iain_darkflare
Member
I am planning on redesigning all my websites.
I feel the current sites aren't as good as they could be, and they definitely aren't consistent with each other. I have got about 5 client sites that will be getting finished off soon, and I am redesigning all my printed material as well, so the timing makes sense. Relaunch my Dark Flare Design website and show off the new work.
My problem is do to with planning out the sites, i.e. what content to put where.
I've currently got:
http://www.darkflaredesign.co.uk - web & print design folio
Dark Flare Digital Art | Ayr based Contemporary Art by Iain Fergus | Modern Art | Canvas Prints - basic ecommerce site with paypal buttons
http://www.iainfergus.co.uk - one page website to match my CV
as well as
http://www.darkflare.co.uk - holding page (domain secured long after darkflaredesign.co.uk)
Basically I want to streamline everything, make it easier to maintain, and cut down on any duplicate content.
One idea I had was to have darkflare.co.uk act as a gateway to all 3 of the other sites, just incase anyone happened upon that. Basically a screen shot and a brief description of each site with a link.
I want to use darkflaredesign.co.uk to show off a selection of my best pieces of work, and possibly have a news section for when new websites or projects are completed. I want there to be a bit about myself, but not too much and nothing too personal.
I was also considering a blog, with the content aimed more at clients than other designers. Should I keep the blog separate from the news section or combine the two?
darkflareart.co.uk would pretty much stay the same, just a better design (hopefully) and using a shopping cart system, payments would probably still be through paypal though.
I may also add a news/blog to this to highlight special offers or showcase a different image each week/month etc.
My dilemma is what to do with iainfergus.co.uk, do I keep it the same, and if so do I remove it from the equation. Keep it entirely separate, and not have it linked from darkflare.co.uk, as it is after all my personal website. Or do I keep it there because I am the business? With more information available there for those that are interested.
Is it excessive to have multiple blogs/news sections across the sites, or does it make everything clearer?
I did toy with the idea of having the design site just with a few case studies of design projects, and a news section, with all other work shown off in a blog hosted on iainfergus.co.uk or darkflare.co.uk. The same blog would then feature any other news items or articles, digital art showcases, and personal stuff.
From a design only point of view, regardless of which way I go I was thinking of having all the sites (at the very least the art and the design ones) based on the same grid/template but with slightly different colour schemes. I want to achieve a kind of brand familiarity bewteen them, but separate identities, if that makes sense?
I'd probably have them easliy linke together with consistently placed icons too.
Reading this back, it all looks a bit more organised than I thought, I guess I would like some feedback and get a different perspective. So any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, and apologies for the heft lenght of this.
p.s. Greg/Aarlev/Chris - I wasn't sure what section this should go in, so please feel free to move it if needed.
I feel the current sites aren't as good as they could be, and they definitely aren't consistent with each other. I have got about 5 client sites that will be getting finished off soon, and I am redesigning all my printed material as well, so the timing makes sense. Relaunch my Dark Flare Design website and show off the new work.
My problem is do to with planning out the sites, i.e. what content to put where.
I've currently got:
http://www.darkflaredesign.co.uk - web & print design folio
Dark Flare Digital Art | Ayr based Contemporary Art by Iain Fergus | Modern Art | Canvas Prints - basic ecommerce site with paypal buttons
http://www.iainfergus.co.uk - one page website to match my CV
as well as
http://www.darkflare.co.uk - holding page (domain secured long after darkflaredesign.co.uk)
Basically I want to streamline everything, make it easier to maintain, and cut down on any duplicate content.
One idea I had was to have darkflare.co.uk act as a gateway to all 3 of the other sites, just incase anyone happened upon that. Basically a screen shot and a brief description of each site with a link.
I want to use darkflaredesign.co.uk to show off a selection of my best pieces of work, and possibly have a news section for when new websites or projects are completed. I want there to be a bit about myself, but not too much and nothing too personal.
I was also considering a blog, with the content aimed more at clients than other designers. Should I keep the blog separate from the news section or combine the two?
darkflareart.co.uk would pretty much stay the same, just a better design (hopefully) and using a shopping cart system, payments would probably still be through paypal though.
I may also add a news/blog to this to highlight special offers or showcase a different image each week/month etc.
My dilemma is what to do with iainfergus.co.uk, do I keep it the same, and if so do I remove it from the equation. Keep it entirely separate, and not have it linked from darkflare.co.uk, as it is after all my personal website. Or do I keep it there because I am the business? With more information available there for those that are interested.
Is it excessive to have multiple blogs/news sections across the sites, or does it make everything clearer?
I did toy with the idea of having the design site just with a few case studies of design projects, and a news section, with all other work shown off in a blog hosted on iainfergus.co.uk or darkflare.co.uk. The same blog would then feature any other news items or articles, digital art showcases, and personal stuff.
From a design only point of view, regardless of which way I go I was thinking of having all the sites (at the very least the art and the design ones) based on the same grid/template but with slightly different colour schemes. I want to achieve a kind of brand familiarity bewteen them, but separate identities, if that makes sense?
I'd probably have them easliy linke together with consistently placed icons too.
Reading this back, it all looks a bit more organised than I thought, I guess I would like some feedback and get a different perspective. So any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, and apologies for the heft lenght of this.
p.s. Greg/Aarlev/Chris - I wasn't sure what section this should go in, so please feel free to move it if needed.
