The Burgundy Studio - Stories

Studio Services

2010-12-21T01:54:23+00:00

Services of The Burgundy Studio

CUSTOM DESIGN
Professional design is something that I am passionate about. It is a great joy to work with customers from a variety of industries and develop an online presence that will really communicate their message. When producing a bespoke website design, client to designer communication is key. That’s why I, as a designer love to work directly with clients. Rather than sending a salesperson out to your office, you receive the direct attention and communication that makes a world of a difference.

Every design that I work on is custom fitted to your company. If you have run your course with template layouts and are ready for the next level of professional presentation, I’m here for you!

Clean markup and stylesheets

All of my designs are hand coded, to make sure that your site will operate under optimum performance.

Keep your site up to date

It’s not hard to keep your site up to date. I provide a very flexible content management system with the sites that I build.

Visitor tracking

Get an in-depth view of who is on your site, when and for how long. Setup goals and track all your data.

Search Engine Optimization

The websites that I build use the best practice of SEO to get your site started on the right foot.

Hosting
If you are looking for a one-stop shop for your website needs, I can also provide hosting and monitoring for your website. My hosting packages start at $150/year and include email, 5 GB of webspace and 1 domain name.

COLLABORATION
I work in collaboration with other web professionals on a regular basis. This includes copywriters, proof-readers, programmers, illustrators and project managers. In this way, I am able to provide a full range of services for your website. You will still receive full support from myself and I take responsibility for the entirety of my projects.

If you are one of the above professionals and would like to work together, send me an email. I’m always looking to connect with new people.

The Action Plan (My Process)

2010-12-21T01:54:06+00:00

7 step process for designing and building a website.

Structure
An important part of any creative process is a carefully thought-out line of structure. Equally important is remembering not to be limited by this format. In my early days of web design and development, I would often present 3 options of fully rendered mockups. Over time, I grew to realize that a step by step process, including the client’s input and vast knowledge of their business, produced a much more satisfying product. As a result, I generally use a 7 step process when designing and building a website.

1. Research & Discovery
To initialize a project, I’ll meet with you, either in person or by phone. Together, we’ll look at your message, vision, branding and project goals.

2. Content Analysis
The foundation of a website is the content. To begin, we will make a list of items to include in your site. I will then proceed by making short sketches of different layouts. I usually produce these with good ol’ pencil and paper. It’s great to get a break from the computer screen, and I find removing myself from technology opens up for more creative ideas. It’s important not to completely rely on traditional solutions that we come to see online. True, there are certain forms that are generally accepted and work best, but it’s inspiring to explore what other possibilities are available.

3. Wireframes

These are usually the first deliverable item. The general idea of a wireframe is to organize what content should be grouped together, and in what way. Here we are looking at the most basic of the sites layout.

During development it is beneficial to test the design on people that haven’t been subjected to a bias of the project or company. This can be worked in at the wireframe and design mockup stages.

4. Mood and Inspiration boards

After the layout of the website has been established, we will move on to the look and feel. At this point, I’ll talk with you in detail about what you are looking for in aesthetic qualities. This is a continued discussion from our initial meeting. I’ll encourage you to make a list of websites that you like, and we can discuss what you feel works about them. It’s true that the end website user or customer is the ultimate one we are looking to satisfy, but you are the one that is going to be maintaining and showing off your website to the world. It’s important that you are enthusiastic about the visual result.

After our discussion, I will organize some samples and colour palettes onto a single screen. We can use this as a base while the rest of the design is being developed. If something starts to go ‘off’, we can come back to this screen and discuss our aesthetic goals to re-evaluate our direction.

5. Design Mockup
After a mood board has been established, I will work away at a full composition of the home page and then a sub page. These will be presented and we can discuss how they function best. Depending on the functionality of the website, these could be a static image or a functioning html interface.

6. Revisions
Revisions are a natural part of every project, and we’ll go through them. I’m not one to be tied to my own pre-disposed opinion of what is the best possible solution for a project. It is better to take a full view of what the goal of the project is and how we can reach that goal.

7. CMS and functionality
The final step is to connect all the wires and get your content management system functioning. I will provide an intuitive and well thought-out interface for you to update your website. At the end of the project, you will be provided with a tour of updating the website, PDF notes, and a video examples for your reference.

Sound good to you?
As you can see, through a step-by-step process I work with my clients, relying on the unique knowledge they have of their business. If you are interested in working together, please don’t hesitate to send me an email, or fill out my short contact form.

Credits (I’d like to thank…)

2010-12-15T01:27:10+00:00

You're amazing and thank you!

There are a few people and resources that I relied on to make this site possible. In particular, I would like to thank:

Bryan Smith - photography for the connect page.

Wikimedia - Imagery for some of the home page screens. If you didn’t notice, try refreshing the home page a few times and see some different images pop up.

iStockphoto - stock images.

Gesta - Thanks to Fontspring, it was quite easy to get started with webfonts. They have an excellent licensing system.

ExpressionEngine - The Publishing System that I have used for most every site I have built since 2006.

Site5 - Hosting with customer service as their main goal. I’ve been using Site5 for 3 years now and have had an excellent experience.

Also, many thanks and appreciation to Alain, Paul and Bryan for allowing me to bounce ideas off of them.

My wonderful wife also deserves a round of applause for putting up with me. She has endured many things from converting our basement into a home office to proofreading everything on the site (no, don’t blame her if there is a mistake).

Thanks again to everyone. I appreciate you all!