TBE on 11/11/2008 at 23:00

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I don't have difficulty in seeing, but your greyish text on a white background is hard as hell to read. Picking contrasting colors, like a medium blue on the same white you have.

I agree with the centering of the lists, makes it hard to find your skills offered. I had to look for a long time to see if you were a cereal killer or not. Apparently you're not. ;)

Also agree about e-mail address. You can set your e-mail address on the DP8.org website to forward e-mails to your Yahoo if you like that better, but using a Yahoo address raises red flags when I am trying to do business with a website. Next thing you know, you're asking me to cash checks and send you half the money, and I can keep the rest.

Keep up the hard work, as you're the only person who will not benefit from sitting on your ass. :thumb:

37637598 on 12/11/2008 at 04:22

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Wow, I REALLY appreciate the advice!!! I'll reply to all of your posts in the order posted. I first have a question. I've been awake for the last 2 days in a row, making a business plan. I finally finished this morning. Are any of you interested in reading it? I really need suggestion on how to make it more... Professional... If so, I'll post it as .jpg's because I don't have Adobe Acrobat... Otherwise I'd make a PDF.

Got my work cut out for me!

37637598 on 12/11/2008 at 06:15

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My crew consists of about 4 people (including), and all of their work is voluntary and under no agreement or contract. I have a certified Pro Tools audio engineer, an Adobe certified video editing artist, a professional photographer, and yours truly. I keep forgetting to change the e-mail address, and I've considered using flash for my web site, but I'm waiting for my Adobe Production Suite to arrive, so I can use Adobe Flash and Dreamweaver.



I don't take any of this negatively, and I know it's all constructive suggestion that will better my chance at success. I actually tried to call and register Digital 8 Productions this morning, but the place was closed for Veterans day. I'm planning on calling again tomorrow. All of my offered services are only listed for temporary reference. When I'm finished with the web site, the services will be narrowed down and separated into completely different sections of the web site. For instance, D8P.org/video will be it's own web site entirely, to help suggest to the customer that D8P does specialize in what they need. Business plan is already made. I haven't yet looked into researching the pie percentage that my business will service, but I will certainly do that! And add it to my business plan!


Thank you for the heads up on my gray/white mixture. I hadn't realized it may be hard for others to read, but I will definitely fix it! Also, I re-aligned the text in the services list, so the bullets match up on the left side of the layer. You are also correct about the menu background turning blue. This is something I knew was un-finished. On the contact information note, i'm actually considering removing my street address all together. Most local studios leave out the address. Above, I posted my plan to organize the web site and make it feel more specialized. In all of the services listed, I hope that most of them make up 90% of the business, but that;s not for me to say.


Text has been fixed. Lists have been centered, no serial killer! E-mail address will be set once I get like 10 minutes to learn outlook.


hahaa

37637598 on 13/11/2008 at 04:16

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Dude, THANK you! That's exactly what I needed! I'm converting now! I'll post a link to the PDF when I'm finished.

Jack Lee on 15/11/2008 at 13:08

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As a Quark/InDesign publisher and graphic designer myself, I can't say I've had the balls to start up as a freelancer or independent business. It's great to see people moving to an independent business!

In my line of work, I try to solve other people's problems. These people have trouble communicating to a target audience. This can be a lack of recognition, poor (or no) reputation or unable to sell their items or services to their target audience. When I am tasked to find a viable solution, I ask myself these three questions:

"who is my target audience, what is their style, their identity?"
"what sort of emotion do I want to invoke?"
"how do I communicate this emotion to my target audience?"

I also try to find out where things might have gone wrong, what pit traps to avoid and to brainstorm a lot... writing down every idea and angle, trying to find out what others do - and how they solve problems. Once I have answered all my questions, I know where to look and what design 'talks' to my target group.

If a target group has a natural affection with the colors blue, green, yellow and red - no need to look further. This way I eliminate more and more until only the very essence of what definitely communicates to my target group remains. From there I start to build and implement the message of my client.

Anyways, enough talking, best of luck!