I am a lighting designer and I make many proposals to architects and various designers and builders. I would naturally like to improve my both my service and my pitch. Therefore, I'd like some general opinions.
What do you prefer/wish for in your consultants?
I see a few main areas: Financial, Quality/Talent, Service/ Communication.
Thanks, (Now where did I put my flameproof suit?)
Richard Reid, LC Luminous Views
Good verbal skills in English!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The DYI website shows Rick. At this point in time people have become jaded with the FrontPage look and feel. I would consider a refresh on the design and layout.
Secondly, the use of a blog has become the most useful way to establish and operate a consultancy founded on subject matter knowledge. I have read there are some very successful bloggers who are earning up to $60,000 yearly using Google AdWords alone. That success requires attracting many readers who click through the text ads on the blog.
If you really have deep subject matter knowledge of lighting design, lighting software and so on you should be blogging about it.
I am a lighting designer and I make many proposals to architects and
The website does not convey attention to aesthetics or a sense of focus.
In short, though you may be a heck of a guy to work with, the website doesn't reflect a professional approach. Personally, that's what I want in my consultants.
Without a personal recommendation, I'd never make it to the portfolio.
On time. No forgetting the project. Drawings that don't suck. Good work.
Agree, website needs a work over. Bad.
There's one picture says "The first impression for prospective tenants is a major design factor" and my first impression was "a big room with too low a ceiling and a lot of floor."
Some simple ideas: - The nav bar on the left is well known. Having it in a bordered frame is very old school and looks like the site hasn't been touched since 1997. Get rid of the border. Heck, learn about CSS and do away with the frames.
- The whole page is asymmetric with the nav bar on the left. The content pages are centered. These conflict with each other.
- Everything I've read has said (and I believe them) that centering is the default graphic design for people who don't know what they are doing. I gotta admit, it doesn't come off well on the gallery pages.
- The bit about how many colors your pictures use is very old school and reads like the site hasn't been touched since 1997.
- Got a logo? You should. Stationery, business cards, signage, web site ... consistent corporate presence. Now that you've got a logo, put it at the top of your nav bar and have it link to the home page. Drop the "home" text at the bottom. Don't forget to put "Luminous Views - Home" in the alt text for the logo image.
- Area consistency is weak. Graphics change. The only consistent bits are "some kind of nav bar" and "some kind of centered content". That's not a strong visual.
- (a well argued point....) the white backgrounds in the table cells on the front page look like crap.
- the table borders on the front page are very old school and look like the page hasn't been touched since 1997. I don't think CSS is better at layout than tables. I think CSS is broken garbage that we'll all be better of when dies a sordid death. It's great for not having to remember that your header 4 text is red. But that's no reason to brag about having a table.
- I'm gonna say it again. Centering has to go. Look at that main page. "My design theme for the main page is 'centered stuff'." OK. So when we get to the paragraphs the theme is kept. Good. And we get paragraphs of text that are center justified. That does not read well at all. Centered text is for wedding invitations and menus that spell out the prices. Centered body copy is nasty. So make it left or both. Yay, now it reads well. "But it makes the page look like crap because it breaks the center theme." Yup. . . . . Toss the center theme.
That's a start.
A web site is a design problem. Have at it!
- gruhn
Thanks for at least addressing the topic. RickR
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