| 5 Ways to Save Money When Working With a Graphic Designer |
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5 Ways to Save Money When Working With a Graphic Designer By Michelle McCarty These tips can save you a lot of money and time! 1.) Look at other web sites to develop a profile of your tastes for your project. Visit web sites that are in the same or a similar business or service area as your web site will be. It is also good to cruise the net to find sites you find appealing both visually and content-wise. Make a list of sites you find attractive and make notes on why you find them attractive. Pick your top 5 sites and write out what you like about each site and what you don’t like about each site. Give specific information to your designer. A designer will find this info helpful in developing an overall visual theme for your site and she/he will then be able to guide you using their professional opinion regarding what will work for your particular web site. 2.) Figure out what color schemes you like and would be appropriate for your business or service. Color is very important when designing a web site. Colors that are harmonious attract the eye and engage a web site visitor, while colors that are not harmonious will drive a visitor away. Find color schemes you like and write notes for yourself on why you like them. Do they make you feel peaceful? Do they invigorate you? Choosing a color according to your web site’s purpose is very important. You will not want bright colors if you are offering a massage service, while on the flip side, you would not want to have a pastel color palette if you are promoting your paintball game park. Give your designer the benefit of the doubt when working with color. Designers have worked with innumerable color palettes and they know what will work best for you once you present them with your ideas, theme and purpose of your web site. 3.) Gather important images that will be part of your web site and design. Images are very important to a web site. You will most likely want to use an image or images in the header of your site and scattered sparingly through the copy on your site. There are a few important things to keep in mind when searching for images. First and foremost you have to make sure you are allowed to use the images. It is not good practice to visit Google images and save the image you like. Many of these images are not free for the public to use. There are some great free stock photography resources on the internet that you are allowed to take images from without violating copyright. A few of them are: http://www.sxc.hu http://www.morguefile.com http://www.imageafter.com Your graphic designer will have access to more stock photography for you. Some of it is paid and some is free. Make sure you speak with your designer about your stock photo options and also find out what their fee is for searching for stock for you. Another thing to keep in mind is that the images must relate to the theme and content of your site. Pick images that correspond to what your web site’s message and goal is. Don’t over-do imagery. A small sprinkling is enough. If you must have many images, create a dedicated photo gallery to show your pictures. 4.) Decide on who will write your web site copy (the text on your pages). What you say and how you say things on your web site is very important. Your first action should be to decide if you want to write the copy yourself, or to engage the services of a copy writer to help you craft your text. Your web designer will often be able to help you develop copy or find you someone who can. Once you have made that decision, keep the following in mind:
Revisions can be very time consuming and costly. They usually happen in excess when a client comes unprepared to begin work on a project. Doing your ‘homework’ and collecting materials before you begin work will allow the designer to get a clearer picture of what you want to achieve with the look and copy of your site. Make sure that you and the designer are on the same page before work begins. After you have engaged a designer to work on your site, she/he will usually send you a creative brief that outlines the work to be done with any special notes that you both have made. Even with the best laid out plan for design, you may sometimes need to make small changes. Make sure you know how many revisions are included in your particular design package and what the fees are for any time over the allotted package time and revisions.              |
