Bobby Anderson

When you work with freelancers or a firm you never 'own' the designs, all you own is the permission to use them which is why clients are generally never passed over Photoshop files etc as that would give them full control over the design files - all you are paying for is the agency or freelancer's time to put the website together for you, some agencies may require you to pay additional fees to release their source files, its generally a standard business practise unless stated otherwise in your contract.

Here's an article called 'Sole traders, digital products and the EU VAT reform' that may shed some light on it

While design frameworks will take a lot of the blame for the majority of new websites looking 'samey', a framework is nothing more than a guide and set of rules that you can either choose to follow or not - there are some fantastic, creative sites out there built with frameworks but unfortunately in a lot of cases there is also a serious lack of creativity too. As well as frameworks, the blame can also be put on clients and sometimes even the designers. Clients may love that look that their competitors use, it's up to the designer to persuade them to go another direction because having a site that looks exactly like your competitors isn't going to help their brand or selling points stand out. Designers are guilty of it for the same reason if slightly different that they'll see a nice site and think 'oh thats how its meant to be done' and copy the same layout over and over and over … which is how we end up with over used and sometimes unwarranted trends.

Outwith the usual standard sizes to accomodate for smartphones, tablets etc. the resolutions that your website 'breaks' should be your breakpoints

I've only really skimmed this thread and taken note of your requirements, I don't know what your own personal history is on the web but £1000 in this industry will not get you an awful lot these days. I think you'd be lucky to even get the site designed for that price never mind developed as freelancer rates range from anything from £200 a day for a designer to £500 a day for an experienced developer. Realistically to get a system that works the way you want it to with all the required features across all browsers and devices you're going to have to add another 0 at the end of your budget. I'm not saying that you couldn't get the site done for £1000 but it won't be up to the standard you'd have hoped for. The old saying of 'you get what you pay for' rings very true in these kind of situations. EDIT - so to answer your question, £1000 is not just cheap for this website - it's cheap for any website.

Awesome, thanks to everyone who voted for the site

Write it into your contract for every day/week late the invoice is there will be a 5% penalty charge until payment is made.

My degree was a waste of time in that most if not all the technologies we used/learned about were outdated by time we got around to graduating. I spent the majority of my 3rd & 4th year producing Flash based work which looking back on now was completely pointless but this was in a time before iPhones and a proper mobile web and admittedly things have changed. If I had the chance to go back and either go through 4 years of university or have 4 years of design agency/work experience instead… I know which would have been of more benefit - and it wouldn't be the degree.

+1 for Media Temple, I've used them for years and not had a single problem - the customer and tech support is the best I've experienced from a web host

Forgot my headphones today… no music for me

I think I'd rate level of expertise as "Time x Quality" - for example being a web designer for a long time to a very high standard would have more expertise than someone who's been a web designer for a short time but at a very high standard. It's hard to judge as over time web design techniques and trends change, how have these people adapted in the past if at all? You also have to take into consideration that design is very much down to personal tastes at times; what some people like may not appeal to others but it doesn't make either of those people any less of an expert as everyone is entitled to an opinion. Dribbble is a fantastic example of this, young people straight out of college/school without ever having a design job are hitting the top of the popular pages because what they are doing is on trend rather than being actually useful. They may be skilled but they're not experienced and on the other hand you have older designers posting work that may tick all the boxes for the client's brief and but aren't rated as popular because in the eyes of others who have never seen the designer's brief/mission/project, it's not a good design. I suppose you'd also need to take skill level into the mix as well, what programmes the person can/won't/does/doesn't use to a high standard… there's a lot of things to take into consideration - it's a great question… think I'm just about done rambling now

I charge in one of three ways hourly if I know that the job is small and will be completely within a day daily if the project will take less than a month flat rate for the full project if I'm fully aware of the scope and agree additional fees with the client if there is any creep Clients love it when you're honest with them and likewise we appreciate it when clients are honest with us, saying things 'it depends' to them sounds like you're going to attempt taking them for a ride. Talking about money can be quite a sensitive subject for a lot of people, if they want you to open up and be honest about your rates they should be just as open about discussing their budgets

If you're offering services such as hosting it's best to outline the terms & conditions of it within your contract. It's always thinking of the worst case scenario, such as this where the client wants to move away and transfer the site etc. you could cover yourself with a minimum terms for hosting, early termination fee, transfer fees etc. Just because you are 1 guy trying to make a living don't take any sh*t off these fly men who will scrimp and save at any opportunity, they're at it. If he's signed a contract that states he will pay X amount per month for the site hosting, get him to pay it or serve him with a 24 hour notice that unless he does his site will be taken down until payment has been received. You've got to stand up for yourself and play hard ball - it doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you professional.

This is a website I've been working on recently, the full design is available to have a look at on Dribbble

I'm not a big fan of taking sides with regards to tools/CMSs/etc… its great everyone has an opinion and rightly so but you need to find what works best for you and that particular project. You wouldn't hammer a screw in to place and likewise a screwdriver with a nail but if the project is a nail and Bootstrap is your hammer, then great - go for it but if not you need to find the right tool for that particular job.

Heads up - all clients would like their websites to be reasonably affordable, don't get taken for a ride because you're new to freelancing. With regards to your website, it sounds as though using WordPress may be right up your street if its along the lines of a blog. There are other CMSs that do similar such as Anchor, Perch, Fork but knowing something like WordPress will do you a lot of good in the long run.

That extra padding is coming from the list you have in your footer. You have a minimum width of 400px on the links within your footer, I'd maybe start looking there for a possible solution.

With whats there just now you need to watch your spelling, there's inconsistencies with regards to your type (some all upper case, some left aligned/centred etc.). The image of the woman with the clipboard looks out of place. The triangular buttons/borders etc are inconsistent as well and the whole design looks quite pixelated and needs tidying up - it could be a decent enough design if it was a bit sharper with some more care taken with font sizes/spacing etc. Also to be honest it could do with some more relevant content, I've no idea what this page is about other than some apparent doomsday message.

The link you've provided suggests that what I've put together with a bordered list icon combined with the word menu is the right way to go? @@RobertS - I've been using the Citrus Sunrise alias for a few years and initially the brand colours leant a lot more towards very vivid lime greens/yellows and used a lime as a logo. The green stayed but became darker and the lime logo evolved into the sharper shape that now surrounds the 'CS' logo.

Thanks @@jasondexter I've got a few more pages being added to the site in the near future (blog/about etc) that'll fill out the menu a bit more hence why I went for that structure. I totally see where you're coming from but I didn't want to spend any more development time changing it once I'd added those extra pages.

Not sure why that's happening… the site is definitely up as there are visitors currently on it according to the Real Time analytics

Hi all, I relaunched my 'business' website after a lot of stop/starting due to other projects/priorities. Built on WordPress there will be a blog being added in due course once I have some posts written and I used Bootstrap to help me churn out the front end a bit quicker (shame on me) The site is http://www.citrussunrise.com Hope you like

I'd echo a few of the other comments… also feel that it could be a bit brighter

Pretty good Matthew although I feel your homepage could do with a bit more added to it… is there any reason why you couldn't put the about or contact sections below your hero banner? Also on the typography front, does it have to be all uppercase?

Any chance for a late entry?