With my business clients I touch base fairly often, but when it comes to custom art and design sales – you may create something special and release it and off it goes to live it’s new life with it’s new family, never to be seen again.
Last week I had the most wonderful surprise from a customer come through. It made my day seeing an email from an old familiar name with a happy report that the custom designed jacket I painted for her is still holding up and looking great these many years later. These are the moments that make your day and make you feel like it’s all worth it. Her project was such a fun one!
Blog
Design Makes It Better
If you have a website then you’ve probably thought about design quite a bit. What does design contribute, though?
Design Creates Order
The heart of design is the creation of order. Intentional design lets us organize things in an elegant and planned manner. Creative Design observes from multiple perspectives and considers all options, no matter how wild, before settling on the best scenario. Your designer should listen to your challenges and goals, consider the emotions you want to evoke, and offer a framework that’s intuitive. Good design is easy to digest, intuitive to understand, and engaging.
Design Makes Things Easier
Design isn’t about having the coolest or prettiest site on the web but about making things easier. What good is a page that dazzles the first time you visit but doesn’t give you what you came for? Lay the ground work for clear and relevant information and then add in the appropriate level of fun for your target audience. Your end result might be cool and pretty, but only if cool and pretty also result in something engaging and helpful to you or your users. Imagine how you’d feel if Microsoft decided that Excel needed animated widgets and multi-colored pizazz on every tab. It would be in your way. The same consideration should be given to web design.
Design is Intentional
Design that solves problems and meets goals doesn’t happen by accident. It’s an intentional process that requires careful planning and empathy for your audience. Make sure your web designer takes time to learn what you need rather than simply offering you the latest trend. Each client has different goals. The age, needs, technological savvy, and abilities of your audience will drive your design right along with your brand guidelines.
Spring Cleaning – a bit late
I think I’ve forgotten what a blog is really for. This poor site has suffered much neglect over the years as I give all my attention to clients and nearly none to myself. We’ll see if I can really change that old habit.
Organizing
I’ve been pushing around pages and content all day to tidy up the site. It doesn’t match all the sketches and planning documents strewn about my desk – yet, but it will.
New Stuff
So much has changed since my original vision for IgnisArt. I’ve grown. My skills have grown, and more importantly, my connections have grown. We can offer our customers wonderful, fun solutions. It does mean the store and the artwork have taken quite a bit of a back seat, but it has been such a joy growing projects that I’ve hardly missed them.
Speaking Of
Some of the sections are dreadfully dusty and out of date. Please ignore the ancient items. So tragic…
