I’ve been busy learning, working and living. I’ve really improved recently, all of my designs are so much better than what I used to produce. I’m able to think outside the box a bit more, and I’m trying so hard not to get stuck inside my comfort zone.

The past few weeks have been better at work - I’ve been able to come up with lots of different layouts for single projects, and improve on them each time. 

This is some work from today: 

I’m rather pleased with both! 

Could you recommend some good web design blogs on Tumblr? Thanks in advance.

I was looking through my emails earlier and I found a design I’d sent to a client last year. It’s hilariously bad, and I can’t believe I ever created it, let alone sent it. How they had the faith in me to produce something of quality I will never know. It looks like it was created in paint.

It’s that bad that I’m not even willing to share it.

Definitely a new guilty pleasure. For me, when done right they can really enhance the user experience, even if it’s something as simple as a slight transition between colours when a link is hovered.

It’s all in the subtleties.

I literally have no idea what to charge for websites, or any kind of creative work. I always think I’m either underselling myself or ripping people off; I can never find a happy medium. If you overcharge, you run the risk of losing your prospective client. If you undercharge, you run the risk of them thinking “oh, their work must not be particularly brilliant anyway” and therefore run the risk of losing them anyway.

Then there’s the problem of advance payment. It’s always difficult to ask for money up front, because you’re pretty much asking for an investment in something that doesn’t yet exist. I hate asking for money up front, but because of the amount of times I’ve never received payment, it’s becoming a necessity.

The worst is when I’m asked to design something for a friend, because then ‘mates rates’ apply, and then I truly am underselling myself and my work.

This is really just a place for me to post anything creative, and not spam the [limited number of] followers I have on my personal blog. 

I am a web designer, and I’ve always wanted to be a web designer. To be paid handsomely by a company that is filled with experts in the field is such a compliment. I’ll admit I’m not the greatest at the moment, but you have to start somewhere, right?

I’m really passionate about websites in general, and I love the art [yes, art] of web design. It’s one of the newest and most exciting industries around, and I feel privileged to be a part of it. 

Most of the time I create clean, corporate looking websites that are minimal for the most part. I love the use of subtle textures and slight font variations that catch the eye of the visitor. I’m an absolute perfectionist and I really believe that no design is ever ‘finished’; there are always better ideas to come. That’ll be one of the reasons behind Facebook’s million and one redesigns, I imagine. If their designers are any good at their jobs, anyway. 

For me, user experience is everything, and I always design with the user in mind, rather than designing something that looks pretty but has no functionality.

I can’t imagine a lot of people will even see this, but it’s just nice to have another creative outlet. I’ll mainly be posting bits of my freelance work, and any other designs I happen to put together. Unfortunately I can’t post any of the work I do for my company, until at least the websites are live.