MY EXPERIENCE
22+ years experience.
For over 22 years, I've been providing quality, creative, award-winning digital solutions for all business sizes, from start-up companies to some of the largest high-street brands around.
My approach
Good groundwork is essential and my first stage is to spend time listening and learning about your business; its objectives, ethos and brand plus your customers. I'll ask you plenty of questions so that I can greater understand what makes your customers tick and what makes your company unique.
A little trivia
I was the first company in the world to develop a fully responsive nopCommerce based site. At the time, the out-of-the-box solution wasn't responsive; I was also the first company in the world to develop a live nopCommerce multi-site - responsive too, running a total of 15 sites from a single installation.
Location
If you're looking for a North East web designer to design and maintain a first class accessible website then look no further. Although based in the North East of England, I've worked with clients across the UK and further afield.
WHAT I DO
I build bespoke websites focusing on clean, engaging and consistency that achieve both simplicity and usability.
Web & UI Design
Web design and development for all types of digital projects, focusing on clean, engaging, consistency that achieves both simplicity and usability.
eCommerce
With years of experience in designing and developing eCommerce websites, I'm in the right place to tailor a solution specific for you business and your customers.
CMS Development
I specialise on building websites with content management systems using the very capable Umbraco as the base - this gives me the ability to create bespoke designs without the constraints of 'off-the-shelf' systems.
App Development
With the sales of smartphones now surpassing the sales of PCs, and traditional mobile phones. I use Xamarin Studio to enable native iOS or Android App Development in C#.
FAQ's
Your questions answered.
Common Questions
Below are a few details about myself, and how I work.
01
What are your pricing terms?
My day rate is £300 and hourly rate £40. If I'm designing or developing a new website, I tend to price based upon previous experience and the projects specific requirements. All projects require an initial 25% deposit, then a further 3 x 25% payments with the final payment being made once the project goes live.
After that, clients have the option of my monthly retainer where I work with you on a regular basis to update your website as we start to understand your company and customers better.
02
Are you a web designer, or a web developer?
I'm one of a rare breed - one that can not only design from the ground up, but also take those designs and build a bespoke website / eCommerce site around them using ASP.Net C#. Be aware of 'developers' who use WordPress... many are just using paid for templates and not actually developing anything. When you want something bespoke adding, they tend to get stuck!
03
Will you host my website?
Yes - I offer the first years hosting free with all websites.
04
Do you offer maintenance / retainer packages?
Yes I do indeed. The basic maintenance package includes one day a month, priced at my daily rate.
05
Do you care about Page Speed when developing client websites?
Very much so! All my clients get the very best possible page speed score they can, measured via GMetrix and also the Google PageSpeed Insights.
This website scores AA (94%, 91%) on GMetrix, and 95 via Google PageSpeed Insights.
06
Do you work with agencies?
I do indeed - in fact, over the 22 + years I've been freelancing, I've worked with some of the biggest and longest established digital agencies in the country. Unfortunately for 99% of them, I'm unable to disclose details of projects due to NDA's.
My day rate is £300 and hourly rate £40.
Code - Visual Studio
All of my web-based projects are built using ASP.NET, on the back of either the excellent Umbraco CMS, or nopCommerce eCommerce platform. Each and every project is designed and developed from the ground up - no WordPress here, no templates which ensures your project is unique, secure and developed specifically for your requirements.
Design
Each and every project I work on is designed from the ground up. Each section to the web-based project is initially wire-framed, then laid out as a design for your approval. Once we have the design approved, we start the development.
Brands I've produced work for
I've worked with and for a great deal of well known brands over the years.
Trust, Clarity & Commitment - the three core elements to my clients and my success over the past 22+ years.
Trust
From your initial contact, through to delivering your project, I understand how much trust is involved. Gaining your trust is not something I take lightly, and I want to ensure that throughout the project, your expectations are consistently met.
Clarity
As a professional freelance web designer & developer, I adopt an informed, honest, but above all accessible approach to my work and will never blind you with jargon or attempt to represent the concepts involved as some kind of rocket science or black art.
The fundamentals and the tools at my disposal are clearly explained to you and I will discuss in depth how best your business can benefit from a professionally designed website.
Commitment
From the start, through the development and the delivering of your project, I'm committed to delivering the best possible results required for your projects success.