Hey! Ok, so we’re doing this, after much deliberation I’ve finally got my backside into gear and decided to add a blog to my website… new year new me and all that. After all, I always advise clients to have a blog on their own websites to help increase traffic with SEO as well as give their company and brand the voice it deserves.
I thought the best way to kick things off would be to tell you a little bit more about myself, what I do, how I do it and who I do it for! I am a designer and web developer with over a decade of experience (both agency side and freelance) within the creative industry. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some fantastic people in businesses big and small across a wide range of industries. Helping them define their goals and using digital solutions that deliver tangible results.
Essentially to do this my service offering is split into three parts, web design, web development and agency support, let’s dive into what each of those actually look like:
Web Design
Some clients hire me solely for design or development, as both don’t have to be taken on by the same person, in-fact nowadays it’s pretty rare to find someone to do them both together, but I’m always happy to be the rare exception!
No matter who I am creating a website for it is always 100% tailored to their business, clients and goals as no two projects are ever the same. To do this I always start with goal setting, research and content before moving on to layout, wireframes and then the final high fidelity designs.
Beyond making a great site visually its also key to consider the target audience that will be using the website, who they are, what they need and how to convert them from website visitors into paying customers. This is where research plays a vital role in any design project and there are many useful things that can be done, such as surveying your target audience, creating user personas, ensuring you have friendly user journeys and lots of testing is vital to making sure a website is on the right path to becoming a success.
Web Development
This is when a design is bought to life with code! I specialise in custom WordPress web development as WordPress is a very powerful content management system that makes maintaining your website a breeze. Not to be confused with off the shelf WordPress templates, as with design projects, every development project I work on is tailored specifically to the projects requirements. Making sure that everything is there for a reason, with no additional bloat to slow your website down.
I love building for WordPress and creating a back-end experience that my clients love as there is nothing worse than having a beautifully designed website that is laborious to make changes to.
As a website should never been seen as finished, I build all my websites in a flexible manor, allowing clients to easily create new pages and layouts using flexible content blocks. That way if you add a new product or service to your offering, there is no need to hire a developer to add it to your website, you can simply add it to your website yourself in a matter of minutes!
Agency Support
The majority of my work is for creative agencies that I have built up brilliant relationships with, and for me a great working relationship is more important than being the highest paid developer in the industry. Having been co-owner of an agency for over three years I understand first hand how important it is to outsource work to designers and developers that you can trust and who do what they say they can.
I pride myself on being reliable and trustworthy, fully understanding that by hiring a freelancer as an extension of your team means taking on the values and reputation of your company that you’ve worked hard to build. Providing agency support to some fantastic creative companies has allowed me to build truly brilliant working relationships and friendships over the years.
Away from the screen
I love spending time with my little family; we have a three year old son who keeps us busy and we can often be found on a woodland walk, building Gruffalo huts or pretending to be dinosaurs!
You’ll also usually find me on Twitter or Instagram geeking out about some latest technology or the latest Formula One race! With new years day closely in the rearview mirror I want to improve my writing (part of the reason for the blog) and as we’ll as getting back into the gym and losing the dad-bod… we’ll see how both of those go!
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