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It doesn't happen all that often, but once in a while you will hear those magic words from a client "I trust you, do what you think looks good". And that's what Anne from Friends of Hazelhurst said to me recently when she was briefing a new website. Trusting a designer on style for your website is like trusting a master chef to cook up a delectable feast. You provide the ingredients (your ideas and content), and they'll whip up a visual delight that'll have your audience licking their screens (figuratively, of course). When it comes to following to a design brief from a client, there are more times than I care to admit where I have handed over a website or print design that is NOTHING like I would have created had I been given creative freedom. No matter how hard you try, some clients just won't see your vision, and even if they do "see" it, they don't "get" it. At the end of the day, you still gotta pay the bills, so yes I admit I have served up designs that will NEVER see the light of day on my portfolio. ;) That was not the case with the lovely folk from Friends of Hazelhurst, a local social enterprise group dedicated to supporting and engaging local artists and the art community. I was invited to attend one of their gatherings and had the wicked opportunity to have a stickybeak around the heritage listed Broadhurst Cottage. The interiors of the cottage are to-die-for art deco and I spent the afternoon taking photographs and finding out more about the fascinating history of the cottage. Spending this time here helped me to start to develop a plan about how the website might look. I came up with a look that was a little left of centre. It needed to be "arty" and creative, so I went with strong, black & white typography with a minimalist menu and then focused on textures and colours found throughout the cottage and grounds. The pink camellias used on the home page are strongly associated with the history of the cottage. The information on the site was structured in a better way and the site is now populated with relevant images and content making it a better source of information than the previous static, uninspiring and uninformative site. Check out their new site live now: https://www.friendsofhazelhurst.org/

Testing out the new Adobe Photoshop Generative Fill. Use the slider below to see before/after.

Ever wondered where those results come from when you search a business name or a business service in Google and see the results on a map? The answer is Google Business Profile. Your listing appears right when people are searching for your business or businesses like yours on Google Search and Maps. Google Business Profile makes it easy to create and update your listing — so you can stand out, and bring customers in. It’s free and if you don’t already have a listing, you should! Set up an account Head over to Google and simply follow the prompts to set up an account, or login to an existing Google account and add all your details. Don’t forget to get your account verified. Google will usually send a postcard in the mail to verify your address. Work from home address? If you work from home or visit customers onsite, you don’t need to show your actual address. Instead you can show the area that you service.

I was contacted by another Shopify designer who was in deep over their head and wanted me to help out with what was supposed to be some finishing touches. I am always happy to help anyone who needs it, whether they be a direct client or someone looking for a Shopify contractor, doesn't matter to me. Unfortunately the Shopify designer the client had engaged hadn't even set up some basics. There were no product tags, no auto collections, no shipping set up, nothing except a theme install and a few basic colour changes. Eventually the client contacted me directly and I had to deliver the bad news that the site was nowhere near launch as she had been told. There was so much to do. We agreed to work directly. I started again almost from scratch and included a whole new look as well as features such as shop by brand, a mega menu, wholesale setup, advanced shopping filters, rewards program, email marketing integration, blog, electronic gift vouchers, various shipping options and more. We were able to launch with all of the features now implemented and working seamlessly, and I continue to work with Natural Good Life with ongoing new features and functionality. Moral of the story is, check out someone's work first before you hire them for a Shopify job. Ask to see some examples, look for reviews. Anyone can jump into Shopify, add some content, colours and a logo but it takes a Shopify Expert to take your store to the next level.