I create a book of samples of my work each year, mainly so that I can see how my graphical skills are progressing and to show potential clients.
All the images are created from ordinary photos and then stylised using Photoshop, Photoshop Actions and manual editing.
I currently own around 300 Photoshop Actions and each action has multiple layers and settings that enable me to produce literally thousands of variations.
However, as you will see I revert to a relative handful of my favourite actions to produce most of my work.
Reviewing my work this year, I think I need to be a bit more adventurous with my styles and introduce a greater variety of designs.
Although there are some 160 images in the new book, there are literally hundreds of images that I couldn’t reproduce because of lack of space. The book is in A3 format.
The book starts with oil paintings of Stratford-upon-Avon landscapes taken with my camera, then a flowers section and then portraits of humans and animals thereafter.
I apologise for the sound in the background of this video which is picking up background noise – you may prefer to switch the sound off:
In addition to Photoshop Actions, I have literally thousands of banners, icons and graphic templates all accumulated as a result of my subscription to Envato Elements. This enables me to create an infinite variety of graphical designs.
As I produce my images, I keep them in monthly folders so I can see my productivity each month.
I would love to produce my work in poster size and display in a big gallery but for the time being I am selling my designs on Redbubble . I am also doing a few private commissions.
Perhaps the greatest use of my graphics is to use them on my websites and those of my clients.
I have set out some website planning questions on a mind map. These are questions that I need to cover to scope a website design project before quoting a price.
I thought that I would add this to my blog because I am certain that I will think of additional things to add to this mind map over time:
This article has 6 very incisive questions to ask the client before you undertake any project:
I today carried out a website review for Swan Architects of Stratford-upon-Avon.
I met the owner of the business whilst I was out walking our dog yesterday (both of our dogs are called ‘Poppy’.) We often see each other but I have never stopped to chat with him before.
I asked him what he did for a living and he told me that he was an architect. I then told him what I did and he immediately said that he needed to sort out his website. His current website was created by him from a site-builder system.
Many businesses do this to save money but it is a false economy because it will directly impact sales revenue if you don’t get your online marketing right.
(I learnt this lesson in a previous business, when we hired a professional photographer for a few hundred pounds to take pictures of our product, and subsequently sold over £1m of product from a brochure with those pictures in it. I know how difficult it is to risk money upfront on marketing with no guarantee of a return!)
I volunteered to carry out a free review and here is the result below – sit back and enjoy the insights.
I am posting this because I think many other small businesses are making similar mistakes with their online marketing and it should be instructional for those businesses too.
Here is a summary of the points covered in video:
– Font size
– Lack of text
– No headlines
– No calls to action
– Lack of branding
– No explanation of who you are or what you do
– Who is your target market and where are they located?
– What is the step-by-step process to take a project from start to finish?
– What is your involvement in that process?
– Where is the proof that you can do it?
– Why should I choose you rather than a competitor?
– Your projects page does not give enough explanation of what you did and what we are looking at.
– No links to Social Media sites
– No site map
– The site is not mobile friendly – you will be penalised for this by Google (- the good thing is that most of your competitors have got this wrong too!)
– There are non-working areas of the site and some technical issues
– You are not getting traffic from the search engines
– Your content is not targeting keywords that people will use in the search engine to find your service
– Your business is not registered with Google Plus
– The professionalism and design of your website will subliminally reflect on the perceived quality of your work
If you would like me to carry out a free website review for your business, then please feel free to contact me.
In one of the sections of his book entitled ‘The Brutal Truth’, John Reese has a sub-heading or chapter with the headline:
Mediocre Graphics No Longer Cut It, You Must Use Beautiful Top-Notch Design (No Exceptions).
When John Reese says something like this about website design, I listen.
Here is a brief description of his career so far:
[boxibt style=”gray”]In 2004, Reese astonished the online marketing world by selling $1,080,496 worth of his “Traffic Secrets” product over the course of eighteen hours. He launched a new product and made over a million dollars in less than a day without spending a single cent on advertising.
Reese realized early in his career that the best way to make money is to learn from others. The successes and failures of other experts in the online marketing field helped him learn to avoid gambling on new strategies with his hard-earned money.
For instance, Reese once sold a domain name for 900 dollars, and the buyer turned around and resold the same domain name for one million dollars in cash. Talk about a hard lesson learned!
In 1994, Reese created one of the first auto-responder services on the world wide web.
Since then, he has developed and launched over 100 projects on the Internet, including a free photography site for eBay users, which launched in 1998. Within the first 10 months after going live with his eBay photo hosting site, it was already ranked among the top 500 websites in the world for web traffic.
What did that mean as far as Reese’s bottom line was concerned?
He was making over 100 thousand dollars a month for a website that cost under 500 dollars to create and develop.
Reese is an eBay pro. He’s even made over 38 thousand dollars on a single eBay auction.
Reese has been sharing his expertise with other Internet marketers since 2004.
He is a pro when it comes to research and development, testing projects, tracking results, generating online traffic and conversion. http://john-reese.net[/boxibt]
So when John says, “The days of ‘ugly websites’ that make a lot of money are over.” I listen to him.
He goes on to say:
[boxibt style=”gray”]Oh, I know, I know, but but but… you read about some split-tests where the ‘ugly’ design or ad converted higher than the ‘pretty’ version!
There will always be a place for simple, compelling copy-driven direct response mechanisms (i.e. ads, landing pages etc) in digital marketing. It’s the copy that sells people and always has.
But there’s a ‘bigger picture’ happening. And ‘YES, there may still be a few ugly sites online that are having success today, and some may even be making a fortune right now, but
A) those are the rare exception and
B) I believe their conversions will only continue to get worse.
It’s only a matter of time, because a major shift is occurring and I’ve seen it as clear as day in DATA THAT DOESN’T LIE.
With the worldwide increase in device usage (smartphones to tablets) we find ourselves using these screens more and more. Because of this behavioural shift it created an important focus on UI (user interface) design and user experiences.
If you haven’t noticed, graphical interfaces got cleaner. And easier to use.
There’s an entire design ‘evolution’ occurring across the Web, mobile devices and more. And it’s all about CONVERSION. More professional, easier-to-navigate design makes more money.
Design now matters. A lot.
As competition grew, companies competed by having better design and better user experiences. ‘Design’ is what people see and experience in the digital world. It’s now incredibly important.
If your business doesn’t have awesome design you’re at a huge disadvantage. PERIOD.
TRUST is a major factor with online conversions. Great design is one element of establishing ‘instant credibility’ with prospects that don’t know of you and your business. If you take two competitors with everything else the same, but one has better design than the other, the one with the better design wins – better logos, product packaging, use interface and more.
This wasn’t always the case online as just a few short years ago ugly marketing converted quite well (even for sales) and in some markets it still does. But things are changing fast. It’s still a ‘balancing act’ that the copy has to do its job, but more and more people feel better about doing business with a company that has more professional design and a better user experience.[/boxibt]
It was reading ‘The Brutal Truth’ by John Reese that made me continue down the track of developing my Photoshop skills.
Joh Reese and ‘The Brutal Truth’ have eventually led to the creation of my product ‘Easy Actions‘ (launching 3rd July 2015) which is an easy way in for anyone to start creating beautiful graphics for their website, product packaging and much more
I have created some demo sites for my website design business. You can take a peek by clicking the image below. This will take you to a page where there are links to each site – there are 5 or 6 sites in total.
