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Web Design

Designing a website often involves a few experts from a number of fields, design, coding, photography and copywriting. You can either go to an web design agency and pay considerably more or come to Polly Playford Design where freelancer experts collaborate to design you a bespoke website that is as good if not better than that of an agency. We will listen to your requirements, research, plan, explore the options and suggest ways to improve the usability, UX and UI, quicker and without having to deal with a number of different staff who don’t have the same commitment to your project. As a collective of freelancer developers, copywriters, photographers, SEO experts, 3D graphic and video editors we can bring you the expertise for a fraction of the cost and in less time.

The design element is created by Polly Playford, it’s these design principles that set the look and feel of a site. It ranges from proportions to typography, grid systems to colour theory, it often starts with creating mood boards to explore the options and experiment with web fonts and colour palettes. Colour, flow, balance and proportion, spacing: These are the elements that make up good design. Design theory is equally important, understanding why you do what you do and why that creates a well-balanced aesthetic is important. This is often referred to as the UI design (user interface design).

UX stands for user experience, or how people feel (calm, frustrated, etc.) when they use a website, it’s a more analytical and technical field. In conjunction with the developer we’d research your users and create “personas” (profiles of imaginary ideal users). Then lay out the pages and content with a site map to figure out the path users take on your site in user flows.

Trends move fast in web design and knowing which visual techniques are trending and why or why you should not use them is important. Whether to use certain interactive techniques like dynamic Parallax scrolling often depends on the industry the client’s business is in and whether their users would benefit from the aesthetic UI pros enough to out-way the responsive UX cons.

All our websites are:

Responsive (designed for tablets and phones)
SEO designed (Search engine optimisation)
Have an easy to use CMS (content management system) that allows the user to edit the text and images and add new sections to the website whilst not spoiling the design.

We can integrate your social media platforms into your website in order to improve your SEO and create content.

Case Study Web Design Project Shoot Location House

Website & Branding Design – Shoot Location House – Kempshott Road, Streatham Common London

The client, Siouxsie Dickens, who is a fashion stylist in London – UK, needed branding and website design that would showcase her house as a location for fashion and homeware photoshoots in Streatham South London. She needed a simple typographic logo that worked with the industry standard and simple stylish website design that reflected the style of the interior. The design needed to be simple and clear enough so that it prioritised the photographs, without looking too traditional or tame. It was important to have a minimum number of clicks the user had to take to reach the content they needed. So I designed an easy to use continuous scroll with a floating navigation bar in order to reaching the sections at the bottom of the page quickly.

Siouxsie had an artist paint mottled textures in the master bedroom walls and ceiling, as well as the downstairs toilet, as textures are often favoured by art directors when looking for fashion shoot locations with original character. I added some background textures in places to reflect the textures in the house and to add some character.

Chris Knowles at 3Eleven developed the site from my layered psds. There is a small amount of Parallax in there to make the transitions smooth and slick. Chris made sure that SEO (search engine optimisation) features was integrated into the website. He used a grid system that allowed the site to be automatically re-worked for phones and tablets so it’s responsive.

Her location house is now fully booked months ahead, as a photoshoot location for clients such as French Connection and Gossard and has been featured in several fashion and interior design publications. The house was featured on the front cover of Living Etc. Magazine.