Logos may be built from type alone and send straightforward messages. The Procter & Gamble logo has had a controversial history; therefore, the company developed a new logo that is compromised of type only. Other logos are illustrative such as Quaker Oats or Aunt Jemima. Finally, many logos use negative space within the design to send a separate message. For example, the Big Ten logo has the number 11 situated within the negative space.

The Big Ten logo uses negative space to enhance its message.

The best logos follow guidelines to reach the result and include the following.

1. Make it simple

Some of the best logos are simple designs that effectively communicate the message to the consumer. Examples of this are the Nike, Apple, Shell and WWF logos, who all use to-the-point visuals to signify their brand.

2. Keep it relevant

Identify the business, incorporate tradition, and avoid the trendy. Trends are short-lived and a logo must have an element of longevity. Also, always make sure the logo catches the eye of the client’s audience. You wouldn’t want all the work to be lost on them.

The new pepsi logo came in for criticism due to it's lack of relevance.

3. Aim for distinction and make it memorable

An important question to consider is what differentiates the business from competitors. How will the logo look when at a reduced size? When reduced, complex designs lose visual integrity. Make sure the colors compliment the message, and remember it has to be able to work in grayscale as well.

4. Remain focused

Working in black and white is incredibly helpful to me in order to see the visual contrast of the design.

Below are 13 logo examples that I believe nail many, if not all of these qualities…enjoy.

FedEx

The shipping giant FedEx has a logo that appears as a simple type design; however, looking closely at the negative space it is clear that this logo is unique. The negative space creates an arrow pointing to the right representing the company’s objective of moving forward and moving items around the world.

Volkswagen

The diesel carmaker has a deeper meaning for their logo other than the simple VW. The words “volk” means people and “wagen” means car.

Amazon

The online selling and shipping guru has a logo that appears simple as well; however, the arrow points from A to Z. This technique symbolizes that the company sells everything from A to Z.

BMW

The BMW Company built military planes during the war. The logo illustrates a plane’s propeller in motion. In addition, the colors are the national colors of Bavaria, which is now a part of Germany.

Nike

The Nike swoosh is known worldwide. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory and the Nike swoosh represents one of the wings she uses to achieve it.

Domino’s Pizza

The Domino’s Pizza logo appears as only a drawing of the game piece with the three dots placed randomly. The original plan for this logo was to place a dot for every store; however, the company stopped with the first three.

USA Network

The USA Network has a clean logo using type only; however, the type is used creatively. The designer created the letter S with the negative space and by manipulating the letters U and A.

The Big Ten

As mentioned previously, the NCAA’s Big Ten conference ran into an issue when they decided to add Penn State to the Conference. They didn’t want to change the name of one of the best known conferences in the country, but they also wanted to acknowledge the addition of their eleventh member. They solved this by incorporating the numeral 11 into the negative space in the type.

Toblerone

Toblerone is one of the most famous chocolate companies in the world. They are based out of Bern, Switzerland which is often called “The City of Bears.” They pay homage to this in the mountain in their logo. The snow on the mountain’s face forms the shape of an upright bear.

Sony Vaio

Many people are familiar with the wavy logo they place on their beautiful laptops, but few (except for the nerds) will really know what it means. The “va” forms a wave symbol to represent analog technology, and the “io” creates and 1 and a 0 to represent the composition of digital technology.

Milwaukee Brewers

At first glance (and for twenty years of my life) the Brewers classic logo looks only like a baseball glove, but upon further examination you can see that it is an “m” and a “b” combined to make the glove representing the team name.

Tostitos

Here is another logo that first appears to only be elaborate type. But! The two t’s in the middle of the word are two people dipping a chip into the bow that is the dot of the “i!”

NBC

Now most people know there is a peacock in the logo. If not, you now do, but many do not know why it exists. When the logo was initially created the six colored wings to represent their six divisions: news, sports, entertainment, stations, network, and productions. The bird’s head is also pointing to the right to symbolize a company moving and looking forward.

Every logo mentioned above shares the common factor of designing with meaning. Even the simplest logo or a type-only logo has significant meaning. Some logo designs are more effective and iconic than others; however, every result is born from the execution of many rough sketches and those few digital mock-ups as well.

Jesse from Art Room Melody shares 13 of her favourite logos, as well as the secrets to a successful brand and how to ensure the logo can stand the test of time.

The design of a logo will have a long-term impact on your business. This is mainly due to the fact that the logo will be tied for a long time, to the perceived image of both your company and the products you are selling. For this reason, the logo design process should not be taken lightly.

It makes no difference whether you are designing a logo yourself or you are working with a team of professional designers. In fact, the basic rules of good logo design are definitely the same and there is little advantage in leveraging a well-known communication firm if your marketing goals are not well-defined. Fortunately, the check list for a successful design is short and the driving requirements are well-defined:

1. Originality

Originality is paramount. You really need to design a logo that is substantially different from all the logos that can be found in the same business niche / sector as your company. This is not just a matter of avoiding copyright infringement, in fact a distinctive logo will also help customers remember your company and your product.

2. Creativity

Combine different elements to build your brand. Some logos use shapes that are easy to recognize. Some others simply rely on the use of a particular font. Some very successful designs are based just on the definition of a specific color scheme. Of course, the number and the kind of elements to put in your logo strongly depend on many factors, such as the product you are selling, the market segment your company belongs to and even the appearance of the characters that make up your company name.

3. Know your Target Audience

Define an image that is coherent with your market segment. High-tech logos should include sharp shapes, as their goal is to suggest innovation, speed and accuracy. By contrast, logos of companies that are in the services segment should be based on round and neat elements, in order to communicate a creative and friendly environment. Finally, B2B companies might find it useful to blend in their image elements from both the previous examples.

4. Keep it Minimal

Your logo should be clean, memorable and be adaptable to different platforms such as stationery, social media profiles and mobile devices. You should avoid including a lot of information or small details, since they are difficult to notice and could cause a lot of unnecessary clutter both when printing it or when publishing it online. Keep in mind the logo should look great both when on a dark and on a light background. If any text is present, choose a simple, clear font. This will enhance readability and will provide a cleaner and leaner look.

5. Practicality

Your logo should be recognisable in all sizes. If possible, you should use only standard fonts and colors defined in standard palettes. Design your logo with longevity in mind and ensure it is capable of withstanding changing trends.

These 5 simple tips will help you in designing a logo that will perfectly suit the communication needs of your company.

Mike Barbre is a social media professional and technology enthusiast. When he’s not using Intermedia’s Exchange Hosting, he can be found following Intermedia on Twitter and as a fan of Intermedia on Facebook.

Conroy James has been kind enough to put together his 10 best learning resources for web designers and developers.

1. HTML Dog

This is a great resource for web designers looking for the latest HTML and CSS techniques.

Visit HTML Dog.

2. W3Schools

W3Schools is a fantastic starting point for web designs and developers. It contains information on HTML5, XHTML, CSS and more. It also contains introductions to browser scripting such as javascript.

Visit W3Schools.

3. Web Design Library

The Web Design Library contains a good mix of tutorials and walkthroughs, as well as a directory of services for businesses looking for their first designer / developer.

Visit Web Design Library.

4. Web Developers Notes

If you want free programming tutorials, Web Developer Notes is perfect. You will find number of tips and tutorials on HTML, JavaScript, Flash, SQL and more.

Visit Web Developer Notes.

5. HTML Code Tutorial

HTML Code Tutorial provides you with the most helpful information for creating web pages. If you are a beginner, HTML Code Tutorial is a great starting place.

Visit HTML Code Tutorial.

6. jQuery

Although mainly a catalogue for jQuery plugins / functionality, the jQuery website is a good way of learning about the popular library and how it can improve your websites.

Visit jQuery.

7. Echo Echo

Echo Echo provides a unique mix of tutorials and articles on all things web design.

Visit Echo Echo.

8. Web Appers

Web Appers is one of my favourite websites. Its role of scouring the Internet for the best in open source resources is invaluable for designers and developers of all levels.

Visit Web Appers.

9. Tizag Tutorials

Tizag was specially designed to teach beginner web programmers about using HTML and CSS. This website allows you to dive straight into the tutorials with no messing around.

Visit Tizag.

10. HTMlite

HTMLite is a tutorial based website that offers walkthroughs and guides for users with a total lack of technical jargon, making it easy for the most inexperienced of programmers to begin coding.

Visit HTMlite.

A shared hosting plan is typically based on “geo hosting,” meaning that you are sharing rented space on the hosting company’s physical server that is set up in a particular geographically-based location. Shared hosting is fine, up until the point that your storage and traffic needs begin to overwhelm a shared environment.

Until recently, there have been two choices available to solve this problem: virtual private server (VPS) hosting and dedicated server hosting. However, a new option has presented itself to website owners looking to improve their hosting: cloud hosting. Each of these hosting platforms has benefits and drawbacks, and each is ideal for users with very different requirements.

What Is Cloud Hosting?

The word “cloud” in this sense refers to a collection of servers that are integrated to work together, which allows them to share resources and loads. Cloud hosts are composed of several servers, usually all located in different places around the world. Cloud hosting, like shared geo hosting plans, allows several users to share the same resources. However, the resources of cloud hosting are much greater than those of a physical server. This makes it available at a lower cost than a dedicated hosting plan.

Cloud hosting is well-prepared to manage peaks in traffic and data transfer. You will typically pay a flat rate for the service during times of regular traffic, and will be charged an additional fee only during times of peak use or high resource loads. This makes it a highly scalable option, with the ability to enjoy the benefits of dedicated hosting without the high rates. You will retain the availability of the highest bandwidth you may need at any given time, but you will only pay for this service when you actually use it. Keep in mind that the per-unit cost for data transfer will typically be higher with a cloud host than with a geo host.

Cloud hosting can become extremely beneficial for users with certain situations. For example, you may be involved in a resource-intensive, large-scale app development project or something else involving high data transfer. For such an operation, cloud hosting provides a necessarily wide variety of resources.

Potential Issues With Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting does have a few key issues to resolve before it becomes a completely viable option. Even though the shared resources are much greater than those of a shared geo hosting plan, you can expect that other users will often hit peak times as well. To balance these heavy loads, the servers will often shift data around with the other hosting clients. You could see your resources suddenly located thousands of miles away, even in another country. You will not know the actual location of the server that has been assigned to you or your users by the random “load balancing” system. If your data must travel a very long distance to reach a user, transfer can become incredibly slow.

This constant shifting of resources is quite a balancing act. It can result in a generally slower response time for all website operations. It can also pose a security threat. Cloud hosting poses a potential vulnerability in its load-balancing operations. Traditional hosting companies have well-established security protocols. With cloud hosting, no industry standard for security exists, although some larger cloud hosts are currently developing guidelines to protect against unauthorized access. Currently, cloud hosting is unable to offer the same high level of security as geo hosting options.

Cloud Hosting or Geo Hosting?

Geo hosting may be the best option for websites where connection time is very important: those that are primarily user-driven. A dedicated server will provide higher quality email service, faster page loads and a more predictable cost. If this is your situation, you need to find a geo host with a data center situated as close as possible to you and the majority of your users.

Geo hosting provides the possibility of a fairly simple transfer to a dedicated server should the need arise. This transfer will provide a solution to heavy traffic problems and provides greater stability as your business expands and your needs grow. Dedicated servers give you your own space to store vital data and perform complex operations. This means a more secure, stable environment.

Users with fairly level loads may benefit more from geo hosting services. Geo hosting also provides the possibility of scalability. While a shared hosting plan can provide only limited load balancing operations, a quality geo host can assist you in upgrading your account with no risk of security threats. Geo hosting utilizes Secure Shell (SSH), which will secure your databases during transfer. Cloud hosting does not currently offer this ability. If your website operations require the highest level of security, your best hosting option is a dedicated geo-based server plan.

Cloud hosting may be a good fit for websites that have a high level of variation in their requirements. It can also be beneficial for users who are involved in very high-resource operations such as large-scale development projects. Cloud hosting can help save money if your resource needs cause vastly fluctuating server loads on a random schedule.

Ensure that you are choosing the best option for your needs by considering your current situation in relation to your expected future growth and expansion plans. Don’t neglect to perform diligent research on the hosting company itself. You need a reliable host that offers professional technical support all day, every day. You need to know you can get the help you need right away, should some problem arise. Your users expect your website to be available always, and if it is not available, your competitor’s website will be waiting to pick up your slack.

Brian Flores is a SEO and blogger for InMotion Hosting, one of the top providers of dedicated hosting in the country. He works with a team of awesome writers to post useful tutorials on WebHostingHelpGuy. You can follow him on Twitter @WHHG_InMotion or @BrianAFlores.

However, just creating / claiming a Google Places listing will not be enough to guarantee a rise in traffic or enquiries. There can be hundreds of local businesses in the same niche and in the same location as you, all vying for the top spot. Whether you are a local dentist, lawyer or even web designer, you will get a lot of benefits in terms of new customers / orders if you follow these simple steps in optimizing your Google Places listing.

The competition to rank highly is fierce.

1. Business name

Although many local businesses are using non-brand keywords for their titles etc, this isn’t particularly useful for Google Places. Use your business’ name as it is and this will ensure users find your business quickly and easily.

2. Fill in all of the required details

Although there are multiple fields in your Google Places listing, try and make sure you fill in as much of them as possible. Missing fields will only damage the chances of you ranking highly, and give users an incomplete view of your business.

3. Categories and description

It’s easy to be swayed into choosing categories that you feel will be the most popular, even if your business very loosely fits into this bracket. Always choose the category that best fits your business, and users will have more chance of finding you.

Your description is also important in giving users an instant impression of what your business is about, and what makes it stand out from its competitors. Be as descriptive as possible and leave nothing to the imagination.

4. Photographs and video

If you are just uploading pictures and videos that do not carry any SEO value, you have just wasted a precious opportunity to optimise your listing. Say you want to upload 4 photos of your car washing business – instead of using the regular 2983123.jpg file names, change those to “las-vegas-car-washing.jpg”, “car-washing-las-vegas.jpg” and so on. Anything that is keyword rich will help your listing. When it comes to videos, use services like Animoto (create videos from images) and upload your new created video on websites like YouTube. The trick is to add in your video, descriptions of your company such as name, address and phone number, exactly as listed in Google Places.

5. Competition analysis

Competition usually only comes into play when looking at organic rankings, however your competition should not be forgotten when looking at Google Places. See who outranks you in local listings and find out what are they doing right. From reviews,numbers of citations, to the number of images they have uploaded, see how the successful listings have established themselves.

6. Citations, citations, citations

Getting relevant citations will skyrocket your rankings in local results, but where to get them? As we’ve said above, see where your competition is building citations from, do the same and try to get some extra-citations on top of that. You will notice they are getting citations from business directories like maybe Yelp, Thomson, SuperPages and so on, try to dig a little deeper and search for geo-targeted business directories that for a small fee (or even for free) will list your business.

Other great places to get citations from are websites like Panoramio and Flickr for photos or video sharing websites like YouTube. Some websites accept mapping your location, some allow you to add titles / details with your business name, address and phone number. Try and fill in as much content as possible, ensuring your citations are as detailed as they can be.

Lastly, try to target local bloggers who might be able to give you a citation from a location standpoint. These opportunities can be rare, but some of the most valuable around.

7. Reviews

Although you might be tempted to write your own reviews, this is a short term action and a risky one at that. Always try and keep your content completely organic and dont do anything that may risk you getting banned from the Google Places system.

Step 1 – Prospecting: Take a day off and write down the businesses / people with whom you have worked with in the past and who you think might be happy to give you a positive testimonial.

Step 2 – Contact: Email these contacts with a link to your Google Places listing and kindly ask them to provide an honest review about your business. Include a link and an example review (perhaps from another user) to make it easy as possible for them to give you a review.

Conclusion

As you can see, in only seven short steps we’ve given you a full run down of how you can begin improving your local Google Places ranking. With an improved ranking comes more traffic, increased brand awareness and more exposure to potential customers.

Think we’ve missed anything? Drop us a comment below and let us know.

Bogdan is a 27-year-old SEO consultant working for BluDelta, a SEO Manchester agency that provides search engine optimization services to small and medium sized businesses located throughout the UK. Keep in touch with BluDelta on Twitter.

Pixeno offer super fast, reliable hosting for web designers and developers. They offer a number of bespoke packages, perfectly tailored to the modern designer or developer.

Our friends at Pixeno are giving away 4 months totally free of their top ‘Roar’ package, saving you over £25! The Roar package offers 10GB of storage, 100GB of monthly bandwidth and the hosting of up to 10 websites. You can read more about Pixeno’s packages on their Plans & Pricing page.

All you’ve got to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prizes, is to leave a comment below telling us what you would use the hosting for, that’s it! We’d love to hear about your great new idea you want to get off the ground, or the new business you’ve launched, so just drop a comment below and we will pick four winners at random in around a week or so.

What happens if you need to account for revisions? or a short timescale that will require your team to work overtime, or the hiring of additional staff? These elements all come into play when quoting for your next web design project. Lets take a look at the different methods we can take when coming up with web design prices…

Pre-project estimates

An accurate proposal can be the start of a great project.

One popular method of quoting for web design work is to ensure you have discussed the project in depth with the client, and understand the scope and limitations of the project. Using your past experience (and perhaps calling on your design and development team for assistance) you can estimate the time the project will take. The advantages of this approach are obvious:

• The client is aware of the project costs up front, and the chances of any nasty surprises are reduced.
• The company can make plans for future income, and invoice for parts of the project accordingly.
• The work that goes into the project plan initially, can benefit the project in the long term.

For the majority of projects, this approach can be suitable, but relies on a thorough project proposal to be written before costs are agreed. This approach however, doesn’t lend itself to an ever-changing project and the additional functionality / costs that will inevitably arrise over the life of the project.

Charging per hour

Calculating the project on an hourly basis can give the client confidence going forward.

Giving the client a breakdown of proposed times for a project is a transparent way of educating them in how long certain tasks will take, such as design and development. It also sets a precedent from the beginning of the project, that any work you will complete will be looked at purely from a time point of view.

As long as the proposal states that additional work will be charged at an hourly rate, then the client should understand that. This approach can have its drawbacks however:

• No matter how much planning goes into a proposal, it’s almost impossible to be 100% accurate with your timing estimates. What if you hit a number of IE bugs? What if you have hardware problems, or your Internet decides to take a day off in the middle of the project? There are any number of unforseen circumstances which can add time onto your project timescales.
• Many clients can have a pre-determined idea of how much web design / a web designer is worth, so telling them your hourly charge (as opposed to a full project cost) can give them the perfect excuse to walk away. If your hourly rate is higher than your closest competitor, this may count against you, even if the overall project cost is identical.
• If you tell a client a project will take 10 days (or the equivalent in hours), a client may expect that project to be completed in that timescale i.e. 10 working days from the start date. This is achievable if you have a single project approach, but what if you have multiple projects ongoing, the chances of completing that in the clients timescale may be unlikely.

Charging per hour can ensure you’re covered for the duration of the project, however that doesn’t mean the client will be happy if they have to pay more than your original estimate. It may even be impossible to give a quote in hours, especially if the project is complex, such as an ecommerce website design.

Time tracking

A more accurate way of charging for your work, is to use time tracking software to provide an up to the minute list of the tasks you worked on / completed. This allows the client to see exactly what time has been spent on certain tasks across the project, and the charges related to these tasks.

There are a ton of different pieces of software you can use to track your time on projects:

Quoting per client

An alternative to timing projects, is to provide costs for a project without time involved i.e. what you deem to be a fair price for that client and project. This approach is suitable when you are approached by a client that has a large specification / budget in mind, and you’re confident that they may be comfortable with a cost that is a little higher than your ‘usual’.

The advantages of this are obvious, but there can be risks involved, especially if this client discovered that you were perhaps charging other clients at a lesser rate.

Conclusion

We’ve described some alternative web design pricing methods in the article above, which will suit a number of web designers ranging from small to medium businesses, to freelancers.

There is no right or wrong way to charge for web design and development, almost every single business / freelancer does it differently. You will find a method that works for you and your clients, just be prepared to make mistakes along the way!

With online merchant account services from Network Solutions, you can add credit card processing to your business website.”

Like a lot of people, I’ve recently watched the new TV show the Walking Dead, shown on AMC in the US and on FX here in the UK. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the mini-series and can’t wait for the new season to start later this year. Being an unpatient sole, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to Rick and co, and headed online to order the graphic novel from which the TV series is (loosely at times), based upon.

Here are some great examples of how you can improve your web design, development and communication skills by taking a page from the Walking Dead, because we’re almost in a post-apocalyptic hell already, right?

1. Stick together & don’t wander off by yourself

Going it alone can be dangerous.

If there’s one rule you should always follow in the Walking Dead, it’s to always stay close to someone. Wandering off on your own will only increase the chances of you a) getting lost, b) being eaten or c) shooting your dads best friend in the face.

The same applies to the web. With the introduction of Twitter, the community has never been so active and easy to reach. Twitter is an amazing source of knowledge, coupled with people kind enough to help complete strangers with their web-related problems. It can even get you a job, much like it did Jacob Cass of Just Creative Design.

It’s never been easier to get out there and make contacts with people big and small, novice and expert. So next time you’re having a problem with something, whether it’s who to use for business accounting, or what a particular font is, don’t wander off by yourself, take advantage of the people around you.

2. Choose your weapons wisely

Try bringing a hammer to a gun fight.

If sticking together is the most important thing on post-apocalyptic earth, then being equipped with, and choosing the correct weapon comes a close second. In the Walking Dead, the difference between using a hammer in a fight, as opposed to a shotgun, can mean the difference between life and death. The same rules apply in the pre-apocalyptic world of the web.

Flash

Sometimes flash can be a real beast.

Whilst I’m not going to turn this post into a flash debate, the obvious choices that designers and developers have in front of them are often the most interesting and discussed. Flash has perhaps the number one topic in the last 6 to 12 months, especially after Apple made their feelings about flash very public in April last year.

Although flash has been around since the early days of the web, and it’s blamed for a lot of problems (you can read some apple-orientated ones by clicking here) but it’s certainly still useful for a lot of web-related content. Flash is still by far the number one method of animated advertising on the web, allowing the vendor to create interactive animated adverts that sit right on the page. The level of interactivity is only replicated by HTML5, which is still in its infancy in regards to compatibility.

Photoshop & Fireworks

Ask a lot of designers who use Photoshop about Fireworks, and they’ll look at you as if you’re crazy for even mentioning it in their presence. However, having used Fireworks for a number of years alongside Photoshop, I can say with confidence that although certainly inferior in terms of options and scope, Fireworks is a fantastic piece of software that’s ideal for wireframing (which we’ll speak about later) and the creation of animated gifs quickly and easily.

Whilst Photoshop is undoubtedly the way forward for the majority of web designers, I believe Adobe is aiming to carve out its own niche for Fireworks and clearly define the roles that the two pieces of software have.

3. Have a backup plan

Never back yourself into a corner.

When Rick and the group are safe in the prison from volume 3, they still don’t let their guard down. They always have a backup plan, a way out incase of trouble. While I’m not saying every web designer needs a car outside with a box of grenades underneath, there are certainly precautions he can take to make his life easier incase of any unexpected surprises he or she might face.

a) Back up your work

One time, backing up your work meant burning to multiple discs, or manually uploading it to a web server on your painfully slow connection. These days, there are tons of ways to ensure your work is never more than a couple of clicks away.

Time Machine

Time Machine is a fantastic addition to OS X, and was first seen in Leopard in 2007. Apple recognised the lengths some people had to go to to regularly back up their work, and wanted to help users spend more time actually doing work then backing it up.

After an initial set up, Time Machine recognises your external hard drive, and automatically goes about making date-sensitive backups of your entire machine (or specific parts that your specify). The ease of which you can back up your entire work-flow, has almost revolutionised the way in which people go about ensuring their work is safe.

Online storage

Although the majority of designers and developers have been backing up their work online for years now, the process in which they do so is still one that is relatively time-consuming i.e. preparing folders, checking dates, ensuring versions match etc. The last couple of years has seen some great online alternatives to local storage.

The advantages of online storage is that no matter what happens to your home, your data is always kept safe in a remote location (although I’m not sure that covers a zombie invasion, I’ve yet to read the small print). As well as this secure advantage, some services also run similar functionality to Time Machine, constantly backing up your data without you lifting a finger.

Backup Direct

Livedrive

4. Don’t Rush In

uh oh.

We’ve seen it too often not just in the Walking Dead, but every single Zombie film that’s ever been made, people rushing into things far too quickly. See a parked car that looks like an ideal getaway? Jump straight in, try to start the car and you end up being bitten by a zombie on the back seat that you forget to check. Web designers can get some pretty bad injuries, just from not being careful in the early stages of a project, and jumping headfirst into visuals.

There are some fantastic resources around on wireframing, mood boards and also the best questions to ask clients before a project begins, check some of my favourites out below.

Wireframing

Mockingbird is an online tool that makes it easy for you to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application.

A Tumblelog by Ivana Jurcic dedicated to wireframing.

Project Methodologies

Project Patterns helps people share the way they approach projects, helping safeguard against any errors along the way.

Project Preparation

14 Questions To Ask Your Clients Before and After a Project.

5. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is

A classic part of the early story, volume 2 to be exact, is when the group happen upon Wiltshire Estates. At first glance, this seems a veritable paradise, with a ton of housing, few zombies and decent enough security. However, as all good zombie stories go, people get eaten.

Web designers and developers are skilled people, with talents that people can utilise to create a whole host of services online. Inexperienced or beginners in the field can be fooled into thinking that any approach by a potential client, promising untold riches, are too good to pass up. It’s important to keep your wits about you, and make sure you don’t get taken advantage of.

There are some fantastic resources around for the inexperienced freelancer / creative:

Freelance Switch

FreelanceSwitch contains some great advice on freelancing, most from experienced writers.

Wake Up Later

Wake Up Later is a website that touches on the subjects of website building, freelancing, blogging, and online entrepreneurship.

FreelanceFolder

FreelanceFolder is a community for freelancers, entrepreneurs, work-at-home business owners, and web-workers.

I also like to keep an eye on John O’Nolan’s website, where he blogs about the everyday occurrences of someone trying to find their feet freelancing. You can read an interview with John that we did earlier, by clicking here.

Summary

The world of the Walking Dead is not too far away from the world of a web worker. There are hazards at every turn and the choices you make can make or break projects, so it’s vital that you’re as prepared as possible, and draw on the experience of your colleagues and the community.

So keep your wits about you, it’s a tough world out there.

Q1. Firstly, thanks a lot for taking the time to speak to A Web Design Blog John! A lot of web designers and developers dream of going solo like yourself, what was the motivation of starting up Lyrical Media?

Well let me firstly just say thank you for having me – I’m always really humbled to be asked for interviews and this is no exception!

Lyrical Media itself started off as I think any web design company probably does: I was working full time for another web design agency, and I wanted to start freelancing on the side to make some extra money, and get some more experience. I did that for about a year before deciding to make the big decision, which was to leave full time employment and make Lyrical Media my primary source of income.

The motivation behind the big leap into self-employment was very simple – I hated who I was working for, and I’ve always had big ambitions of running my own company!

The man himself

Q2. You’ve been running Lyrical Media for around a year now, what’s been the highest and lowest point of running your own business?

Excellent question, I’ll start with the lowest point which was about 6 months in. I got landed with a client who wanted an ecommerce site overhaul – they were difficult from the very start, but I ignored the warning signs and took on the work anyway. It was 2 months of work, and to cut along story short the only money I ever got was the initial 25% deposit. That project totally consumed my 2 month “buffer” cash that I had saved up, and the business very nearly went under. The worst part was that I didn’t have the money to take them to court – so I definitely learned my lesson there, don’t ignore the red flags!

As for the highest point – I’m currently working with Virgin Atlantic on a fairly big piece of work for them, which has been an amazing experience! They’ve got a really great team of people working for their new travel division, and I’m sure they’re going to make some waves in the online travel community in 2010.

Johns company Lyrical Media is going from strength to strength.

Q3. Do you have a favourite project you’ve worked on at Lyrical Media?

Aside from that current one, I was also very fortunate to be commissioned for some design work by international video games publisher Ubisoft at the end of 2009 – which I had a huge amount of fun working on. It’s always an honour to be specifically sought out by any company, but when it’s a big company it’s definitely something special!

Q4. Not a lot of design companies, even freelancers, are as open when it comes to speaking about their business. Do you think this is one of the reasons why people connect with your blog so well?

Another great question, and I think the answer has to be a resounding ‘yes’. I don’t think I’ve ever actually mentioned this in writing before, but the reason I decided to blog so extensively about setting up my own business was almost entirely down to Adii over at WooThemes.

I’ve been following Adii for years now, before he was even “the woothemes guy” – and he used to write a blog a lot like mine back in the day! I remember on post in particular when he first moved into some new office space that both inspired me and made me really jealous at the same time. At the time of course those offices were for Radiiate, his design studio, but those same offices nowadays are known as “WooHQ”.

I’m a big fan of open and honest blogs that might actually help people, so I try to make mine like that as much as possible.

John uses his personal site to speak about his experiences, attracting thousands of readers

Q5. You’ve got quite a following on Twitter John. What role, if any, does it play in your business?

Twitter is probably my biggest asset as a business owner, I never imagined how much of a role it would play in my life when I first hit that “sign up” button a few years ago. I won’t harp on about it too much, but the network that I’ve built up through Twitter is second to none and I’ve “met” so many great people.

When I’m next at a point where I’m ready to take on more staff – I won’t be putting out job advertisements, I’ll be asking people who I know, like, and have already established a good relationship with over a period of time – which I think will ultimately be a lot better than the traditional way, where you basically hire a complete stranger with some crap written down on a piece of paper called a “CV” that doesn’t really mean anything.

John uses Twitter to connect with the community and has over 5,000 followers!

Q6. Do you have any main sources of inspiration for your work?

My answer to this used to be the standard “CSS galleries, blah blah blah” but in the last 6 months or so I’ve really moved away from that. I think the industry has gotten to a point now where the trends set by the top designers have become far too strong. All it takes is for someone like Elliot Jay Stocks or Tim Van Damme to use a new type of texture or alignment, and a month later 50 more sites pop up using the same thing.

For that reason these days I try to get a lot of inspiration from offline sources like print, packaging, photography, architecture, etc.

Q7. What’s a typical day in the life of John O’Nolan?

This really varies from month to month, but at the moment it consists of waking up at 8, getting my girlfriend to work, and then starting my working day back in my home-office. This usually begins with catching up on emails and accounts, then getting into some client work. When the afternoon rolls around I keep going on client work if it’s big project, otherwise this is when I make time to do blogging and any side-projects that I’m working on.

My evening usually consists of catching up on industry publications and business books, as well as continuing to work on my many side-projects!

Q8. What’s been on your DVD and MP3 players lately?

At the moment I’m loving the Paramore album as well as the new You Me At Six album – thought I’ve been told that both of those lower my “street-cred”. I’m not a big one for movies, but I do love american TV series, so at the moment I’m watching a lot of Nip/Tuck, Caprica, Entourage, and Lost!

John's been listening to a little bit of Paramore lately

Q9. Finally, is there any advice you can give to aspiring freelancers that are thinking of going it alone?

My biggest piece of advice to anyone going-it-alone is to choose your clients, don’t let them choose you. Do whatever it takes to get the enquiries coming in, and then pick out the ones who you want to work with. Pitching for business and having the client choose you out of a number of different studios is the worst way to go about it, and almost always leads to problems further down the line because the client is determined to micromanage the project.

Build up a reputation for yourself and your company – the clients who seek you out specifically to work with you because they love your stuff are always the best ones to work with.

You can see what John’s up to over at john.onolan.org and www.lyricalmedia.com.