FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
All prices paid 50%/50% - or - knock off 20% & pay upfront.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
This is a very basic checklist we go through with each new client, specifically, with other web firms, ad agencies and marketing companies of various types. While there is plenty of other stuff to compare notes on this is the core of what I’ll need to know. • Do you have all the client side deliverables ready; logos in various formats, site maps, wire frames, professional photography, content, client discovery process overviews etc.? • Do you have a clear list of functional page elements that need to get built into the site (i.e. interactive calendars, more advanced or special forms, various .API feeds, social media widgets, gallery widgets, white paper download listings etc.)? • Am I just doing production work (following strict branding guidelines and predefined protocols) and producing finished .PSD’s that way - or - are you hiring me to come up with solutions after I go through my rather in-depth marketing analytics and UI/UX breakdown? • What grid system do you follow, i.e. 780, 1180 etc.? • If you’re doing responsive design, are you 3, 4 or 5 stage? • Are you Typekit or Google Web Font? • How good is your team at HTML5, AJAX and Javascript etc. because sometimes I have to simplify everything and other times I get told they can code any solution I come up with. For example...there are often budgetary constraints, teams that aren’t ‘up to code’ completely, predefined propriety CMS constraints and loads of other circumstances that could go either way. (In other words, once I know exactly where you and your team stand I can provide solutions that are ‘realistically’ implementable by them). • Do you have a stock account subscription somewhere? I have a login to a huge variety of stock sites out there unique to each client and their specific projects. Nowadays you absolutely need to be able to show a proof of purchase legally whether it’s for a project of your own or for one of your clients. • How fast do you need everything done? Cut and dry layout projects are usually 3 business days turn-around but...to the opposite extreme, I get contracts that are considerably more complex in nature, i.e. complete overhauls of huge sites, merging multiple sites into one...in which case we’re talking multiple weeks or longer in some cases. • If I’m doing a simple home page layout for you do you need just one or possibly even multiples of the matching internal pages laid out? • If you’re doing specific landing page designs, are you doing conversion testing and doing GEO-IP, A/B Testing and refining as you go? New Client Project Checklist • Are you doing just the standard “best practices” with regards to SEO or are you embarking on a full-fledged and aggressive SEO campaign? I ask because the way I’d approach one is completely different than how I’d approach the other.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Our lead designer has got over 19 years now as a sub-contractor for other ad agencies, marketing companies of all types, web design firms, tech startups and no end of other types of businesses. He has been providing UI/UX work, app design, SAAS application design, GEO IP A/B testing, software interfaces, branding and re-branding, forensic marketing analytics, web design layouts, logos and all sorts of conventional and digital marketing collateral for them.