Bitten By Design

Is your websites message getting lost in the design?

Nick — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:25:18 +0000

Put your marketing hat on and have a good hard look at your website. Is it selling itself? No, not how good it looks because I am sure it is totally awesome but is it doing it’s job for you?

Are you getting lots of client leads or is it just sitting there ticking over and giving you a trickle of leads? Some of my friends sites are gorgeous affairs with the most beautiful work laid out in what is a complex yet visually stunning way. My site which is a quick and straight foward affair with none of the bells and whistles gets me more income at the end of each month. Why? Because most of the viewers of their sites are other designers who go ‘wow’ but don’t convert to clients. Mine which isn’t so fancy has a focus of informing people and giving them everything they may want in easy to digest bites of information along with an easy to navigate format. If it is hard for someone to find your details then you are unlikely to get the work. They will navigate away and find someone else to contact. It is also why I have avoided any use of flash as a lot of people like myself do their browsing via iPhone or iPad.

What is your prime goal for your site. Do you have one? Does it do this? Could it do it better? How?

For example: Have you tried different formats and checked the statistics in comparison to see if you get more conversions in three months one way over another.

Did you have a copywriter work on your website blurb? What is your primary selling point? Are your calls to action working for you? Which pages are losing you the most traffic?

Every six months you should be reviewing your site in comparison to your traffic and developing the site to capture more of the traffic and convert it to clients rather than visitors. This may simply consist of placing a banner or call to action on a popular page reminding people about your services and to contact you for work they may need doing.

How often do you review your site in this way?

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iPhone wallpaper – Tattooine holiday promotion

Nick — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:11:11 +0000

After discovering a collection of Star Wars pictures online that were of uncommon or hard to find behind the scenes shots along with unused shots from photo sessions I just had to use a few of them as wallpapers.

I saw this image of the farm from star wars and my dark sense of humour made me think of the 1950′s holiday postcards, advertising some outdoorsy lifestyle shot. In this case the remains of a storm trooper attack. Morbid I know, but this was something done for some of my friends and I thought would share it with everyone

If anyone can tell me who to credit for the shots, let me know so I can add that in for them.

Tattooine and Star Wars is of course copyright Lucasarts.

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iPhone wallpaper – Unhappy Post It

Nick — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:42:21 +0000

This has been on my desk for ages, and only recently did I think to take a picture of it to use as my wallpaper.

It is a green sticky note pad, with a face drawn in whiteout tape and some features highlighted using a pen.

I end up with all sorts of hand generated artwork that I create whilst on the phone with clients or waiting for large documents to PDF from indesign.

Let me know if you like this and I will track down more pieces to photograph for use as wallpapers

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iPhone wallpaper – Han Solo Space Pirate

Nick — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:10:41 +0000

The heroes medal award ceremony is a classic ending, but this shot conveys more about a space pirate/smuggler than any words could hope to. This is a particular fave of mine.

If anyone can tell me who to credit for the shots, let me know so I can add that in for them.

Han Solo and Star Wars is of course copyright Lucasarts.

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iPhone wallpaper – Boba Fett

Nick — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:50:13 +0000

This is of course the classic Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett, the shot is him leaning over like he is trying to look under or through something. It seemed about the right height to use as an iPhone lock screen wallpaper, and I couldn’t resist putting it into a format for my phone.

If anyone can tell me who to credit for the shots, let me know so I can add that in for them.

Boba Fett and Star Wars is of course copyright Lucasarts.

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iPhone wallpaper – Vader versus C3P0

Nick — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:51:20 +0000

Every time I see this picture I keep hearing Vader saying something along the lines of ‘I made you! I can certainly take you apart!’ followed by C3P0 saying ‘You’re not my creator!’. Okay it is a pun based on the Luke / Vader father talk.

It is the potential violence that makes this good in my opinion. It sets an expectation rather than just serving up a stereotypical shot of Vader choking someone.

If anyone can tell me who to credit for the shots, let me know so I can add that in for them.

C3P0, Darth Vader and Star Wars is of course copyright Lucasarts.

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BittenByDesign in the latest Desktop Magazine!

Nick — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:15:24 +0000

Just received the sample spreads of the latest (August) Desktop Magazine. BittenByDesign appears as a source in one of the articles.

Check out the link to the spread here: Desktop magazine spread

It was my opinion of some of the things that should have been in my Graphic Design course that would of helped me when I started work.

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Introduction for The Insights into Graphic Design book

Nick — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:03:33 +0000

At present I am working on a book called ‘Insights into Graphic Design’ the following is the introduction to the book which I am planning to have available for purchase by the end of the year.

After more than a decade and a half working in graphic and web design, I have seen the industry shift from traditional offset printing to a digital basis. Not only that, but digital design has gone from simple graphics on rather ugly static pages to amazing dynamic flash portal site experiences. Gone are the days when a designer didn’t need to think past a logo further than the business stationery. These days a corporate identity design will include all print uses of the logo and the digital uses. These can be everything from use on the website and advertising banners to signatures at the bottom of emails. Then you will find that all the uses and versions need to be set in a style guide for the business.

Design is an ever shifting medium that is influenced by the advancing technology of computing and printing, but also by the mediums in which we use to communicate. Twenty years ago there wasn’t the need for mobile interface design, now with the huge market saturation the smartphones have, all your emails and business software can sit in your pocket along with music, games and video.

Designers have to stay on top of emerging technologies and upskill themselves lest they are left behind by other designers more willing to embrace the new. Even in the last five to ten years the expectation is that any designer can do print AND web. Not all can, and those that don’t understand the new media are missing out on a large percentage of the going work.

My book is only intended to impart some of my knowledge on each of the chapter subjects and hopefully inspire or give some extra help to other designers.

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iPhone wallpaper – Plain Floorboards

Nick — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:23:44 +0000

This is the plain floorboards version of the bookshelf wallpaper, which can make for a simple background behind your apps rather than using the same wallpaper as your lock screen.

If anyone can shoot me a link to the original creator I will credit them.

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iPhone wallpaper – bookshelf

Nick — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:19:50 +0000

I was sent this by a friend to add to my background behind my apps. How cool is this! It is just like the ibooks shelf background.

Nice to have something different for a change on the phone.

If anyone knows who originally did this, let me know so I can give them credit.