web designer recommendations

[acutshall]

I am looking for recommendations from those who have hired someone to design their photographer/wedding website.
Thanks

[Aaagogo]

there are plenty out there.

a few qns that I would ask you is, how much of a personalization do you want it to be?

reason, alot of design companies out there can charge a cheap price because they use the same templates, maybe color change and font change, that's about it

the more you want to customize your site, the more it will cost.

I guess being such a huge country and unless you are located in the big city's, more often than not, you will be dealing with the design company via emails or phone calls.

there are some template sites out there, that you can go purchase for like below 100 dollars, someone just posted up a web design company that uses their templates, i think it starts from 100 dollars.

just my 2 cents :) hope it helps

[acutshall]

Thanks; I have seen many other websites in the forum that are done very nicely and would like to know the companies/individuals that they have used. Although there are many large template companies on the web that have low cost templates they are very generic . I would spend more time making changes than it would be just to hire someone reliable. I am looking for someone that is both reliable and does good work and would like to do so by word of mouth.
Thanks




there are plenty out there.

a few qns that I would ask you is, how much of a personalization do you want it to be?

reason, alot of design companies out there can charge a cheap price because they use the same templates, maybe color change and font change, that's about it

the more you want to customize your site, the more it will cost.

I guess being such a huge country and unless you are located in the big city's, more often than not, you will be dealing with the design company via emails or phone calls.

there are some template sites out there, that you can go purchase for like below 100 dollars, someone just posted up a web design company that uses their templates, i think it starts from 100 dollars.

just my 2 cents :) hope it helps

[Aaagogo]

do you have your company name thought up yet

do you have your company logo thought up yet

how many pages are you looking at?

full flash, simple flash, some flash?

[acutshall]

Yes,Anthony Michael Photography. I currently have a web site that I post general photographs; it s a combination of html/css and javascript, and has a gallery flash slide show .I am looking to create a web site just for wedding work.


4 pages
Format html/css template
intro page with a centered image flash slideshow
navigation of pages also either flash or javascriptSome sites that show examples navigation and center image shows are;
- http://www.altf.com/
Amy Deputy - http://www.amydeputyphotography.com/
Amy Squires - http://amysquires.com/
Bebb Studios - http://www.tyingtheknot.net/
- http://www.visiophotography.com/


Thanks






do you have your company name thought up yet

do you have your company logo thought up yet

how many pages are you looking at?

full flash, simple flash, some flash?

[transcend]

As an ex full time designer, I will make 2 recommendations.

1 - Skip the flash intro page. It is utterly useless and a waste of time/bandwidth.

2 - DO NOT have a flash or javascript menu. Worst possible idea. The navigation is the absolute last place you want flash or javascript as it means that if you have either turned off (which people do for security) they will not be able to navigate your site.

Search engine spiders also follow links, menu links in particular. By making them flash and or javascript, they are much more difficult (impossible sometimes) to follow.

Some of your example sites have great examples of what NOT to do. Mystery navigation (flash to boot) is a really bad idea. It's about ease of use, accessibility and search engine optimization, not using flash just to use flash.

[Mr. Plow]

As an ex full time designer, I will make 2 recommendations.

1 - Skip the flash intro page. It is utterly useless and a waste of time/bandwidth.

2 - DO NOT have a flash or javascript menu. Worst possible idea. The navigation is the absolute last place you want flash or javascript as it means that if you have either turned off (which people do for security) they will not be able to navigate your site.

Search engine spiders also follow links, menu links in particular. By making them flash and or javascript, they are much more difficult (impossible sometimes) to follow.

Some of your example sites have great examples of what NOT to do. Mystery navigation (flash to boot) is a really bad idea. It's about ease of use, accessibility and search engine optimization, not using flash just to use flash.

No truer words have been spoken. Keep it simple but elegant and search friendly. Always keep in mind that 99% of the world's population are idiots. My website had a very simple javascript slider of photos at the bottom that displayed 6 photos and had right/left arrows to show more photos. The feedback I got the most was "do you only have 6 photos to choose from?" :rolleyes: This shows the ability of most web surfers in the world.

[acutshall]

Thank you both for your recommendations;

Mr Plow suggests Elegant which is what most clients want out of a wedding, do either one of your have site examples that you can post?
Thanks




No truer words have been spoken. Keep it simple but elegant and search friendly. Always keep in mind that 99% of the world's population are idiots. My website had a very simple javascript slider of photos at the bottom that displayed 6 photos and had right/left arrows to show more photos. The feedback I got the most was "do you only have 6 photos to choose from?" :rolleyes: This shows the ability of most web surfers in the world.