dedo web talk

Website DesignIdentifying the Why and What.

Tuesday, December 6, 11

Here’s the agenda for the next 91 minutes. Stop blending in.

Who am I.

Why are you here?

What is a brand and why should you care?

Who’s your audience?

Design 101

Development basics

Social commerce

Maintenance considerations.

Questions.


This is where my story starts.


Actually lets back up.

Born & Raised in Wilmington.

Started drawing before I could talk. Or so it seemed.

Spent my youth building models and drawing houses.

Found a passion for design.

Couldn’t hack it at Pre-Calculus. Scrapped a career in Architecture.

Went to school at night, landed a my first big gig at 17 with AOL Time Warner.

Proud Graduate of Brandywine High School.

Went to College. Worked in Printing for $11/hr. Left for Advertising.

Started teaching.

Adopted some dogs. Bought a House.

Sold my soul to direct mail.

Lost my job.

Started a Company.

Love every minute of it.


Why are you here?

You’re tired of lame websites.

Your website resembles an Old Christmas Sweater from Goodwill.

You want to know the ins and outs of The Grid.

You want to be a rockstar.


What is a brand?

A brand is not a logo, not an identity, not a product. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.


Is your brand “smashable”?

The term "smashable" dates back to 1915, when the Coca-Cola company asked a designer in Terre Haute, Indiana, to design a bottle that consumers could still recognize as a Coke bottle, even if someone flung it against a brick wall and it shattered into a hundred pieces. Coke is a smashable brand. So are Guinness, Ferrari, Harley-Davidson and, of course, Apple (take a sledgehammer to an iPad and you'll know what I mean). Which suggests that the logo as we once knew and loved it--from Citibank's Scowling Umbrella (I don't know what else to call it), to Nike's Swoosh, to Starbucks's Whoever-The-Heck-She-Is--needs to be re-considered if it's going to play any role in future brand-building.

- Martin Lindstrom via @FastCompany


A great brand tells a story.And luckily we all make great stories.

Marina Willer of Wolff Olins London declared, “It’s not about consistency, it’s

about creating stories that make sense.” Stories are the way we connect with

people and create relationships. If we think of brands as people or personalities,

they need to be magical storytellers. As humans, we thrive on all of the

emotional connections we have. We get passionate about them. It’s the stories

we tell and hear that trigger those connections.


Crafting your story.In 5 steps.

01 | Be Real & Don’t Lie.

02 | Write down what has made an impact on you, and why it’s important.

03 | Go back to those 5 things you LOVE to do. What are they?

04 | Be Clear & Concise. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

05 | Leave out the sales copy, and focus on you. We’ll get to what you’ve done soon enough.


Audience


01 | Content

What pages do you need in your site?

- Product

- About Us

- Contact

- Etc.


02 | Structure & HierarchySocial Commerce


03 | Typography


04 | Image


04 | Image

Via SmashingMagazine.com


04 | Image


05 | Call to Action

Via SmashingMagazine.comTuesday, December 6, 11

05 | Call to Action



05 | Call to Action

Via SmashingMagazine.comTuesday, December 6, 11

05 | Call to Action



04 | Back-End (Platform)


05 | Integration


Social Commerce


Question & Answer


Thanks. Bradford [email protected]@bradwason


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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