Pucker up & swagger. You’re about to become memorable.
Create a web platform that speaks to the fans, readers and prospects you need to connect with.
What do you want, how you gonna get it?
So you’re here to feed a need. You’re chasing down a route to something you love, which might also fatten your wallet and put good food on the table. Fajitas, tortillas, stuff like that.
Am I right?
So you need people. People that like you and your thing enough to part with their ‘hard-earned’ in a mutually beneficial exchange… which is where I come in.
So I could bang on about being a ‘passionate designer’ and throw up a cutesy mission statement about my undying love for the web, creativity and other creatives, like we’re joined at the hip or something…
But however much I dress it up I’m betting you don’t really give much of a crap about CSS and HTML, font foundries, graphic design principles, WordPress, mobile responsive websites… and the like.
Which is fine because that’s my head trip, my geeky labour of love.
It’s not about the damn website
It’s also my job to be clear that at the end of the day it’s not about the website. Never was, never will be.
It’s about you and those half-crazy dreams banging about in your bell tower.
No—not the messy ones, keep those to yourself—the other ones, dreams disguised as angel wings that every now and then burst you out of your meat suit and fly you off down Main Street like some holy ghost on special ops…
Which is weird.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro —Hunter S. Thompson
Which doesn’t mean Facebook or Twitter or Instagram for chrissakes.
It means having your own platform.
From your own platform you can blow kisses (or give the finger) to whoever you want, and the only numbnuts who’ll close you down, because they hate you or stubbornly refuse to connect with your rakish humour… is you. Hours of fun.
So what’s the plan?
In our brave new joined up world where your website talks to your email provider, while managing analytics, winking at social networks, and housing a message architecture that turns the wheels of your brand strategy… there’s just no excuse for design to operate in a digital vacuum.
No one said that making a business of your passion was going to be easy so you need an ally that will work with your purpose at every stage, something that can align your creative needs with your business needs and build you out a life that drips romance, adventure and endless salsa.
You want some?
FAQ / Things to ask a designer before you die
Q. Who the hell are you?
A. I’m Tony Eddicott. I’m a serious designer with a belly full of humour.
Q. Where are you based?
A. London. It’s small city-state in the south of England. There’s running water and everything.
Q. Who do you work with?
A. I’m mad for creativity in all its forms. Music, words and images… kinda covers most of it so if you do any of that say hey. If you don’t that could work too, I do a lot of corporate work ‘on the side’. I have clients all over the world.
Q. Are you rude?
A. Not at all. I’m actually quite reserved but will happily hit you up with a custom insult if that’s your thing.
Q. What do you actually do, as in, your day job?
A. I’m a freelance designer. I build websites, develop brand strategies and create graphical web assets like logos, web illustrations, and Twitter and Facebook headers. I’ll also critique your website for design, value proposition and message architecture if you need that.
Q. What tech do you use?
A. I can build you out a flat HTML front end but mostly it’s WordPress because that’s client friendly once the site is live. Seriously you don’t want to be paying me an hourly rate just to change some text on your home page. You also want something that’s primed for related services. Things can and will change but at this time, if you’re running a creative small biz, WordPress is the way to go.
Q. What themes or frameworks?
A. Genesis is my preferred framework. If you’ve used it you’ll know why. If you haven’t: security, ease of use, scaleability = no-brainer. Be careful when choosing WordPress themes, it’s a jungle out there.
Q. Do you create custom child themes for every job?
A. Horses for courses. If you need a fully realised custom theme that’s what we’ll do. If not we can customise an existing theme and prime it for your precise needs. The web is full of roadkill and overkill, I’m not a fan of wasting ‘words’.
Q. You seem to be anti-social media. Are you?
A. Absolutely not. Twitter’s been great news for me. The problems start when folk try to build their own independent platform off the back of someone else’s. That’s putting the cart before the horse and it needs to stop.
Q. What’s your current workload? Are you taking new clients?
A. Depends on your taste in music. Ask me here.
Q. How do I ‘show up like I mean it’?
A. There’s a blog full of semi-polite suggestions.
Q. I’m not ready for full blown web design but really like your turn of phrase. Can we hang out?
A. Sure. Let’s get regular, sign up and get free stuff.
Q. What’s your favourite song lyric?
A. “I got love in my tummy and a tiny little pain / And a 10 ton catastrophe on a 60 pound chain”
Q. How can I reach you?
A. You can write me, Tweet me or if you’re feeling extra perverse, feel free to friend me up.