I’ve hired James three times now to do various WP Themes for me. One he converted a traditional website (that we absolutely loved) to a WP Theme and 2 themes for business ideas for me. I’m using the current one extensively, he’s quick, great value and knows what he is doing.

December 10, 2008

Top qualities: Great Results , Good Value , Creative

Thanks Renee, you are a true pleasure to work with.

Sometimes I worry that I am doing myself and my other clients a dis-service by lingering too long helping clients with tasks well beyond what I have agreed to and what I have been paid for. And then I get an email like this:

“It’s evident in the quality and support that you provide, that you’re committed to building long term relationships with your clientele. Simply put; it has been a pleasure to work with you.”

That was written by David C. who I have worked with multiple times now.

The moral of this story is that if you are waiting on me to finish your WordPress project, hang in there and I will provide you with the same service that I did David.

So if you want a custom WordPress theme and and can wait 30 days, feel free to contact me. If you want to co-brand a creative commons Wordpress theme by all means get in touch.

But if you need a new theme by Tuesday, need Wordpress consulting right this minute, or any other service that puts my current time-line in jeopardy I’ll have to pass this time.

P.S. all baby gerts are lost…

Up until this point I have been agnostic as to what my client’s profession or niche was but I can no longer pretend that there is not a segment of the population that attempts various schemes that promise to let you in on their secret that requires little skill, effort, or time – and that if you just fill out the form on their landing page they will teach you how to work from a hammock on the beach and earn more money then you have ever dreamed of.

If you are one of these guys, don’t call me. Don’t email me. Don’t fill out my contact form.

No WordPress for you.

I think that one of the hardest things for new designers to learn when they try and make a living doing design is that it really does not matter what you, the designer, think is good.

It really only matter what the client wants – you can try and use your knowledge of form, function, color, and creativity to nudge the client in the right direction, but in the end a for hire design job is only really successful if the client thinks that they have gotten a good value and are happy with the results.

Take, for instance, my latest project for an awesome photographer out on the left coast named melissa schwartz.. She is a WPJA award winning wedding photojournalist and has a distinct style – and a design style that is not exactly what I would do if it were left up to me.

But her custom WordPress theme is not about me, it’s about her. So after being warned that she was an artist and had strong opinions about how the blog should look I tried to remove my own bias from process and created her a mock up. This is what she said:

i’m kind of shocked…i love it! i’m usually really difficult to please =)

I admit that I was kinda shocked as well, I was prepared to have it ripped to pieces and heading back to the drawing board. I went ahead and starting cutting it up, helped her install WordPress and got the theme set up and she said:

i think it’s amazing, it looks awesome, you rock.

Not bad coming from a client that told me up front that she was going to be hard to please – but, I think, that by trying to remove my ego from the design process that she actually became easy to please.