Here are the designs as they were intended for a design/internet services company, with this in mind.

The overall feel of the site should be comfortable rather than hip.  I want it to be fresh but not intimidating since a wide range of clients would be viewing this site.

Additionally, I had the following sites to use for inspiration.

• http://www.clearfunction.com/
• http://www.webstruments.com/
• http://www.mikeprecious.com/
• http://www.thrusites.com/

Within a couple weeks I should have these designs revised and ready for free download.

Design 1 (larger version:  page 1, page 2)

Design 2 (larger version: page 1, page 2)

Larger Version

Project Details

When a guest calls any of the Signature Forum websites, that guest is connected to a liaison who will hold the guest’s hand through the rest of the appointment process. The tool helping the liaison mange guests is the sales interface. The sales interface has to present many different points of information about the current guest as well as the liaison status.

When designing the interface I was forced to keep in mind that it was just that, a sales interface. The liaison would be using this tool every hour of their working day. As such, I approached the design of with the eyes of a veteran user, as opposed to a brand new user.

Click here for the full design. Below are selected screenshots.

Dashboard View (view larger)

This is the opening screen that the liaisons see when logging in. It links to reminders, statistics, and reports.

Main View (view larger)

This is the main screen that has most of the information a liaison will need to interact with the guest. Among other things, it presents the guests information, past correspondences, and potential cross-marketing opportunities.

Project Details

Sensory Awareness is a practice in which we can rediscover our natural balance, self-confidence and oneness with ourselves and others. The sensory awareness foundation is dedicated to preserving and spreading sensory awareness.

I was hired by another designer to create a secondary design option for the foundation to review. The goal of my design was to create a professional site with an earthy and textured feeling.

I wanted to use some grunge elements in the design, so i used some beat-up textures as a background for the header, side bar, and as a roll-over element.

Technology Used

• Adobe Illustrator
  Adobe Photoshop

Search Engine Optimization

While I believe that any new content or blog article has a chance of ranking for a random keyword, the service offering pages were written with SEO as my primary consideration. The biggest issue that these pages will have is that A). I didn’t do a lot of research and B). I chose national search terms.

I decided to stick with national terms because I didn’t want to alienate my non-local clients. Basically I chose “Web Design Services” as opposed to “Chicago Web Design.” Most of my clients are NOT located in the Chicago area so I’m confident I made the right choice.

To Eliminate Confusion

I’ve realized that the type of work I do is not obvious. Sure, I’ve got web sites in my portfolio and some logos and a brochure, but what exactly can I offer to a potential client?

Additionally, the service descriptions will give clients a chance to read about my design/development process as well as the potential cost.

Along with every other freelancer, I’ve had problems with people not understanding the cost of a design.

Helps with Specialization

My skill set hasn’t changed, but the type of freelance work I should be doing has changed.  I’ve chosen to specialize and focus my freelance work on web design, blog design, and HTML/CSS development. I’d love to take on print assignments but I need more practice until I can feel confident charging a rate that will make me a living.

I’ll still include a section in my portfolio for print materials, and randomly post new projects there.

Anyways, check out my service offerings!

Project Details

After designing the website for my local chapter of Delta Lambda Phi while I was still in school, the national fraternity asked me to create designs for every chapter in the country. Instead of creating 30 separate web sites, I decided to push the use of wordpress as a CMS and put out just a few templates for the chapters to choose from.

The goal of the designs are to create 3 distinct styles that still have key similarities to each other.

The live sites will be launched in time for the fall 2008 college semester.

Technology Used

• Adobe Illustrator
  Adobe Photoshop
• HTML/CSS
  PHP
  Wordpress

Design Version 1

Design Version 2

Design Version 3

Designing for friends and family

Friends and family can be tricky. Sometimes its acceptable to quote your full rates, sometimes a partial rate, and sometimes you’re working for free.

My good friend, Greta, is an illustrator/painter/designer. She needs a proffesional portfolio o show potential employers.  I think it is practically impossible for her to get a design related interview without an online portfolio, so I wanted to help her out. She designed her site and I coded her design and set her up so that she can regularly add new portfolio pieces.

Also, she cooks an awesome meal for me once a week, so I owe her for that. 

www.GretaDohse.com  (Work in Progress)

On the other hand, I’ve been working for my aunt and uncle designing a website and some items for their baseball team. I’ve been working for them at a “family-discount” rate. I feel comfortable charging them money for two reasons.

•  They were already paying someone else to get this design work done, so they understand that there is value in my work.
• I’ll be doing regular design work for them.

I am still working for family, so I’m working for less than I would normally charge a client.

Designing for charities and other good causes

For my senior project at Purdue, I worked with 2 other guys, Max and Andrew, to create a promotional campaign for a young boy named Roberto.  Roberto has a disease called CIPA, which prevents him from feeling pain or perspiring. He’s a very happy and fun little boy, but he just did not know the damage he was doing to his body.

Admittedly this was a school project so I had to do it for free, but even now, this is the type of work that I’d consider doing again. 

I recently found out that the charity was able to raise enough money to get Roberto the help he needs, and its a great feeling to know that my web experience and abilities were required to get the charity running.

Designing for publicity

Designers hear these phrases and other similar requests very frequently…

I have this great website idea that I know will be really popular! But I don’t have a web design budget. I’ll let you put a link to your website!    

I need a new, creative logo. I don’t have any money to pay you but I bet it will look fantastic in your portfolio!

Normally, I turn down these requests, but occasionally an opportunity comes through that will actually produce great publicity and generate some solid word-of-mouth referrals.

I’m currently designing several custom Wordpress themes to be used by my fraternity at chapters around the country. Its actually a pretty big deal, most fraternity’s have pitiful websites, so this will be a great way to help my fraternity stand out!

Sure, its great that I’m helping out my national fraternity, but the main reasons for my involvement are the following.

• Publicity

  These templates will be used nationwide and implemented on over 20 websites. It also lets every brother know that I’m a web designer.

• Wordpress Experience

  I’m looking to use Wordpress as a CMS for most of my future clients and this is a great way to get some experience and portfolio pieces.

If you have some free work that doesn’t fall into one of those 3 categories don’t bother with me! I’ve got bills to pay and drinks to buy! However, if you’ve got work that does fall into one of these categories feel free to contact me.

To balance out a client’s fears I do the following:

• In my initial communications with a potential client, I explain the entire design process and payment stages.
• I give them my cell number.
• After the work has started I try to be as responsive as possible and make sure to hit my deadlines.
• Provide References

Beyond those bullet points, I think its important to develop a relationship with the client. Keeping everything professional 24-7 is boring, and by taking that relationship just a tiny step further you can increase trust.

My roommate is the client for a marketing company in downtown Chicago. Members of that company have made it a point to get to know him personally, even to the point of meeting him for non-work-related dinner and drinks. After dinner and drinks, their relationship has become more comfortable and trustworthy in a professional setting.

Client Accountability

The need for accountability and reliability goes both ways. How can a designer be sure that his client is going to provide content on time, make payments, etc?

Money is the greatest motivator here, by taking a percentage of the payment up front, and at specific stages of the project you are ensuring that you don’t get screwed and they payment stages present nice milestones for the project.

Getting Paid for Distance Design Work

In general it takes a long time to get paid. If you’re freelancing don’t expect to be getting checks bi-weekly or even on a monthly basis. Two methods that I’ve used to get paid

• Checks

  You have to wait for checks to get mailed and then you have to wait for them to clear. This can be a problem if you’re getting paid in stages and can delay the project while you wait to receive the check and then for it to clear.

• Paypal

  In college I used paypal once a month to receive money from my parents and had no problems. Paypal took out a small percentage of the payment, but I was willing to pay that in order for the convenience. However, recently my accounts have been hacked and I lost some money, basically ending my relationship with paypal for good.

  This is a fantastic article about one designers paypal experiences

Working long distance isn’t all that difficult as long as you’re prepared to deal with the special issue and needs it requires.

In case you missed it, Click here for part 1

Project Details

The Dragons are a baseball team in the Central Illinois Collegiate League. An amateur and collegiate baseball league.

I was responsible for the design of the Pocket Schedule for the 2008 season. The final measurements of the folded schedule are 2.5″ x 3.5.” I did not design the dragon’s logo.

Other Views

From start to finish this site took 2 weeks to develop. About a week and half for the design and 3 days to code. Not too bad!

In the initial meeting and consultation with clients I like to prepare a pdf of other materials to get a feel for what the client is looking for in terms of design style and inspiration. The start of this design wasn’t any different. I found a couple pieces that struck me, and used those pieces as jumping off points for my new design

• http://www.squawkdesign.com/weblog

  I really liked the navigation elements. Before looking at this page I was going to use boring “Arial” as the typeface for my navigation. The Squawk site made me realize that using images will work out fine. Just be sure to include the alt text.

• FWA wallpapers

  The FWA is a pretty cool site in its own right, showcasing the best of the web everyday, I fell in love with their wallpaper selection a while ago and have about 50 of them cycling every 15 minutes as my background. The following images provided the inspiration for the major header elements of my site.

• http://octwelve.com/

  I love how this site looks, I’m super jealous and I wish I could illustrate a character, or maybe some birds in the header of my design.

  Anyway, I didn’t take any specific design elements from Mary Luc’s site, more of the general feeling. She’s got a fun, kinda whimsical feeling to her site, and I tried to convey the same thing with my design.

If you’re curious, the design of my last site is below. Let me know what you think about the new design, especially if anything is broken.

Micek