Web design for small business
WORK
Your small business website is often the first impression a potential customer will have of you.
However, if it’s badly designed and difficult to use, it will put people off. A beautifully designed website optimised for SEO will let people find you easily and convert those visitors into real business.
Web design for small business
Why your website matters…
of users make a judgement about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design.
of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.
of people would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain.
of customers’ first impressions are design related.
of consumers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device
of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load
Web design for small business
Recent projects
The latest web design for small business projects.
For illustration commissions visit www.veronicapetrie.com
THREE WORD STORIES
Artwork + Web Design
Three Word Stories, a local band, approached me to create the artwork for their upcoming debut EP, Crimson and Gold, and the website to go with it.
We gave them advice on how to promote their music and give their audience a way to connect with the music in the absence of a hard copy CD.
Promotional material
Some cute download cards featuring ‘mini prints’ of the EP artwork were created. These were sold with a download code for the website and stickers to act as giveaway business cards.
These have the added bonus of free publicity if people stick them!
The website went live on 15th September 2018 to coincide with their EP launch.
The Crimson and Gold EP is a collection of stories in song inspired by the small fishing communities in and around the local area from the Moray Coast to the bay of St Cyrus.
The theme
The fishing theme was our starting point and we decided to echo Japanese art, where the fish is a really important symbol, to reflect the importance of fishing to the area. For example, 60% of UK fish catch is landed in Scotland.
The Japanese theme was subverted by using a haddock as our symbol rather than a koi. Crimson and Gold also allowed a play on the Japanese art of kintsukuroi, “to repair with gold.” It’s the art of repairing pottery with gold lacquer, understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.
Free publicity
Using this theme, little square mini fish prints were designed; the artwork to be sold with a download code on the back.
It gives the audience something tangible to take away and carries the band’s contact info so fans can keep up to date. A sticker design replaced business cards as giveaways/free publicity with the website details. Fans were able to share images of the fish stickers online using the hashtag #crimsonandgold
Future collaborations
Down the line we are also planning a CD sized version of the cover with lyrics, and a fab creative collaboration with limited edition lino cuts of the same fish, in crimson ink with a gold leaf eye on Japanese paper. These will be available exclusively from Three Word Stories.
The fully responsive website launched alongside the EP on 15th September 2018.
Three Word Stories – Leanne Cathcart and Andy Bell – draw their influence from the people and places of the north east of Scotland.
Their EP blends a traditional acoustic sound with folk and country to create a reflection of the life and times of the local area.
As in folk tradition, Three Word Stories believe that music should be passed down and shared but also valued. They trade music with integrity and on their own terms. Three Word Stories work hard to make their music independently and charge minimal amounts to reinvest in continuing their project – they can be heard live or via their website.
We were lucky enough to have a sneaky listen to their debut EP, Crimson and Gold, and it is seriously good…
FIT LIKE FLOWERS
Branding + Web Design
Local florist business Fit Like Flowers was looking for a complete small business branding design package to launch online.
The small business branding package included a logo design, a business card layout and a brand new website design.
Janie had no experience of web design, so she also needed help and support with the technical side of managing her shiny new website to keep it up to date.
We came up with the idea of a graphic representation of a wild flower meadow at the foot of Bennachie because it’s the Scottish hill visible from her garden.
It was the perfect starting point for her logo and business card design.
The website design
For the website, Janie wanted to be able to keep her customers up to date with the seasonal flowers she has, so we devised a calendar layout linked to seasonal pages. Doing this allows Janie to keep her content current without making major changes to her site. In turn, this helps SEO and leaves her more time to tend to her business!
Janie’s flowers are locally grown in her own cottage garden, meaning they are 100% organic with no airmails. They are also rather beautiful, we especially love the natural jam jar posies.
And I love the name! ‘Fit like’ is Doric for ‘how are you?’
TV appearances
The business has recently featured twice on much loved BBC Scotland gardening programme, The Beechgrove Garden.
REAL PERIOD PROJECT
Web Design
The Real Period Project wanted a new, more modern and engaging website to replace their outdated self-built site. They had a hefty number of ‘must haves’ on their list, including;
- a blog
- Amazon affiliate links
- a small e-commerce store
- pdf download resources
- and a newsletter sign up form
It also needed an SSL security update, as their old site was still languishing on http.
The new website
The new site was built on a demo server which allowed their old site to remain live until the new one was approved and ready. The switchover and deployment took a seamless 30 minutes using our cloning tool.
The website design
After some time researching what some similar organisations were doing in the space, we decided to go for big, bold and bright imagery with a very modern feel. To add to the modern feel we steered away from images which felt obviously like stock photographs (even though some of them are).
We made prominent use of the Real Period Project’s well designed and colourful logo to reinforce the organisation’s identity.
The result
The new web design is a bright, young and engaging site with plenty of clean white space. This helps it to feel spacious and uncluttered to the user, while still packing in an amazing amount of resources. These resources come in the form of downloads, products and web resources. There is a newsletter sign up form which is connected to MailChimp to make marketing a breeze. In the future the site can be easily connected to social media should they wish.
The Real Period Project want a world where periods are taught as part of the whole menstrual cycle and it is safe to talk about and experience menstruation whatever your age, gender or location.
For instance, they want everyone to be included in the conversation, so that it becomes as normal and acceptable for someone to talk about how their menstrual cycle affects them as it is to talk about how anything else in their life makes them feel.
