Preserve your pages organized to simplify navigation: About, Portfolio and Contact are the three most necessary on a web site. As your small business grows, think about including new pages for various elements of your small business—for instance, a retailer on your product line or a portfolio damaged down by challenge kind.
That is precisely the best way Elena Frampton of Frampton Co. smashed. “We differ from many inside designers in that we additionally design merchandise, present artwork consultancy providers, run a web based retailer and have a bodily gallery, Exhibition The Barn, within the Hamptons,” she says. our web site has to speak and assist many various capabilities, the design can get too difficult, however alongside the best way we’ve discovered that simplicity is finest.”
…however do not be afraid to interrupt the foundations
Hey, Mies is not for everybody. In the event you assume a extra advanced web site is the easiest way to convey your imaginative and prescient, go for it – so long as it is nonetheless intuitively navigable.
For instance, Nina Magon of Nina Magon Studio makes use of movies all through her web site to higher convey her ethos as a designer. “As a result of it is a extra advanced web site, accessing sure pages requires additional steps, and due to this fact extra time to achieve the specified vacation spot,” she says. “This can be thought-about a drawback by some, however we’re having fun with the journey.”
Magon encourages others to remain true to their identification with their web site, even when it goes in opposition to the grain. “It might not attraction to everybody, however finally your web site serves as a abstract of your work, so design it in a manner that brings you pleasure and finest represents your model,” she says.
Prioritize footage
Earlier than constructing your web site, spend money on skilled pictures of your tasks. “‘By no means decide a e-book by its cowl’ doesn’t apply to web sites for architects and designers,” mentioned Mary Maydan, founder and principal of Maydan Architects. “We’re judged on our aesthetics and I consider web site guests subconsciously kind their first opinion of our firm by how lovely the web site is.”
Apart out of your About Us web page, the majority of your web site needs to be photography-based. “For design web sites, an image actually is price a thousand phrases, so we put the emphasis on letting the tasks do the speaking,” says Maydan. “We do not have to inform the web site customer what he’s taking a look at. They’ll see and really feel the model story within the designs we present.”
Perceive that issues can get dear
At its core, a designer’s web site needs to be a portfolio and get in touch with web page, which you’ll be able to simply do your self by means of Squarespace, WordPress, or some other web site builder for a really small charge. Simply discover a strategy to make your web site stand out by modifying the prevailing templates in order that your web site would not look an excessive amount of like another person’s.
However as your small business grows, think about investing in a professionally designed web site. The dangerous information: It may be dear. “Web sites can run the gamut of budgets — assume $5,000 to $100,000 plus,” says Kara Mann, an inside designer in Chicago.
