This depends on the project. Each website is unique and may require more or less time to build. Factors such as how quickly you communicate with your designer about design decisions and how well you express your wishes can influence the final timeline. Building a site is an exact process, so once your design is finalized, the site still needs to be coded, implemented and tested. This process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months depending on the size of the site and the availability of your designer.

Believe us, when we’re finished, you’ll be the first to know.   We can’t wait to unveil your new design! You’re in very capable hands.  Now please sit back and quit antagonizing your brother.  Don’t make us pull this website over!

The design process is what goes down from the time you sign your engagement agreement and send us to your deposit until your site is live and blinding everyone on the internet with it’s awesomeness.

And… it’s not unlike the Hokey Pokey.

1. You put your right foot in. Once your deposit and engagement agreement are signed, received and cleared, your project is set up in our project path.  It’s preferred all future correspondence regarding your project, including assets like images, copy and such, are managed here in a central location.  You will be emailed a login and a password once you’ve been entered in the system and generally, greeted with a kick-off email, letting you know what the next steps are, per your unique project. Usually, those next steps include discussing your project more in-depth. This is called the consultation phase. We’ll set up some phone time so we can go over your ideas and goals for your website, as well as provide consultation or recommendations where requested and/or needed.  Sometimes more than one call is needed, but usually we can iron it all out straight away.  You’re welcome to post any follow-up thoughts or ideas we might not have covered on the project path or schedule another phone consultation.
2. You put your right foot out. This is the creative phase.  This is where we take all of your ideas, our ideas and with your ultimate site needs and goals in mind, apply our skills and talents to deliver what’s called a “mock-up” or a “comp”. A mock-up is a flat image of what your website might look like, based on the input shared during the consultation phase.  And while we do pride ourselves on delivering great design, one has to assume even Leonardo di Vinci had an eraser. So of course, revisions are included until the mock-up is as you like it, per the terms outlined in the website proposal. Once approved and the next phase of your deposit is received, the design is whisked off to the development phase, where it will be made into a functioning website.  Design and structural changes at this point are often well out of scope and can be costly, so please keep that in mind if you tend to be indecisive.
3. You put your right foot in and you shake it all about. Lo and behold, you have a website!  It dazzles, it blogs, it informs, it contacts, it comments, it juliennes fries! Ok, maybe it doesn’t do that, but we’re still working on that hashbrown generating plug-in we keep dreaming of.  Anyway, you have a website.  Now what?  This is called the soft launch. The soft launch is when you put the site live for testing in a low-key manner or behind a hidden area for client viewing only. This is where we test things out, you get a chance to muck about and get your feet wet, ask questions and things like that. We have an opportunity to do last-minute browser testing, fine-tuning and catch any bugs before it goes live in a grand-opening sort of way. If you’re a blogger already or have an existing website, getting started should be a snap. Whether we’ve built your site using Expression Engine, Wordpress or another platform, web-based interfaces make it easy n’ breezy for you to blog and manage your website from any computer, anywhere.  But for those of you who don’t know EE from your elbow or Wordpress from a hole in the ground, we do provide basic instruction over the phone on how to manage your website the week following or prior to your site launch. (You’re always welcome to email us, though we’re not always able to respond immediately if we’re not actively working on your project.)  We also include resource links and recommended reading for those new to this crazy Internet. This is usually when your final balance is due.
4. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. We launch!  Trip the light fantastic, do the funky chicken, the twist, the mashed potato, what have you… you’re officially online, blogging, marketing, monetizing, and otherwise getting down with your bad self.

That’s what it’s all about.