Design website

[BizGurl]

I'm starting to plan my website (design/folio), and am unsure whether to use a business name and go down the more 'businessy' website look, or use my name/nickname and have a more 'softly softly' creative more typical personal/freelance website/page? Any suggestions? Do you think it makes a difference to how professional it comes across?

 

[Faevilangel]

Depends what you sell, the audience of the site, intentions of the site etc

creative sites that don't follow the rules are great if done right & for the right website.

 

[Lorro2]

You could come up with a stage name. Would Elton John, or Cliff Richard or David Bowie have been as successful if they had been Reg Dwight, Harry Webb or David Jones.

 

[gordano]

If your aim is to provide design services then IMO your website needs to have a "designer" feel to it, e.g. a "businessy" look and feel may not demonstrate your design capabilities.

 

[JackieC]

My tuppence worth...

Why not make your website the fully professional look and have a Facebook business page and carry your individuality / personality / softly softly / etcetera bits and pieces there? Get the best of both worlds - look professional on the web, but do the more casual bits on the Facebook page - with each linking to the other, of course.

 

[dedwardp]

I myself have just redone my site after thinking similarly to you!

Initially it was through more of a 'businessy' type approach whereas now I've altered it around to promote the fact that, actually, I'm working independently and it's just me that people will deal with - I think both have their pros and cons and, for me, I'd quite like to push at the angle of working alone and the benefits of that.

In terms of the site, I think if you promote it as being yourself then you can probably get away more with the creative type of layout - you see a lot of them and they can look really great and stylish; I suppose it adds that personal touch that you're looking at promoting in the first place!

I like minimalism myself, but I agree that, if you're going to go for the 'businessy' profile then something stylish but still with the more corporate/businessy type feel to it would perhaps be more desirable.