture.
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