WEB DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT
WEB DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT
This question depends almost solely on what you’re hoping to accomplish with your website. Are you just looking for a place on the web to list some information about your business that you don’t expect will change frequently? Or, are you looking for a more complex website, with a place to schedule appointments, have a calendar to list your upcoming events, to blog, or to have a contact form for your prospective audience or customers to reach you? If you answered the latter, a dynamic website built on a content management system (CMS), or rather, a platform such as WordPress or Cargo, would be the way to go. Still unsure? Buds, that’s more than okay. We’ll figure this out together based on your answers to our design questionnaire you’ll be sent at the beginning of the project.
The major expenses that go along with being a website owner can be broken down into four areas:
- Domain Registration – You’ll have to pay for the registration of your domain name, which is the address that people will use to access your website (for example, www.niemoz.com). The cost to register a domain name ranges from around $8.00 to $40.00 per year. A domain name can be registered for just one year, all the way up to about ten years at a time. You can either pre-purchase the domain name yourself, or we’ll gladly buy it on your behalf and then just add the purchase to your final invoice.
- Hosting – Once you have a domain name for your website, you’ll need hosting for it. Hosting is essentially rented space on a server (GoDaddy, Lunarpages, etc.) that’s always securely connected to the Internet. The price of hosting varies depending on the size of your website, the amount of web traffic your site sees, among other factors. Just like domain registration, you’re welcome to secure your own web hosting from one of the various providers out there, or we’ll be happy to sign you up for hosting and then add the purchase to your final invoice.
- Design + Development – This is the one-time fee that we’ll charge to get your website designed, set up, and off to a running start.
- Maintenance – If you need to make updates to your website content and your website isn’t 1.) Built on a content management system (CMS) (e.g., WordPress) or 2.) Updating websites just isn’t your jam, you’ll likely need to hire a website manager to make the changes for you. We have our own recommended in-house site editor that we’d be happy to refer you to. Additionally, if your website design needs to be updated, we’re happy to give you a hand doing that on an ongoing basis for an hourly rate.
Bottom line: There are zero hidden costs in building and maintaining a website. You will be quoted for the entire project before we ever begin working on it. The only unexpected costs that we wouldn’t be able to quote are project additions that you present to us after we start working. These will be quoted separately, and in addition to the original quote.
Depending on how complex your project is, it generally takes between two and three weeks to complete a website from start to finish if we’re provided all the necessary content up-front (copy, photos, logo, etc.). If you need something done quicker, let us know. Depending on our availability, we’ll do whatever we can to accommodate a special arrangement for your web project.
Niemożliwe! is not responsible for generating any of your website’s content (copy, photos, etc.) that you’d like to include — that is, unless of course you’d like us to, and opted for our branding and identity services in addition to website design/development. After all, who knows your business or project better than you? However, we’re more than happy to assist you in brainstorming the different areas of your site, providing general examples of content that would complement the site style and purpose, and as always, making suggestions if asked.
- Copy – We are happy to receive your site’s copy in a text file (.txt.), Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Microsoft Excel (.xls), readable PDF (.pdf), or even through a Google Doc.
- Photos/Images – We ask that photos or images be submitted in either .PNG or .JPEG formats, and logos are best if received in working Photoshop (.psd) files. We’ll gladly discuss alternatives if you don’t have these formats available.
- Audio/Video – We accept all common audio (AAC, AVI, MP3, MP4, AIFF, WAV) and video (MPEG-2, MOV, M4V, Mp4, WebM, OGV) file types.
We’d love to, buds. We generally charge an hourly rate for simple design, style, or structural updates, however feel free to contact us for a free quote. We are also more than happy to refer you to our in-house site editor for ongoing or periodic content (copy, photos, etc.) updates.
BRANDING, IDENTITY + PRINT DESIGN
BRANDING, IDENTITY + PRINT DESIGN
We offer a standard branding and identity package, which typically includes a unique logo design (or redesign), a business card design, and a promotional postcard, flyer, or splash.
Yes and yes, buds. If you’re not interested in a complete branding and identity package, we’d still love to create a great logo for you. Conversely, if you’re already in love with your current logo, we’re happy to create some matching business cards, a promotional postcard, flyer, or splash.
Get at us, buds! We’re happy to help you out with all of your design needs no matter what categories they fall into they fall. Give us a shout to discuss your project needs more in depth.
We typically have an initial logo concept ready for you to view within a week of project commencement. After that, project completion will depend on the required amount of revisions. We recommend allotting about three weeks from the start of the project to ensure plenty of time.
Sorry buds, we’re just a small shop over here. When you hire us for a branding and identity package or a print design, we supply you with all the necessary design files to give to your printer, publisher, etc., of choice. If you need a little help where to take your design for printing, we’re happy to point you in the right direction to some of our favorite folks at places like Mama’s Sauce or The Mandate Press.
GENERAL
GENERAL
Before we dive into your design project, we ask you to complete a project design questionnaire as well as a personal design document or ‘collage’ to give us a better idea of the interests, tastes, personality, and styles you’d like to convey in the project. This collage can include favorite fonts, colors, personal mottos, biographical background/history, artwork, photos, favorite websites (or conversely, least liked websites), pop culture indulgences — anything and everything that could be helpful to us in getting a better sense of you and your project. Just throw those things into a document (Word, Excel, Google Doc., etc.), upload it it to the project design questionnaire we send you, and you’re good to go!
Now, okay, we understand that this sort of thing may not be your jam. Bud, trust us that it’s worth taking a little of your time to do. This part of the process is one of the main reasons our clients are as happy as they are with their completed projects, and why we’re able to more often than not nail the look you’re going for with fewer rounds of project revision. Remember, your money, your project, and your happiness at stake. Help us get it right.
This is the answer no one likes, but unfortunately, it’s the truth: every project is unique and comes with its own set of requirements, so we like to assess each assignment on a case-by-case basis. But rest assured, before any work begins, we provide you with a custom quote so there are absolutely no surprises at what’s included, how long it’s going to take, and how much it’s all going to cost. The easiest way to receive a free, no-strings-attached quote for your project is by sending us a quick message with a few details about your project and we’ll get back to you ASAP.
Upon receiving your signed project proposal, we’ll send you a secure payment link to submit a 50% down payment of the total project cost in order for us to begin work. Once we’ve tied up any remaining loose ends at the close of the project, we’ll send you a project sign-off form and another secure payment link to submit the remaining 50%, due within 14 days of project completion.
While actual design procedures vary a bit from project to project, here’s a quick run-down of our usual approach.
Before we begin working on your project, we’ll send you a design project questionnaire. This will ask you some general questions about your project, your existing materials (if you have any), deadlines, and other important administrative information. We rely on you completing this as thoroughly as possible because it provides the best starting point for your design project.
Buds, not a problem. We get it. We understand that there are sometimes misunderstandings between your vision for your project and ours, which is why we always include up to three rounds of revisions on any design work to be able to nail the vision you have. If you’re unhappy with any preliminary designs, all we ask is that you provide as much feedback as you possibly can (e.g. you’re not in love with the colors, the font isn’t working for you, the graphics aren’t what you were expecting, etc.), we’ll discuss it with you, and we’ll create a plan for how your design can be improved and perfected in the next revision. Your absolute honesty here is key, as it’s your money, your project, and your happiness at stake.
You do, bud. You do. Upon final payment, you’ll own full copyrights to the final website, designs, and graphics created specifically for your project. We’ll give you copies of all necessary files for your safekeeping. The only right we like to maintain is to display your finished product in our portfolio and other promotional materials. The rights of the unused samples or concepts created during the design phase remain with us.
Music to our ears, bud. Send us a quick message with a few details about what you’re looking to do with a project, and we’ll get back to you ASAP. Supah quick-like.