So, you’re thinking of getting a website?

You need to be able to edit it yourself to save on the costs associated with changes…you want it to look amazing…you need it to be responsive…you need all the things that a standard website should have.

A good value web design would just be 500 bucks, right? Pretty straightforward. WRONG! To have a unique (not copied), well designed, functional, up to industry standard website, you have to expect to be paying experts to do it. $500 might get you a template site.

Anyone who does a website for that price and tells you it is unique and/or custom coded is either lying or selling themselves short.

Logos

If you want original logo design, you need to spend enough money on it to ensure it is suitable for its purpose. We could (in theory) do something for you for a few hundred bucks, but don’t expect to have much of an opportunity to refine the design.

We realise upwards of $1000 doesn’t seem like good value design to most people, but if we start doing logos with several revisions (taking days of work) for a few hundred bucks, it’s not even close to being enough to pay the staff that do the work, let alone the overheads associated with it. Our business needs to be viable too. If you only have $300 to spend on your logo, I’d suggest waiting until you have enough time and money to do it properly. Your business will benefit greatly from getting us to put the time in that you and your business deserve. It’s your baby, you need someone to represent it properly.

We do not have set prices on logos and you will always get quality, however, I would suggest investing upwards of $800 into your new logo for a small business, but I wouldn’t be surprised by a quote of multiple thousands for a logo brainstormed and designed properly.

Web Design

Unfortunately, the web designers out there offering those $500 websites are altering your expectations of the value of design.

Yes…you can get a website design for $500 or even less. It probably works and looks clean and good. Chances are, you are not the only one with that design. You will probably come across it on Themeforest or online with someone else’s logo and colours on it before long.

Digital Noir treat every web design project as a new adventure and challenge. We may be inspired by other work out there, but the design is done from scratch and we will happily show you the work in progress to prove it. We don’t just grab themes from Wix.

Web Development

All web developers use existing code. If they are offering a cheap website with complete, CUSTOM code, created from scratch, they’re lying. Yes, we all make use of existing frameworks and code and you can get an ‘out of the box’ website from Themeforest for $20, but if you want something customised to your needs and intuitive to use, expect to pay upwards of $2000. This is because you are employing people who are experts at coding and know their stuff, not a graphic designer who duplicates an existing theme and calls themselves a developer. This is real value design.

Now, we don’t want to come across as being elitist. We are not saying you need to charge $500 an hour, even though many other service providers (think lawyers, architects) do. There seems to be a disconnect with creative service work and the time/money charged. No one seems to mind when a plumber charges $300 for an hour or two’s work fixing your sink. If you cannot fix your own sink you pay a professional to do it. Why should what designers do be looked at any differently?

If you focus on every dollar and don’t pay what it costs to employ experts, chances are someone will just give you a template website that is copied, designed badly or difficult to use.

All I can say is, if you want something great, don’t turn your nose up when it turns out greatness is expensive.