Episode #329

Advice from My Graphic Designer on Turning Your Website Design and Brand Up a Degree

So, people stop me in the street (not literally) and are all like, “Davidddddddd, who the heck designed your website?!?!”.

Why do these questions come in? I mean, who cares, right?

The answer? Because it matters and all of us care.

Branding and design MATTER big time when it comes to dominating online. Yeah, for sure, there are some ugly sites out there and products that make a little bit of money, but at what cost?

The bottom line is having an amazing (and functional, let’s not forget that) design and brand does so many things that this post would be 2929495.6 pages long if I listed them all, so let me list just a few:

  • Increased credibility and emotional appeal
  • Sticking out from the pack (especially in a crowded market)
  • Immediately shows people you give a crap

Today, I’ve got a special treat for ya. I nabbed my personal graphic designer (the lady behind The Rise To The Top, Create Awesome Interviews, and The Talk To The Top) for a discussion to help you out.

We cover a wide variety of topics, including:

  • Advice on working with a graphic designer
  • Examples of amazingly designed sites and why they are so amazing
  • Design trends in the mediapreneur space
  • …and much more.

Enjoy and make sure to hop into the design discussion in the comments. What are some of your favorite website designs (especially mediapreneurs/Internet marketers)?

I use RISE partner Wistia for video hosting because they rock. Check ‘em out.

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Natalie McGuireShare This Episode:


Links Mentioned:

Natalie’s design work
Marie Forleo
Chris Guillebeau

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categories: Interesting Entrepreneur, Interviews & Guests 

Related articles:

  1. Rise at Nite Episode #4: Integrity in design and elements of a well-designed website with Elizabeth Erickson
  2. How Chuck Rylant Changed His Business from a Stressfest into a Funfest by Turning His Expertise into Products
  3. 5 Advantages Of Having A Professionally Designed Website
  4. Thoughts on Discovering Your Passion and Turning It into a Business with Scott Dinsmore
  5. How Elliott Hulse Did It: From Passion to Badass Online Brand

Comments

  • Melodee Forbes

    David,
    I love this so much!!! You are hilar-ious and I can’t believe it’s the first time you and Nattie talked! Wow! Great interview and the information was SUPER valuable!! Thank you so much!! :D By the way, I love your site and I LOVE MARIE’S site… it gives me something to go from! Oooh-lalala! (Oh, and I love the Apple site too.) Great interview!!

    • David Siteman Garland

      My pleasure so glad you enjoyed!

  • http://atlassliced.com Alexa Hart

    Guess my previous comment got deleted, yikes! I think Natalie is an extremely talented designer, and it was so great to see her on the show. I really like what she said about communicating your ideas and goals effectively to the designer… so important! Interesting how you guys only communicated via email until this interview! Selena Soo (above in the Fbook comments) posted some great design sites! Another one I like in addition to those is Wix.com – Has a nice clean and fresh look.

    • David Siteman Garland

      Hmmm that’s good. might be Disqus acting up (we don’t delete anything lol).

      • http://atlassliced.com Alexa Hart

        Lol, yeah that’s what I thought. You’re all about being uncut, David, which is what I love. I recently worked with Natalie on several projects and believe she is a design goddess/genuis :)

        • Guest

          Awwww! Thanks so much, Alexa! You’ve been such a blast to work with, and I can’t wait to update my website with the work we’ve done together! Cheers! : )

    • http://nataliemcguiredesign.com/ Natalie McGuire

      Thanks so much for the kind words, Alexa! You’ve been a BLAST to work with, and I can’t wait to update my portfolio with all your branding! Cheers! : )

      • http://atlassliced.com Alexa Hart

        Liking the love in these comments!

  • http://www.facebook.com/taylorjacobson Taylor Jacobson

    David, this is great, thank you. I’m designing a new site now and thinking that my brand/product will evolve over the first few months. What budget would you allocate for a first design vs. a re-design at a more mature stage? Thanks!

    • David Siteman Garland

      It honestly depends but could be anywhere from $500-$2,000

      • http://www.facebook.com/taylorjacobson Taylor Jacobson

        thanks! for experienced folks i’m seeing prices mostly $1500-$5000 but the prevailing sentiment seems to be that branding is worth it

        • David Siteman Garland

          Absolutely worth it. Definitely not a place to skimp.

  • Natalie McGuire

    Thanks for the love, Internets! I’ve had so much fun working with David, being interviewed and catching referrals! I truly LOVE what I do, and above all, I want my clients to get the results their business deserves, have fun working with me, AND have stellar, gorgeous, one-of-a-kind branding that we can both be proud of. Ya’ll are such a fun bunch, and I can’t wait to see how your branding impacted in the days to come!

    • David Siteman Garland

      N – You are my heroooooooooooooo

  • mikky

    I was blown away when you launched your site with the new look. I think it perfectly reflects your upbeat personality we see in the videos. The Rise is definitely in the top looking sites out there. I like how Fresh and not your typical business looking site it looks. Natalie did a fantastic job! She’s got mucho talent. So how did you go about finding her? :)
    mikky

    • David Siteman Garland

      Thanks Mikky. Appreciate that. She was referred to me by my backend developer :)

  • Web design Melbourne

    The website design are so important for the business marketing. The greate affordable content are so communicate with graphic designs layouts.

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