Debut Design Designation

Seeing as this is the very first post in my design blog I though I should start things out right with some alliteration. It took a while to find a word that worked, and quite frankly it is a little forced, but I think it is much closer than “article” or “post” would have been.

I want to share a small bit about myself in this initial post. I have been blogging for somewhere around 10 years.  I originally blogged under another name in a somewhat obscure blogging platform until life was simply too busy. When I started blogging again I joined Blogger and took the pseudonym Nick the Geek.

Blogger is an excellent platform for what it does. It provides free and uncomplicated blogging for the masses. Many people are able to create quite the following on Blogger and are even able to create very nice blog designs within the limitations of the system. I wanted more.

I took my first venture into WordPress via WordPress.com. I am sure this is a wonderful service for many people. It allows for many of the ease of use features that WordPress is renowned for and has a plethora of great templates, but you must pay to make even the most basic changes to the style or those themes. This was not for me.

If I were going to pay for the most basic of changes then I wanted to be able to change everything. I opted for a hosted account and began my WordPress journey. I made many mistakes early on. There are so many options in WordPress and I tend to play with new toys so I understand what everything does. I took my web design experience that stretched back to my teen years in the 90s and began modifying my first theme. I moved on to another for my blog and then for friends and non-profits I work with.

Recently I was approached by a friend of a friend who insisted on paying for my services. I began scrambling to put together a price list and found that there are a lot of great designers that make a lot of money for their time. Some places are charging over $1500 for a custom design. I set my prices much lower for my initial customers with plans to start raising my fees. I don’t ever plan on charging $1500 for a design unless it is for a complicated corporate site, but as it is my fee structure probably doesn’t quite break minimum wage.

At this same time I discovered the Genesis theme framework by StudioPress. It is an amazing means for building powerful WordPress themes with many user customizable features. They provide great service and education as well.

My services will be based on tiers of service so clients will pay for what they need. I will offer my experiences and lessons from mistakes to help others avoid those mistakes.

Please consider this website a work in progress. I will be editing, and possibly replacing this theme over the coming weeks as well as developing themes for clients and for sale. I will also be building information pages that list my fee structure and helpful information on moving over to WordPress or expanding your WordPress site and abilities.