Some people think it is easier to be creative when you have a blank canvas but personally I find it helps channel my energies to have a client who can give me parameters for their website, clues as to what they are looking for.

Artists seem to be good at laying down the bare bones of what they would like their site to look like and how they want to structure it. Perhaps artists share a method of working things out before they start creative projects that is able to translate across different media, who knows?

When I met Fiona she knew lots of the parameters for her website, had done lots of research into other site along similar lines and had some fantastic close-up photos of her hand-made wedding invitation cards to use on the site. It was obvious that Fiona loves texture and colour so this seemed to point the way to the design for her site.

The information on the site was fairly limited and the photos would take up most of the space on the screen so I made up a page consisting of oblongs surrounded by white keylines to create a kind of gallery across the screen to fit in as many images as possible. The resulting site is probably the most textured that I have ever made and immediately visually reflects the product Fiona makes.

On this site every page features a different colour and texture from one of Fiona’s cards and this helps Fiona to get across her message that every card is unique and can be personalised to match the colour, style and even the fabric of the bridal dress.

To see the site for yourself please click here.

This post is written by Charlotte Lamb, designer for Create Design Studio

When I start designing a website all I have is the information from the client, perhaps a logo or a colour and a few words about what they would prefer their site to look like and the kind of customers they want to reach. I always try to combine all the things the client wants and their target audience into the design so that the site will look attractive, be easy to navigate and respond to the need for lots of text, lots of pictures or sometimes a bit of both. At the beginning anything is possible and that can be an exciting place to start.

With the Niall Catlin site I had a really fab modern logo to start with, strong colours (black and orange) and a description that the site needed to look modern and clean and have a list of the plumbing and heating services provided displayed on the first page. The site design evolved through playing with the logo shapes filled with montaged photos onto a cleaner line of boxed photos to help describe visually the areas they work in.

I think the final site looks great when browsed, very clean and simple but with plenty of space on the pages to describe the services Niall Catlin Plumbing and Heating provide and some of their excellent testimonials taken from the Check a Trade website. Visit the new Niall Catlin site by clicking here.

If you would like Create Design Studio to design your website or take a look at your website and redesign it then why not contact us? If you would like to see other sites we have designed for clients click here to visit our gallery page.