The Buyback promotion

We are offering a huge promotion that will last till the end of the year.  That’s right for the rest of 2009 we essentially buying your business. 

There are many people that I talk to that tell me that they paid a lot of money for a website and never got the results that they were promised by the web design company.  Whether it is because of poor design, not finishing the project like they had stated, or it was simply not what they said it was going to be.  People are frustrated because they spend a lot of money on web design but never get what they paid for.  So now they are hesitant to spend more money on web design or any other design service for that matter.  That’s where the buyback promotion comes in.

How does the promotion work?

Let me give you an example so that you will better understand how the promotion works.  Let’s say that you paid $2500 for a custom made website and for some reason were very dissatisfied with the results OR  your project was never  completed. Bring your receipt for the web design service that you paid for by the other company and we’ll give you the amount that you paid for as a credit with OUR Company for our services. You only pay the difference between our cost and your credit.  You might be saying what’s the catch?  No Catch!

You could simply get a custom made high quality website for hundreds of dollars and finally get what you paid for.  Were simply giving you another shot to get that premium website that you’ve been waiting for.
This is an unheard of promotion and people might call us crazy but that’s what sets us apart from these other companies.  We not only want you business now, but we want your business long term and another advantage is that we are a FULL SERVICE design company. We want you to put us in charge of all your design needs. 

How do I apply?

Simply email us at buyback@wired2design.com or call us at 214-938-4294 and simply tell us your story and provide us with your receipt and we’ll get started today.  Consider this your web design bailout plan.

Visit http://www.wired2design.com/buyback-promotion.php to learn more!

Take advantage of this unheard of promotion and redeem your website today!

I read this blog and had to repost as I thought this was the most honest answer when it comes to “How much does a website cost?” The questions is often asked and it’s amusing to hear web designer’s answer. I do have to give credit it to www.3232design.com for this blog.I wish most web designers and developers would give answers such as this.  To those who really try to figure an answer to this question stop thinking so hard and read below. 

“42 what?” You ask. Dollars? Pounds? Quatloos?”

Well, yes.

That’s because there’s not enough information for a meaningful answer. The cost of a given website depends on what goes into producing that website. This is related to, but not entirely dependent upon, an hourly rate for the concept, design, coding, and administration.

“Great!” You exclaim. “What’s your hourly rate?”

Hold on, there. Let’s suppose a designer uses a rate of $10 an hour. As a designer gets more experienced, she will create better designs, and at a faster pace. What used to take an hour now only takes twenty minutes, and the quality has improved. As time goes on the designer realizes that she is making less money for creating higher-quality websites. So she does the obvious thing and raises her hourly rate to $30.

Now how much does that website cost? For the quality and amount of time it takes, not much more–because our more experienced designer is much faster now and the quality of her design has gone up. But you don’t know that, all you know is her hourly rate is more than that other guy ($10), and way more than those generic HTML templates where you can get 12 for $25.

So our designer then decides to charge on a bid basis and not use an hourly rate except internally to aid in estimating the project. This way her clients can make more reasonable comparisons between designers based on a total cost for the project, and they want our more experienced designer because her designs will tell their marketing story much better. And with her added experience, she may have suggestions on how to improve their marketing message.

Which brings us back to the original question. How much does that website cost? Once you know what you’re doing with your website you can begin to find meaningful answers. If your site is just a few static pages, it probably won’t be as expensive as one with a lot of programming, which adds to the cost depending on the complexity. If you want a really exceptional design that will win awards, that will take longer to develop and might cost more. But the designer needs to know what you want to do to figure out how long it will take, and thus what your site will cost.

“OK,” you say, “I want a website like yours. What would that cost me?” So I break down what was involved in designing my company website: the marketing copy, the conceptual design, coding the blog, contact forms, portfolio page and Flash navigation…

“Hey, I don’t need all those things,” you say. And you’re right, unless you are me. And even then maybe your marketing message doesn’t require a blog, or a Flash navigation. You may need similar elements, but customized for your applications. “Just give me a ballpark range,” you say.

42-ish.

There can be a lot of variation even in a website that just needs a few static pages of content. Will you need stock photography? Do you have your copy written, or will you need a writer? Maybe your copy includes a lot of complicated tabular data that needs to be translated into HTML, or it turns out that you really need something entirely different from what you thought.

A good design firm will walk you through a process where you can answer all those marketing, design, and technical questions in a straightforward, step-by-step manner. You can then compare pricing from different design firms based on the costs for creating the same content, and when the costs are different you can factor in the quality of design or whether or not you think your designer will be loads of fun to work with, and will offer you creative solutions that will make you stand out from the crowd.

And when you’ve gone through the process, you’ll finally know it won’t cost 42.

It’s probably closer to 43.

The logo is the face of any brand — the very first impression — so its design is extremely important.

When executed correctly, a logo is a powerful asset to your client’s brand.

However, creating an effective visual representation of a brand requires much more than just graphic design.

Like any line of work that involves a set of specific skills, logo design requires plenty of practice and experience for it to be successful; knowledge is definitely power for any graphic designer.

For this reason, we have outlined 12 essential rules to follow in order to design an effective logo.

1. Preliminary Work Is a Must
Preliminary sketches are an important first step in designing an effective logo.

These can be as simple as paper and pen drawings or drafts made using a vector program, such as Illustrator.
The bottom line is that you compromise the final result if you rush, or skip, this step.

Start with 20 to 30 sketches or ideas and then branch out to create variations of the original ideas.
If nothing seems to work, start over and begin sketching new ideas.

An effective graphic designer will spend more time on this preliminary work than any other step in the design process.

2. Create Balance
Balance is important in logo design because our minds naturally perceive a balanced design as being pleasing and appealing.

Keep your logo balanced by keeping the “weight” of the graphics, colors, and size equal on each side.

Though the rule of balance can occasionally be broken, remember that your logo will be viewed by the masses, not just those with an eye for great art, so a balanced design is the safest approach.

3. Size Matters
When it comes to logo design, size does matter. A logo has to look good and be legible at all sizes.

A logo is not effective if it loses too much definition when scaled down for letterheads, envelopes, and small promotional items. The logo also has to look good when used for larger formats, such as posters, billboards, and electronic formats such as TV and the Web.

The most reliable way to determine if a logo works at all sizes is to actually test it yourself.

Note that the smallest scale is usually the hardest to get right, so start by printing the logo on a letterhead or envelope and see if it is still legible.

You can also test for large-scale rendering by printing a poster-sized version at a print shop.

4. Clever Use of Color
Color theory is complex, but designers who understand the basics are able to use color to their advantage.

The basic rules to keep in mind are:

colors near to each other on the color wheel (e.g. for a “warm” palette, use red, orange, and yellow hues).

Don’t use colors that are so bright that they are hard on the eyes.

The logo must also look good in black and white, grayscale, and two colors.

Breaking the rules sometimes is okay; just make sure you have a good reason to!

Knowing how colors evoke feelings and moods is also important. For example, red can evoke feelings of aggression, love, passion, and strength.
Keep this in mind as you try out different color combinations, and try to match the color to the overall tone and feel of the brand.

Playing around with individual colors on their own is another good idea. Some brands are recognizable solely by their distinct color.

For example, when you think of John Deere, you think of the “John Deere green” color, and this sets this brand apart from its competitors and, more importantly, makes the brand all the more recognizable.

5. Design Style Should Suit the Company
You can use various design styles when creating a logo, and to pick the right one, you should have some background information about the client and the brand.
A recent trend in logo design is the Web 2.0 style of 3D-looking logos, with “bubbly” graphics, gradients, and drop shadows.

This style may work well for a Web 2.0 website or tech company, but may not be effective for other kinds of brands.

Research your client and its audience before you begin your preliminary work.

This will help you determine the best design style from the start and save you from having to return repeatedly to the drawing board.

6. Typography Matters… a Lot!
Choosing the right font type and size is much more difficult than many beginner designers realize.

If your logo design includes text, either as part of the logo or in the tagline, you will need to spend time sorting through various font types — often, dozens of them — and testing them in your design before making a final decision.

Try both serif fonts and sans-serif fonts as well as script, italics, bold, and custom fonts.

Consider three main points when choosing a font to accompany your logo design:

Avoid the most commonly used fonts, such as Comic Sans, or else your design may come off as amateurish.

Make sure the font is legible when scaled down, especially with script fonts.

One font is ideal, and avoid more than two.

Strongly consider a custom font for your design. The more original the font, the more it will distinguish the brand. Examples of successful logos that have a custom font are Yahoo!, Twitter, and Coca Cola.

7. The Goal IS Recognition
The whole point of creating a logo is to build brand recognition. So, how do you go about doing this?
Well, it varies from case to case, but the goal with the logo is for the average person to instantly call the brand to mind.

A few examples of this are the logos for Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, and Nike.

Just a glimpse of any of these logos is all you need to recognize the brands.

The key to making a popular and recognizable logo is to combine all of the elements discussed in this article: size, style, color, typography, and originality.

Overlooking any of these during the design process will impair the quality of your final design. Examine your own logo design and see whether it meets all of these criteria.

A quick test to determine if your logo is recognizable enough is to invert it using any graphic design software and see if you can still recognize the brand.

Additionally, you should mirror the logo and see if it’s easily recognizable in this state.

Keep in mind that logos aren’t always seen head-on in real world situations, for example, on the side of a bus or a billboard that you drive by.

Therefore, you should make sure to view your logo design from all angles and ensure that it’s recognizable from any direction before submitting it to your client.

8. Dare to be Different
To stand out from the competition, you must distinguish yourself as a designer with a distinct style. Rather than copy another design or style, be innovative and stand out from the crowd.

So, how can you be different? Try breaking the rules of design and taking risks.

Try a variety of styles to find the one that works best for your client. Try different color combinations until you find one that makes your design truly original.

Have fun with the design program you use, and keep tweaking the design until you feel you’ve got it right.

9. K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple, Stupid)
The simpler the logo, the more recognizable it will be.
For example, the Nike swoosh is an extremely simple logo and is also one of the most recognizable in the world.

Follow the K.I.S.S. rule right from the start of the design process, when you are brainstorming ideas and doodling sketches.

Often, you’ll find that you start with a relatively complicated design and end up with a simpler version of it in the end.

Work the design down to its essentials and leave out all unnecessary elements.

10. Go Easy on Effects
Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, Photoshop, and other graphic design programs are extremely powerful tools and have many filters and effects that you can apply to your logo, but don’t get carried away!

There’s a time and place for these powerful tools, but it is not necessarily to design a logo.

Of course, playing around and seeing whether they enhance a logo is fine, but just remember that simplicity is key.

11. Develop a Design “Assembly Line”
To produce consistently high-quality logos, you need to develop your own design process, or “assembly line.”

This should include the following steps:

Research

Brainstorm and generate ideas

Preliminary sketches

Develop vector designs

Send to client

Add or remove anything the client wants

Finalize the design and resubmit to client

Although you may want to tweak the order slightly, you should follow these basic steps with each logo design.
This will help you streamline your work, stay organized, maintain focus, and deliver better quality and more consistent results with each job.

12. Use Other Designs for Inspiration Only!
The last rule for designing an effective logo is quite simple: don’t copy other designers’ work! While there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by other designers, copying another person’s ideas or work is morally and legally wrong.

Gallery websites exist that let you use vector art images free of charge, with proper attribution under the Creative Commons License, but I strongly recommend not going this route.

These websites can be helpful for getting ideas during the brainstorming stage, but you’re better off starting your design from scratch and making it 100% original.