As a general rule I am available for design clients Monday through Friday. I do on ocassion work on weekends, but that's by my choice, not the clients. The hosting server is monitored 24/7/365. Except for urgent needs, I don't work weekends or major holidays. Creative juices need time to recharge in order to stay vibrant.
The Design Availability Calendar is online, and once your deposit is paid your project is added to it. Because this calendar is public, projects are listed by ticket #'s for privacy. Please note any holidays that will occur during your project that will extend the completion date.
Maintenance Clients: Please take this into consideration when submitting design work orders. It should go without saying, but too many times I've had clients submit a (non-urgent) update request on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving...only to email Sunday night wanting to know if the work was done.
Project Commencement.
It normally takes a day to prepare to start on a major project, to research what information I need from you and how best to proceed, to achieve the goals you've stated for your website. If the website is being designed from scratch, though I can do some initial concept work and planning, I really need to have all the materials (images/photos, graphics, copy, specifications, etc) during the first week, in order to know what I have to work with.
Quite often inspiration for the design itself comes from the images, photos or copy to be used, and in order to do the best possible job for you, I need to see what I have to work with right from the beginning. More than a few times I've had new clients ask me to "start working on the site, and I'll get you the stuff to put on it later."
It doesn't work that way, I need something to work with to start any site. These are typically the same clients who get frustrated with me for not making progress, when they've given me nothing to work with. If you remember the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, where Rocky would try to pull a rabbit out of his hat...this is what I call a "Hey Rocky..." Please don't ask me to pull your website out of a hat.
It should go without saying, but it is assumed that any photos, images, graphics or other materials you provide for the website are acceptable to use. Yes, it's happened that I've been given a CD with hundreds of photos, spent countless hours choosing just the right ones for the design, only to be told
"Oh. I was hoping you wouldn't use that one. I don't like that photo."
Scheduling.
We run a tight ship, and every attempt is made to stay on schedule. Occasionally a delay may happen, typically due to a scripting issue, a software bug, or a change in an external services' API (how they allow use to use and/or connect to their services). If an issue comes up, we keep in contact with you as to what's going on and why. Please understand there may be factors beyond our control, and while we attempt to overcome them as quickly as possible, it's not always possible to quantify how long it will take to debug and issue.
