Website Design and Development
Plenty of people can make websites. The difference at workin' man creative is our experience with hi-end visual design for business, backed by a strong work ethic. The line between website designer and website developer is often blurred these days, especially in smaller communities like Port Townsend. WMC is a designer first, because the visual is what speaks to your target audience, providing them the user experience they need to reach the goal of the website. Do not sacrifice design.
After design strategy and creation, WMC has the capabilities to develop your website for (almost) any purpose. We like to use open source content management systems like WordPress, Joomla and Shopify, with highly customized designs applied to them. This method works because our clients save thousands in costs while gaining full control of the content on their website.
Web Banners and Graphics
An online presence often consists of more than just a website. WMC has literally designed hundreds of banners, no joke. Even if your budget is small, please come to us instead of your advertising providers for design! We can usually create a better banner in a short amount of time, for close to the same cost, and your click-rate with thank you.
Email Design
We have experience creating custom email newsletters and announcements. Great tools exist to help you out with this, and you absolutely should use them, but you want to make sure that the design of your communication tools reflects your brand. We can create custom templates for any HTML/CSS based mass email tool (like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp), making your small business look smarter than the rest. "Getting it," is something you want to show off.
User Interface Design
WMC has extensive software UI design experience. As an employee of Church Web Works, WMC designed the UI for the leading provider of content management software for church websites. This was an intense undertaking. Anyone in the business knows that UI evolves as testing and feedback take place over time, and figuring out the best way to make life easiest for the end user is pretty fun work. WMC has designed Widgets, CMS control panels, specialized testing tools, and loved every minute of it (well, almost every minute).
Ah…print design, my love. You are so elusive these digital days, but I love you. Ok, that was maybe a little scary. WMC loves! print design, and has the experience and portfolio to back it up. Printing is an art, color and texture become extremely valuable elements. Also, it's a well studied fact that people do not read at length from a screen unless they have to. WMC has designed everything from tiny budget postcards to full catalogs to product brochures with budgets more than most Jefferson county residents' incomes. Currently WMC is the sole designer and production artist for HARBORS, a full fledged in-flight magazine for Kenmore Air.
Identity / Branding
If you own a business, you probably cannot avoid hearing about the importance of your brand, or identity. A successful business will be one that people know and attach a reputation to, and the brand is a way of cementing a reputation and an image in people's minds. Most small business owners simply cannot afford to go all-out with branding, those that can benefit, but we know that isn't always possible. WMC can work with you on simple logo design or a complete brand campaign that includes logo, business cards and communication tools, web presence, advertising, all the way down to your email signature.
An example of a small business that has benefited from our branding work is Star Concrete Design. With a minimal budget this very new local business set out to take over the Kitsap county concrete world, and is in the process of succeeding, despite the intense challenges of a bad economy and shrinking construction spending. Branding for Star Concrete identity package included a logo, website, door-knocker brochures, business cards, letterheads, truck signage, and work site signage.
PowerPoint / Information Graphics / Presentation Design
Let's face it, we cannot get away from that fact that PowerPoint can be an effective tool for delivering a message. Presentation design is much more than putting a pretty layout on a projector. The way a presentation builds and flows is extremely important, and it takes more than a visual designer to meet the need. WMC has worked, as an employee of Tribal Scream Design, on very high-level PowerPoint "decks" for Microsoft, Dell, Melodeo and more. This involved translating very odd numbers and code words into understandable information. That said, the best experience for PowerPoint's effectiveness has been designing instruction presentations for multimedia students at Peninsula College. Consistently, the presentations were spoken of very highly, and "death by PowerPoint" was avoided by a wide margin, a little comic relief, and messages that were built, not just displayed.
Advertising Layout
In most cases WMC can come very close to matching the cost for advertising layout provided by newspaper and magazine publishers. This is not the place to save money at all costs, he who advertises most does win, and WMC can help. Because of our experience with very fast paced work in the corporate business world, we're able to keep costs down due to very speedy production skills. So, concept first, then layout production, then revenue increase.
Tradeshow Booth Design and Marketing Collateral
In the world of business tradeshows run the show. New products are developed for them, and the show date often sets the deadline. Often, years of work is unveiled at a show. There are so many ins-and-outs, successfully satisfying all stakeholders (sales, marketing, product development etc.) and wowing the attendees is the only option, and is a task that can consume. WMC loves tradeshows, from the booth, to the video demo, to the products used to show the demo, to the special business cards and show theme, unique sales tools, even down to the booth carpet color (which is obviously very important!).
We can design and have built a completely custom booth, or source on off the shelf backdrop with a custom design. There's a secret, Kitsap county is home to two of the best makers of custom tradeshow booths. We do the design, and work with these contractors to construct a booth that is not only rad, but unique and works.
Video Style Frame Design
This is pure pleasure. Let it be known that there are no video production capabilities beyond the basics in-house at WMC. Our role is to create the vision and/or the visual, that will lead the video production team. We can work with you starting from scratch, or we can take your ideas and flush out style frames like mad men (seriously). While working for Razor Planet and Tribal Scream Design, video style frame design for massive clients helped us build our portfolio and provided a creative outlet that only video can make the best use of.
The Kitchen Sink
WMC is a small business and intends on staying that way. We cannot be everything to everyone, but as far as design goes, if you need something visual, we can probably do it. And if we can't, we'll let you know.