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Web site Redesign for Paradox Productions.

Protecting Yourself - Web Design Contracts

Due to the nature of any business whether Web Design or any other genre it is in your best interest to protect yourself with the appropriate processes and contracts. Web designers that sub-contract for any party should make sure that all estimates include the scope of the project before an agreement is made. By outlining the services you will be providing as a sub-contractor or as an independent contractor you protect yourself from the client or contractor extending past the original agreement. This is most true when dealing with acquaintances and friends because there is a lot more to lose than money.

Some designers are really in this business to just make money, they don't care about giving the client a truly original project, but instead churn out the same types of design elements over and over again. They use the same font over and over again (Trade Gothic per say), lie about their positions at past jobs and boast about their esteemed current position; such as naming themselves as the Art Director of their own company, which consists of only one person - themselves. It is those types that you must protect yourself from. The designer who looks at the industry as a way to make money rather than an art form which they have the privilege to profit from and spend their whole career trying to emulate passing design fads like the grunge styles from sites such as www.graphic-exchange.com and never develop their own original style.

When forming a partnership with another party make sure to have that party sign a non-compete and non-disclosure document. This keeps them from contacting your clients and soliciting for projects. Make sure all emails, contracts and chat logs are recorded for legal purposes for as long as three years. Keep a spread sheet of all changes to the project estimate and that at the end of the year you have a documented quote about all your contract work being claimed to the IRS. If they refuse to disclose amounts you have the legal right to refuse to turn over your personal information. By doing this you protect yourself from finding that a contractor, partner or client will claim a different amount than was actually received or claim amounts for clients that you never provided services for in order to save themselves some tax liability.

The final rule, which is the most important is to not turn over any source files until receiving final payment. The greed of some designers, of the creed mentioned above, will have no reason to pay you then. It is when you turn over your designs that you lose leverage on receiving payment.

Filed in Web Design

Designers vs. Developers

What is the difference? A Web Designer is someone who ultimately controls the entire visual image your web site has, this includes all graphics, colors and functionality. Although there might be an interactive group that brainstorms on how the functionality is used, the designer ultimately controls how you see it. This person uses programs such as Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop to create a static graphic and in some cases hands the design to a Web Developer to translate into HTML/CSS or another medium.

The Web Developer usually has limited creative skills as far as design goes, but controls the "back-end" of the site. This back-end functionality includes shopping carts, CMS systems and form processing. This isn't to say that there aren't creative and design oriented developers but in most cases this is true. Now how do designers and developers work together to create a web site that translates from static graphic to a true web site?

Designers are very tentative to turn over their designs to developers and some cases they develop the HTML so that their designs are not altered or elements left out. Why? Because Developers see the functionality of the back-end as the more important part of the web site and designers vice versa. This means that developers sometimes aren't consistent with such things as font colors, font size, spacing and size. A good example is the web site currently under development Notah Begay III. This site as you can see is pretty similar to the mock up located here Notah Begay III Design.

When a designer looks at the same page they see that the font has been enlarged and doesn't look quite as sleek. The form fields in the contact box are not shaded and also have gained some weight to them. The contact form button has also changed and doesn't match the design. The sponsors area has also lost some of its design properties, changing to an inelegant border around the image. On the interior page the header has lost it's bottom red border and the font again has enlarged and body copy links a harsh white instead of light gray.

So what does this mean? These things may be important to a designer, but to a developer who concentrates on the functionality these of little importance. The developer might inadvertently overlook these details or choose on their own to change these things. Whatever the case, to a designer these things are a huge part of the design as a whole, not to mention the time they invest in the design. We are a firm believer here at Pixel Moguls that the designer must have final proof of the web site development to ensure it's correct display. Our developers and designers work together in unison to create the most accurate displayed web sites we can. The designer and developer must realize that both have separate skills and must rely on the other to provide the best possible service.

Filed in Web Design

Custom MySpace Profiles

Pixel Moguls has been a user of MySpace since around 2003/2004. During this time MySpace has morphed from a modest social network to a Goliath marketing machine with unlimited possibilities. With its growth and the continued free access to users, businesses have been using MySpace profiles for a few years now. It has always been "In" to have a creative custom profile, but now these profiles are being used as a new way to reach a targeted audience.

Instead of the normal band profiles, you see companies like Hollister creating profiles to generate sales through online marketing using MySpace. Reaching this broad audience can help a company to help strengthen its branding position and the over-all recognition of products and services. For a companies that are more corporate than edgy it helps them to reach an audience that under normal circumstances they wouldn't.

Pixel Moguls of course prides itself on staying one step ahead and has been in the design and development of custom MySpace profiles and MySpace marketing.

Filed in Web Design

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