Design on tap

All requests will be given a timeline for delivery, but most requests usually take 1-3 days. Larger tasks like a new landing page or a 3D asset can take a little longer as there is more planning and content requirements involved.

Yes, and I haven no plans on ever expanding. However, if the demand is high enough or the project work requires a specialist person to do something extra, I can facilitate rescourcing individuals.

Since 1998 I have been a designer and a developer. I've worked in print and digital. My forte is digital, designing brands and websites for ecommerce, marketing, web apps and mobile apps too. However, I'm not Mr Limitless, so there are certain types of work I might find that a better suited person would be appropriate. But this is generally for things that I don't offer, like back-end development, API development, mobile app development etc.

When it's design related, yes I can do everything.

When it's development related, let's chat. I'm a saught-after person when it comes to top tier front-end development, I can do a little back-end dev, but there are many others better than me in that particular area. But whatever you need, I have a network for people that can help and I can project manage others to faciliate the work if and when required.

Additional people aren't included in the costs, so it would be added on as a one-off payment. Of course, we'll discuss any of these needs before anything happens.

There's a few things, here's my current list of things I do not do;

• Icon sets
• Custom fonts
• Editorial work
• Super immersive 3D experiences (i'm not quite there yet! Right now this would require a team)

I see this quite often, people that look for designers that have very specific experience in the industry you're working in. Honestly, it's BS. I've never done any work for a space company, yet I'm 1000% confident that what I could do for a space company, would be pushing the boundaries of the web.

Sure, some industry experience can help a little bit, but when you follow a tried and tested process that includes research and testing, oh and a boat load of common sense, it makes absolutely no difference.

So sure, if you think you're in an industry that I may have never done any work in, let me prove my position on this.

While I can use almost any tool, the most used are Figma and the Adobe suite, specifically Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Blender. I don't really go outside of this unless to try things out.

In regards to process, if I have an idea or we need to quickly conceptualise something, it can happen in a few different ways. First, would be to research similar ideas and moodboard it. Second would be connect the pen tablet and draw a sequence of screens to lock the idea in. And third, would be to very roughly design it in whatever tool required.

The hope is to do enough quick mocking up, to be able to help describe the intention we want to achieve. At this point it's artistry to try and get you to envision what I'm seeing.

When we get to an agreement, I'll break it down into steps to get to the final result, showing you along the way so you can get clarity quickly.

This works for graphics, 3D environments and also websites, like a hero section or landing page. Depending on how artistically driven it needs to be, will determine the timeline, but I'll be clear on that early on.

First and foremost "I don't like it", isn't really enough. In most cases we'll be designing based on research, your audience and your brand, so we'll need to cut out the feelings and get to the bottom line, what is it that's not working, is it the colors, the spacing, is it the interaction ideas... we need to get really specific.

You not liking something, is completely fine, but to me that's a problem that requires a solution. The solution could be really simple. So all I ask is the upmost honesty, be brutal, it only makes me better.

There is no issue with doing a new concept, but what we must avoid is guesswork.

To an extent, yes. This is still a process, and honestly it's the hardest thing to accomplish on the web. But I am making progress. Did you see my /404 page? That's all 3D / Webgl and it took me about a day.

I am doing little experiments every so often to try and push me further in this area. With the likes of Bruno Simon and his invaluable teachings, I'm quite confident with it. Bare in mind, it is my life goal to be able to do this all on my own.

But if you/we have ideas that we want to explore that I can't do myself, I'm happy to bring in additional expertise from my network.

These retainer models are specifically designed for companies that need ongoing support with design or development. If you only have the ambition to have a website made, it would be better to do this outside of these plans, which is what I offer!

But hypothetically speaking, let's say we've completed your new website and it's live. I would recommend to you a small 6-monthly fee currently at £600 (inc VAT), where I take care of code cleanup and package updates to remove any vulnerabilities. Doing this once every 6 months is a good routine to make sure the code doesn't get out of date. Technology changes fast.

Larger requests are broken down on my end. This applies to full-scale website or mobile app designs, UX/UI work, etc. You should expect to receive a reasonable amount of work every 24-48 hours until the entire request is done.

Ok, I can offer 3 things;

• React / Nextjs (recommended)
• Framer or Weblow
• WordPress

While Framer and Webflow aren't my goto platforms for websites, I have some experience get things done. However, if you're on the Elite plan which includes web development, we should be using React/Nextjs or WordPress.

I have over 18 years experience with WordPress, and I still recommend Nextjs for the front-end with a headless CMS (DatoCMS).

The development process in Nextjs far outweighs anything else and allows me to really ramp up the interactive features whenever we need. For example, if we ever needed to add 3D or Webgl, I could not do it in Framer or Webflow, sort of hit and miss with WordPress, but not a problem in React / Nextjs.

So my recommendation will always be Nextjs, with a headless CMS.

A headless CMS, something like DatoCMS, is what sits in the cloud, powering your editting capabilties. All the images assets run through a CDN, all your content data is stored there. The front-end (Nextjs) is separated. We pull in the content at build time, and serve the pages with that content. The front-end would be hosted on Vercel (free in most cases). When you change something in the CMS and hit publish, it fires a trigger to Vercel to rebuild the site, which then requests to pull the new content and serve it into the pages. This can take a minute or two, but then you're left with something super performant as an end result.

Users visiting your website no longer need to make additional HTTP requests to a database which populate 1 page at a time. We can truly optimise the performance instead and get really good metrics. In some instances, we may need to connect to an API to get other data, or fetch data on the go via the same CMS, but this can all be properly developed to ensure speed and quality for the end user.

We can do some of this in WordPress, except it's harder to maintain performance. And it's impossible to optimise in Framer or Webflow.

You can definitely hire me for that, dependent on availability, but it wouldn't be part of the Design On Tap service. Book a call to discuss requirements and I can provide you with a quote and timeline.

Due to the high quality nature of the work, there will be no refunds issued past the first week of service. However, if requested within the first week, a refund will be provided except for any completed work. That work is yours.