As a full service agency we not only do branding and design, but also create custom designed and developed websites.
Sometimes clients hire me for my branding and packaging design skills and forget that Bauerhaus also creates websites. For example, a recent phone conversation went like this:
Me: Do you have a website created or domain registered for the new barbecue sauce that I just created packaging for?
Client: No, not yet.
Me: Ok, just remember if you want an estimate I do websites, too.
Client: You do? Totally forgot you do websites, too. Can you send me an estimate?
Why did this happen?
Often designers get categorized as “packaging designer” or “logo designer” or “print designer” but not usually also having the title of “web designer”. Or if a designer does design for the web, they don’t know the first thing about the coding, sitemaps or getting people to a website.
Why is that?
It is true designers are typically classified as right brain dominant while website development is done by left brain dominant individuals who prefer analytical thought, logic and reasoning. Back when I did everything myself I did coding on certain days and design on other days. Since going on my own 2008, my business has grown so that I now have a team of web developers that execute all of my designs and visions of how it should work into beautiful responsive code.
How can I do both?
The truth is I think of myself as a designer and problem solver. Websites are just one more problem that I love to solve. And problems solved with organization, logic and creativity are my specialty.
This is probably also why I strongly react negatively when I hear other designers say they can’t hit deadlines because they have to wait for the solution to magically come to them. As a designer that is also analytical, I know that deadlines are hugely important and have an entire process I walk each client through.
The analytical part of me loves all of the research into similar brands and the thinking through the paths you want website users to walk through. The designer part of me takes over after I have all the information and I translate the vision in my head to paper or computer. This can involve illustration, layout, color, type selection, graphics, and photo selection.
How long have I created brands and websites?
The interesting thing about my career, is that I have always done both. My first job out of college in 1998 I worked for a company that created brands and websites. I designed website pages in Photoshop and worked with a website developer to translate it online. After that job I made sure every new company I worked with knew that I also did website design and email design, plus I took intro coding classes on my own. I saw websites as the future of design and I wanted to be on the leading edge of it.
Why are websites so important?
Wine and spirit brands often place a huge importance on packaging, but not as much on creating a responsive website with a clear call to action. When I give presentations I often talk about how you should think of your website as the center of a spiderweb. Your website should be the center of your brand and everything should point to it – social media, emails, packaging, content marketing, advertising, etc. And if your website is the most important piece of your brand, then yes, I definitely want to be a part of designing and developing it.
What types of websites do we create?
Many of our clients ask us to build their websites with WordPress. This allows us to easily create custom code and after they watch a training video that we provide, the client can easily make their website blog posts, text and photo changes. Three recent examples that have gone live include LeonardWineco.com, PomonaWinery.com and LeekandCompany.com.
We also build custom designed and developed websites in other platforms, like Prestashop, for clients like MotherRunnerStore.com. We build each website around your goals, whether it is sell more online with a custom eCommerce store, promote your daily events, or the ability to run hundreds of different reports to analyze the success of each product.
Our clients say things like “I really loved the video tutorial you provided” and “Becca is the consummate professional and a delight to work with! My business partner and I are not “fluent” in the tech world, by any means, and Becca always spoke to us in easy-to-understand, respectful terms and tones. She brought savvy consideration to design options as well as functionality, keeping our brand’s tone and client base top of mind.”
Every design and every website is a puzzle that is waiting to be solved. Ready for me to solve your puzzle? Contact us today to set up a phone call to discuss your needs.